Democratic Texas Rep. Gene Wu, center, speaks with the media following a press conference with other Texas House Democrats and Democratic members of Congress at the Democratic Party in Warrenville, Ill., Monday, Aug. 4. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives left the state on Sunday, Aug. 3, in a strategic move to break quorum and stop Republican efforts at redistricting. In the process, the Democrats also killed, at least for now, all anti-transgender legislation filed during the current special session.
Equality Texas Communications Director Johnathan Gooch noted that while more than 200 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were filed during the regular session, for the special session, only House Bill 32 and Senate Bill 7, identical measures authorizing “a civil penalty and a private civil right of action” for using certain facilities such as a public bathroom, locker room or a family violence shelter that is not designated for someone’s gender assigned at birth.
Gooch did not declare the bathroom bill dead, saying that instead, “stalled out is a better way to look at it. As long as there’s no quorum, it can’t pass.”
But the bill could just be dead for this special session. Once the session is over, Gov. Greg Abbott can call another special session, and, if passing this bill is a priority for him, Abbott can list it in the next special session’s agenda, too.
REDISTRICTING
But the reason at least 51 Democrats left the state is to stop what they call Republicans’ attempts at “illegal redistricting” that would radically gerrymander congressional districts in Texas to eliminate safe Democratic seats and ensure that Texas would send at least five more Republicans to the U.S. House in the 2026 midterms.
Abbott put redistricting on the special session agenda after Donald Trump called and pressured him to do so.
In a press conference held in Illinois earlier this week, House Minority Leader Gene Wu, D-Houston, said of the Democrats’ move to leave the state, “We come here with absolute moral clarity.”
More than 100 Texans died in the floods, Wu said, and “Texans asked one thing from the Legislature — take care of the grieving families. Instead, Gov. Abbot has used these people as hostage.”
“By denying quorum,” Rep. Chris Turner, D-Arlington, said, “we are using the power that we have as state legislators under the Texas Constitution.”
He said that at redistricting hearings, 99 percent of those who spoke “demanded we reject Trump’s Texas takeover.”
Five seats held by Democrats in Congress are targeted by Republicans. Four of those seats are in South Texas and one — District 32 held by Julie Johnson — is in the Dallas area. In 2024, Johnson became the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to Congress from a southern state.
Instead of the compact seat Johnson holds in the district covering North Dallas, Addison, Plano and Richardson, much of Democratic Dallas would be stripped from her district, and new constituents would come from a district carved out of East Texas that would extend to just north of Tyler.
Because she has no say in redistricting — which is done by the state Legislature and she’s in Congress — Johnson could do little more make her voice heard this week as the battle unfolds. So she spoke before the redistricting committee in Austin earlier this week.
“I stand in full support of my fellow Texas legislators who broke quorum to stop an outrageous, undemocratic and racist redistricting plan designed to silence communities and rig the maps for political gain,” Johnson said. She added that our democracy comes under attack when “lawmakers manipulate district lines to choose their voters instead of voters choosing their leaders.”
Another Congressional Democrat threatened by the GOP’s wildly gerrymandered redistricting map is firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who has been a very vocal opponent of Trump and the MAGA agenda. The proposed map would redraw District 30 lines to move Crockett’s home address out of the district.
Crockett, who calls the redistricting effort “a power grab to silence voters,” has said that before Republicans unveiled their redistricting map, she and other Democratic incumbents in Congress were asked to verify their home addresses.
Rep. Marc Veasey’s district, which stretches from Oak Cliff to southern Tarrant County, isn’t under threat of flipping from blue to red. But the new district would be entirely in Dallas County and no longer would be a majority minority seat.
Speaking from Chicago on Wednesday, Rep. Venton Jones, a member of the Texas LGBTQ Caucus, responded to Abbott’s threat to remove Democrats from office, saying the governor doesn’t have that power. But even if the Republican-packed courts allowed Abbott to do that, elections would still have to be held to fill those empty seats. And in the meantime, the Legislature would continue to fall short of a quorum of 100 legislators.
Jones said that during normal redistricting, which is traditionally held every 10 years after a U.S. Census, meetings are held across the state, and the redistricting committee meets regularly throughout a full session.
In this case, only three meetings have been held.
“Republicans are just bowing to the President,” Jones said. “When have you ever seen Texans bowing to Washington?”
He added that he’s confident in the support he’s gotten from his district with more than 1,000 emails from constituents thanking him for taking steps to stop the redistricting plan.
Rep. Raphael Anchia, who represents most of Oak Lawn, agreed that he’s heard overwhelming support from people in his district regarding the Democrats efforts to stop redistricting by breaking quorum. Complaints, he said, have come from elsewhere.
In response to the governor’s threats to remove Wu from office with calls for the minority leader to go back to China, Anchia said racist tropes have been embedded in the Republicans’ efforts. Abbott “just elevated Gene in a way he couldn’t do for himself,” Anchia said.
But of the general threat to remove all representatives who broke quorum, Anchia suggested, “It would be legal for an executive to remove legislators if we lived in Venezuela or Cuba or China.”
And in responding to demands this week from Attorney General Ken Paxton, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Abbott to “hunt down” the Texas Democrats, arrest them and remove them from office, Anchia declared, “You don’t bring a butter knife to a gun fight.”
Paxton weighed in on Monday with a statement loaded with “trigger words” intended to rile up the GOP base and cast the Democratic legislators in a bad light, saying “Instead of showing up to work and doing the jobs they were elected to do, House Democrat members have fled the state in a cowardly desertion of their responsibilities as elected officials.”
He called Democrats “jet-setting runaways” who “abdicated their duties” for a “publicity stunt.”
By Tuesday, Paxton was doing more than name calling and began threatening to seek a court ruling that any Democrat who broke quorum would have their seat declared vacant. Paxton said Republican Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows had given Democrats until Friday, Aug. 8, to return to Austin or they would be arrested. By Thursday, Aug. 7, it was reported FBI would held track down the lawmakers.
The battle over redistricting and the strong-arm moves against the Democratic lawmakers puts Burrows in an interesting position. He only won his position as Speaker of the House with Democratic votes. Without those votes, Rep. David Cook would have been elected. But by Tuesday this week, Burrows warned that Wu had until Friday to get back to Austin or face arrest.
Not to be outdone by Paxton, who is challenging the incumbent senator in the 2026 GOP Primary, Sen. John Cornyn called on the FBI to arrest the Democratic lawmakers.
But, Anchia said, this really isn’t about Abbott, Paxton or Cornyn. It’s about Trump.
In Washington, Republican representatives from blue states were proposing legislation that would limit redistricting to once every 10 years after the census and invalidate any redrawn district lines passed this year.
Anchia said in addition to the Democrats sheltered in Illinois, delegations visited the capitals of California, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. California announced they’d move forward with redistricting there that could help Democrats pick up an additional seven seats.
And Anchia said he expects Abbott to call additional special sessions.
“Unless Trump calls off the dogs and allows Abbott to save some face, Texas will probably move forward with redistricting at some point,” Anchia said.
He expects 2026 to be a “wave election,” which will see Democrats “take back the House and hold the White House to account.”
That will happen, Anchia said, because “Our quorum break inspired other states to act.”