State Democratic legislators plan to leave Texas on Sunday in order to break the quorum of a special legislative session in which the republican legislators of the States aim to adopt a new map of the Congress which could create up to five new GOP seats.
This decision comes after a public hearing of the marathon in terms of the State Capitol on Friday and less than a week after the Republican legislators of the State proposed the new cards. Republicans have a majority in the legislature of the State of Texas; The Democrats had declared that they would consider all the options to prevent cards from passing, although their return options have been limited.
“We are not going out on our responsibilities; we are going out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent. Today, this corrupt special session is over,” said the representative of the Gene Wu state, who presides over the Democratic Caucus of the Chamber, in a statement.
After the news announced democratic legislators who broke the quorum, the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in an article on X that the Democrats who left should be arrested and brought back to the State Capitol.
The American representative Jolanda Jones, D-Texas, examines a card during the meeting of the Redecouption Committee of the Texas State House on August 01, 2025 in Austin. The Chamber’s selective committee on the redistribution of the congress held its first audience since the Republicans of Texas redirected their Congress card. The redesigned cards of the congress occurred to the thrust of President Donald Trump before the middle of next year.
Brandon Bell / Getty images
“The Democrats of the Texas Chamber who try to run away as cowards should be found, arrested and immediately brought back to the Capitol,” he wrote. “We must use all the tools at our disposal to track down those who think they are above the law.”
The upgrading itself cannot stop the adoption of the bill, but the Democrats aim to run out during the 30-day special legislative session, which would mean that the governor of Texas Greg Abbott should appeal another. The Democrats of the Texas Chamber previously broke the Quorum in 2021 to try to stop a bill on elections and in 2003 to try to stop a similar redistribution effort of the Republicans. The Republicans finally managed to adopt bills twice.
President Donald Trump previously said that he wanted Texas legislators to attract five new republican districts.
More than 51 legislators leave the State, refusing to the Chamber of the State the majority of two thirds out of 150 legislators, it must have a quorum. An exact number of the number of 62 Democratic legislators of the State House was not immediately available.
Democrats who break the risk of quorum accumulate a fine of $ 500 a day, according to the rules of the State House, and a potential legal action.
The Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton, speaking with the host of the “Warpool” and the former Trump advisor, Steve Bannon, said on Thursday: “The rules of the chamber and the rules of the Senate allow these people to be stopped if they leave … The challenge is that if they leave the state, we lose the jurisdiction, and that was a challenge in the past, but at the end, as soon as the governor Call sessions, to finish.
Texas State Capitol is seen on July 21, 2025 in Austin. The legislators gather for a special session to discuss a program described by Governor Greg Abbott who seeks to address the relief of the floods in response to the central floods of Texas who killed more than 100 people, the redistribution of the Congress and the THC products.
Brandon Bell / Getty images
Paxton also said that he was not worried about defending the cards in court: “We have, we have good cards. And the legislative assembly has the right to draw the cards they want. They are based on the breed. And if they are politically based, then they are defendable.”
Some of the Democratic legislators fleeing the State will appear on Sunday evening with the Governor of Illinois JB Pritzker at a press conference. Pritzker was a fervent supporter of the Democrats in Texas and launched the possibility of becoming the cards of the Congress of Illinois again if Texas redesign its cards. Illinois’ maps were criticized by external observers as very supporters in favor of Democrats.
At the end of June, the president of the Democrats of Texas, Kendall Scudder, flew from Dallas to Oklahoma to see Pritzker, who made comments during the dinner of the State Democratic Party. The couple had a private meeting during this to talk about the possibility that the legislators were fleeing the state towards Illinois – and if they had to flee the state, they would have a place where they would feel safe and supported.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is talking during the announcement of the Chicago 2027 stars match before a match between Baltimore Orioles and Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field on August 1, 2025 in Chicago.
Patrick McDermott / Getty Images
Since then, Pritzker and the Democrats of Texas have been in contact, and a small group of them went to Chicago in July when members of the delegation left for Illinois and California for brief meetings.
Pritzker and his team helped behind the scenes to help find hotels in the region for the Democrats, help their operation and grease the wheels so that things go well for them while they are heading for Illinois.
The bill containing the cards was to be taken on Monday on the state of the State House.