Dozens of Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives left the southern US state on Sunday, August 3, in a last-ditch maneuver to block electoral redistricting requested by US President Donald Trump.
The high-stakes move took place before lawmakers were set to vote Monday on the new map, which, if passed, could help Republicans win five additional seats in the US House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections, giving them a better chance of maintaining their slim majority.
The plan put to a vote would divide up Democratic-leaning urban centers, home to most of Texas's roughly 30 million residents. The practice of redrawing electoral districts is known in the United States as gerrymandering. Currently, Republicans hold 25 of the state's 38 seats.
"This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity," said Gene Wu, chair of the Democratic caucus, in a statement. "We're not walking out on our responsibilities; we're walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent," he added.
Texas lawmakers cannot pass bills in the House of Representatives, which has 150 members, without at least two-thirds present. Democrats hold 62 seats in the Republican-majority chamber, and more than 50 were expected to leave the state, according to Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the Democratic caucus.
Texas's Republican governor Greg Abbott threatened to ask for the lawmakers to be removed from their positions. "This truancy ends now," he wrote in a statement released Sunday evening.
Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows said the chamber would convene as scheduled Monday afternoon. "If a quorum is not present then, to borrow the recent talking points from some of my Democrat colleagues, all options will be on the table..." he wrote on X.
The outcome of the strategy is highly uncertain and past attempts haven't worked. In 2021, House Democrats already left Texas for 38 days to protest voting rights restrictions, which were eventually passed after the blockade was lifted in a special session. Texas Democrats used the same tactic in 2003, when House members went to Oklahoma and senators to New Mexico, but failed to thwart a Republican redistricting plan.
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, a candidate for the US Senate, said on X that Democrats who "try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested and brought back to the Capitol immediately. We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law."
Refusing to attend a legislative session constitutes a civil violation of the rules. In 2021, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that House leaders had the authority to "physically compel the attendance" of absent members, but no Democrat was forcibly returned to the state after warrants were issued that year. Two years later, Republicans passed new rules allowing for daily fines of $500 (about €430) for lawmakers who failed to show up for work as a penalty.
Many Texas Democrats traveled to Illinois, in the north of the country, where they were welcomed by Governor JB Pritzker, a potential candidate for the 2028 presidential election, who offered his support. A staunch opponent of Donald Trump, Pritzker had already hosted several Texas Democrats the week before to publicly oppose the redistricting effort, and California Governor Gavin Newsom held a similar event in his own state.
"This is not just rigging the system in Texas, it's about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come," Pritzker said Sunday evening at a press conference alongside Democratic lawmakers who had just landed, including Gene Wu. "We will do whatever it takes. What that looks like, we don't know," Wu told the media.
With the Texas redistricting plan, Trump is hoping to avoid the setback that occurred during his first term (2017-2021), when Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in the November 2018 midterms, just two years after his election.
In response to the move, Democratic governors have also raised the possibility of redrawing their own states' electoral maps in retaliation, but their options are more limited.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.