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Texas Republicans vote to arrest Democrats who blocked redistricting plan

2025-08-05 15:03:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Texas Republicans have voted to track down and arrest dozens of Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to block passage of a plan to redraw electoral boundaries in favor of Republicans.

After the vote, Republican Governor Greg Abbott ordered state police to "find, arrest and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned his duty to Texans."

Abbott has also threatened to sue absent Democrats for bribery if they raise public money to cover the daily fine they owe for boycotting the chamber.

The redrawn congressional map would create five more Republican-leaning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., where Republicans have a slim majority.

At least two-thirds of the 150-member Texas state legislature must be present to proceed with the vote. A quorum became unattainable after more than 50 Democratic lawmakers left the state.

Most Democrats fled to Illinois, where state Governor JB Pritzker said he would "do everything he could to protect every single one of them" amid threats of arrest from Abbott.

Democrats said they planned to stay away from Texas for two weeks until the end of a special legislative session.

Monday's vote was largely symbolic, as the arrest warrants are only valid within Texas state borders.

The act gives the chamber's sergeant-at-arms and state police the power to arrest absent lawmakers and deliver them to the state Capitol building in Austin.

They will not face any civil or criminal charges as a result of the arrest warrant.

Texas Democratic lawmaker Ron Reynolds told BBC News from Chicago on Monday that the threat of arrest was "nothing more than a scare tactic."
Members of the Texas House of Representatives are fined $500 (£377) for each day they fail to appear in session.

Governor Abbott has warned that those who refuse to return to vote could face charges.

"It would be bribery if any legislator took money to perform or refuse to perform an act in the legislature," Abbott told Fox News on Monday.

"And the reports say that these legislators have asked for and offered money to bypass the vote, to leave the legislature, to pass a legislative act. That would be bribery."

After lawmakers voted to issue arrest warrants against Democrats, Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to "find, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned his duty to Texans."

He added that his order would remain in effect "until all missing Democratic members of the House of Representatives are accounted for and brought to the Texas Capitol."

Texas Republican lawmaker Brian Harrison sharply criticized Democrats for their argument that electoral districts were being redrawn along racial lines.

"Absurd, cynical, dishonest, complete absurdity," Harrison told BBC News.

He added that "these Democrats should be arrested" and that they "should have all kinds of other punishments."

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, also threatened to arrest absent Democrats.

Paxton, who is running for the U.S. Senate, wrote in X that the state should "use every tool at its disposal to pursue those who think they are above the law."

Texas Republicans currently hold 25 of the state's 38 Congressional seats.

They hope the new maps can increase that number to 30 - all in electoral districts that President Donald Trump won last November by at least 10 points.

Ahead of next year's midterm elections, Texas' redistricting could help strengthen the narrow Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives - the lower house of Congress.

In states where they engage in the redistricting process, such as Illinois, New Mexico and Nevada, Democrats have already manipulated electoral boundaries for partisan gain, as have Republicans, according to the Princeton Gerrymandering Project.

But other Democratic-controlled states - such as New York, California, Colorado and Washington - delegate redistricting to non-partisan, independent commissions, rather than state legislatures.

Some Democratic leaders in other states have suggested they might redraw their legislative maps to counter the proposed seat losses in Texas.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she was considering a constitutional amendment to speed up the timeline for redistricting in her state.

States typically undergo redistricting every 10 years, when voting maps are redrawn to account for population changes.

The most recent US census was conducted in 2020. Redrawing district lines in the middle of a decade is unusual./ CNA, translated by BBC