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Texas Democrats left the state Sunday in hopes of derailing a mid-decade redistricting plan, The Dallas Morning News reported.
State Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, announced the Democrats departed Texas to break the quorum and stymie a vote in that chamber.
“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” Wu said in a statement. “Governor (Greg) Abbott has turned the victims of a historic tragedy into political hostages in his submission to (President) Donald Trump.”
Wu was referring to bills pending in the special session addressing the July 4 floods that killed at least 137 people in the Hill Country and nearby counties. Abbott on Monday issued orders to the Department of Public Safety to “locate, arrest and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans.,” according to a prepared release.
Democratic advisers told The News the lawmakers will use Chicago as their base but plan to travel across the state to rally supporters to their cause.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton blasted the fleeing Democrats.
“Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested and brought back to the Capitol immediately,” he wrote on X.
Republican lawmakers hope to gain five more seats in the U.S. House under a redistricting map unveiled last week during the ongoing special session, which was voted out of committee Sunday and sent to the full House.
The primary changes would be to urban districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin- San Antonio and South Texas regions.
The unusual mid-decade redistricting comes at Trump’s behest in hopes the GOP can hold on to a majority in the House after the 2026 general election.
Texas Democrats in Congress called it an illegal attempt to dilute the state’s minority voices.
“This map is a disaster — crafted to divide neighborhoods and rig the game for Donald Trump,” U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Farmers Branch, said in a statement. “It’s a desperate move from a party losing its grip on a changing state.”
Meanwhile, a growing number of Texas Republican legislators are rejecting assertions by the U.S. Department of Justice that the current district maps, drawn in 2021 by a Republican majority, violate voters’ rights.
“I want to say right now, I don’t think the map that is in place for Congress today is discriminatory,” state Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, said Tuesday.
The special session ends Aug. 19. However, Abbott is free to call another special session if he wishes.
DEMOCRATS RAISE MONEY TO COVER FINES FOR LEAVING STATE
Now that the Democrats have left in hopes of breaking quorum, they face considerable expenses. After a similar move in 2021, the Legislature approved a daily fine of $500 and the threat of arrest if the Democrats flee again. The Texas Tribune reported that deep-pocketed donors appear ready to cover those fines and other expenses.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, was part of the 2021 quorum break. She said it might not be necessary to raise money — an estimated $1 million a month — by launching a legal challenge instead. “I think that the first step would be to make sure that there are attorneys on deck to actually challenge the legality of these rules,” she said.
Crockett and other Democrats say a quorum break would buy time to educate the public of the harms they believe the new maps would create and also allow a court challenge around the current maps to continue to make its way through the judicial system.
FLOODING SURVIVORS RECOUNT ANGUISH, NEGLECT
A joint hearing of state Senate and House select committees convened in Kerrville and heard from anguished flood survivors who described losing children, going days without contact from emergency management and calling for more adequate flood-warning systems, The Tribune reported.
A local contractor who lives downstream from the recreational-vehicle parks on the Ingram-Kerrville border testified he saw more than 100 RVs swept downstream, some still with families inside.
Three deaths linked to the floods were reported in Williamson County.
The panel also heard from survivors of the Sandy Creek flood in Travis County. “Nobody came for us,” said Auburn Gallagher, a 25-year resident of Sandy Creek.
Survivors from both Travis and Kerr counties said human remains are still unrecovered and faulted the methods used by emergency-management teams to identify missing persons.
“I found a hip and a leg on my property,” testified Ashlee Willis, who lives near Sandy Creek in Travis County.
In response, state Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, said cadaver dogs should be used.
At the hearing, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick slammed Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly for being absent as flood waters swept his county on July 4, killing more than 100 people.
“I don’t know where you were on Day One, on July 4, but you should have been here. You should have been here directing that response. That is your responsibility,” Patrick told Kelly at the hearing.
ABBOTT HOPES TO CUT TAXES BY LIMITING LOCAL SPENDING
The Legislature reduced homeowners’ property taxes by $3.5 billion in the last regular session. Now the governor wants to further reduce taxes by capping how much cities and counties can hike spending, The News reported.
Abbott wants to do that by tying local spending increases to population growth and inflation, which would be similar to existing limits on state spending.
He plans to push the issue much as he did with school vouchers and bail restrictions passed by the Legislature earlier this year.
“I’m just thinking, well, it worked with these two strategies, maybe it’s time to employ the same strategy as it concerns property taxes,” Abbott said in June.
While school districts make up most of the tax bills, cities and counties are being scrutinized for spending practices as well.
“There is a growing recognition at the Capitol that it doesn’t matter how much money we put toward tax relief, if we don’t do things to control the appetite of local government, they’ll just eat it up,” said James Quintero of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Local jurisdictions already must get voter approval to raise property taxes more than 3.5%, and larger cities and counties are also banned from slashing law-enforcement spending, which is usually a major part of their budgets.
The policy director of the Texas Conference of Urban Counties expressed concern about Abbott’s proposal.
“We house the state’s prisoners, we build the state’s roads, we run the state’s elections, we care for the indigent population, health care — all of those are state responsibilities that they put down on the counties to do, all the while saying, ‘cut your property taxes’ — and now, ‘cut your expenditures,’” Adam Haynes said.
Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin, and Cedar Park. Email:gborders @texaspress.com.
