Democrats are ejecting Texas in an effort to thwart its state’s House of Representatives’ Monday vote on new congressional maps, which Republicans hope will add to their preponderance in the 2026 midterm elections, adding to their ferocious majority.
The state’s attorney general has previously threatened to arrest Democrats if they took such a course of action, leading to fines and other penalties for the dramatic action on Sunday. Democrats are legally prohibited from being imprisoned for refusing to participate in legislative sessions, and it is unclear who has the authority to execute the warrants.
Democrats see the state’s decision as a last-ditch attempt to stop Texas’s infamous mid-decade redrawing of the congressional map under the leadership of President Donald Trump.
Trump is anxious to avoid a repeat of his first term, which included the House and Senate victories just two years into his presidency, which stunted his legislative goals, and hopes the new Texas map will aid in this effort.
In a statement, House Democratic Caucus chair Gene Wu said, “We make this decision with absolute moral clarity.”
At least 100 members of the Texas House, which has 150 members, must be present for official business.
In the majority-Republican chamber, Democrats control 62 of the seats. According to Josh Rush Nisenson, a representative for the House Democratic Caucus, at least 51 Democratic members are leaving the state.
“We will not be complicit in the silence of hard-working communities who have spent decades fighting for the power that Trump wants to steal,” he said.
Standoff in 2021
Texas Democrats have fled the state to obstruct a vote for the second time in four years.
Democrats flew to Washington, DC in 2021 to protest new voting restrictions and a 38-day standoff.
In response to flooding in Texas Hill Country, which claimed at least 135 lives in July, and hold a special session of the legislature that started last month to discuss redistricting issues.
Source: Aljazeera
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