Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) threatened to take away from workplace Democrat lawmakers who fled to Illinois to dam GOP Congressional redistricting.
Texas Democrats fled the state to dam the Republicans within the legislature from holding a particular session to dam a redistricting vote on Sunday.
The Texas Democrats reportedly fled to Illinois to interrupt quorum to dam the Texas Home from holding a vote in a particular session.
The brand new congressional map will add 5 GOP Home seats.
The Texas Democrats pulled an analogous stunt again in 2021.
Governor Abbott is just not messing round.
“Democrats hatched a deliberate plan to not present up for work, for the particular function of abdicating the duties of their workplace and thwarting the chamber’s enterprise. That quantities to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state workplace,” Abbot mentioned.
Full assertion from Governor Abbott:
Governor Greg Abbott at present launched the next assertion outlining the authorized penalties that Home Democrat members face for breaking quorum, together with the potential lack of their seats and felony violations. This letter can be being despatched on to the person members who’ve fled Texas. The Governor’s full assertion is as follows:
Actual Texans don’t run from a struggle. However that’s precisely what many of the Texas Home Democrats simply did. Relatively than doing their job and voting on pressing laws affecting the lives of all Texans, they’ve fled Texas to deprive the Home of the quorum essential to satisfy and conduct enterprise.
These absences are usually not merely unintended and unavoidable interruptions in public service, like a sudden sickness or a household emergency. As a substitute, these absences have been premeditated for an illegitimate function—what one consultant referred to as “breaking quorum.” One other beforehand signaled that Democrats “must go by an excessive measure” of a quorum break “to cease these payments from taking place.” In different phrases, Democrats hatched a deliberate plan to not present up for work, for the particular function of abdicating the duties of their workplace and thwarting the chamber’s enterprise.
That quantities to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state workplace. When the Governor calls a Particular Session, our Structure supplies that the “Legislature shall meet.” TEX. CONST. artwork. III, § 5 (emphasis added). It’s not non-compulsory. It’s an obligation. The absconded Democrat Home members have been elected to satisfy and vote on laws—to not stop votes that won’t go their method. Each session, legislators on each side of the aisle discover themselves on the shedding facet of a legislative vote. And each session, most of these legislators discover a technique to disagree agreeably and behave like adults, moderately than going AWOL.
This truancy ends now. The derelict Democrat Home members should return to Texas and be in attendance when the Home reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025. For any member who fails to take action, I’ll invoke Texas Lawyer Common Opinion No. KP-0382 to take away the lacking Democrats from membership within the Texas Home. In that Opinion, the Lawyer Common thought-about “whether or not Texas legislation permits for a dedication {that a} legislator has vacated workplace” in the event that they deliberately break quorum. The Lawyer Common concluded that “whether or not a selected legislator deserted his or her workplace such {that a} emptiness occurred will probably be a reality query for a courtroom.” He additional concluded that “by a quo warranto motion, a district courtroom might decide {that a} legislator has forfeited his or her workplace resulting from abandonment and might take away the legislator from workplace, thereby making a emptiness.” That empowers me to swiftly fill vacancies underneath Article III, Part 13 of the Texas Structure.
Along with abandoning their workplaces, these legislators can also have dedicated felonies. Many absentee Democrats are soliciting funds to evade the fines they’ll incur underneath Home guidelines. Any Democrat who “solicits, accepts, or agrees to simply accept” such funds to help within the violation of legislative duties or for functions of skipping a vote might have violated bribery legal guidelines. See TEX. PENAL CODE § 36.02. The identical may very well be true for every other one that “provides, confers, or agrees to confer” such funds to fleeing Democrat Home members. I’ll use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons.
It appears to me that the one method a number of the fleeing Democrats can keep away from bribery expenses is to not break quorum.
It appears that evidently would remove any potential quid professional quo related to any cost they obtained to disclaim a quorum and skip a vote. https://t.co/eyTbgybLvW
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 4, 2025
