Two Republicans running for U.S. Senate from Texas in 2026 are responding to the state legislature's lack of quorum. The leaders of the Texas House of Representatives and Texas Senate have said they would adjourn their session Friday without a quorum; Governor Greg Abbott has said he would continue calling special sessions until new legislative maps were passed.
John Cornyn is running for a fifth term in the U.S. Senate; Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is running against him for the Republican nomination.
"They're not hiding, really, they're in plain sight," Paxton says of Democrats who left Texas. "We don't have the jurisdiction to go arrest them unless we have participation of the other states. I don't think the FBI has the authority to go arrest them because they haven't committed any federal crime."
Last week, Cornyn sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel asking the agency to help Texas law enforcement return Democrats to the state.
"In a representative democracy, we resolve our differences by debating and voting, not by running away," Cornyn wrote.
Since the state lawmakers had left Texas, Cornyn wrote the Department of Public Safety would need federal resources, and the FBI "has tools to aid state law enforcement when parties cross state lines."
"If Crooked Ken Paxton cannot understand that Texas law enforcement jurisdiction is limited to Texas, then he needs to let adults like Governor Greg Abbott, Senator John Cornyn and President Donald Trump take it from here. The FBI can assist. FBI Director Patel has said FBI will assist. Texas welcomes their assistance, whether Ken Paxton does or not," Cornyn campaign senior advisor Matt Mackowiak wrote in a press release.
The same release accuses Paxton of joining "national Democrats" and includes comments from several state and federal Democratic lawmakers who said the FBI would not get involved.