AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A walkout by Texas House Democrats is stalling redrawn political maps that President Donald Trump wants before the 2026 elections to bolster Republican chances of keeping its U.S. House majority.
Since leaving the state on Aug. 3 to block a vote in the Texas Capitol, dozens of Democrats have scattered to Chicago, New York and Boston and faced escalating threats from Republicans who have signed civil arrest warrants and mobilized state troopers.
Trump said Tuesday the FBI “may have to" help to bring back Texas Democrats, who have not said how long they are prepared to hold out. But they've signaled no intention of quickly returning home.
Here are some things to know:
Why the Democrats took off
Trump wants to redraw the Texas congressional map in hopes of adding five more GOP seats in Texas in the midterm elections to boost his party's chance of preserving its slim U.S. House majority. Republicans currently hold 25 of the state’s 38 seats.
As the minority party in the state House and Senate, Democrats simply do not have the votes to stop the plan under normal legislative procedures. The maps were passed by a committee last week and swiftly scheduled for a floor vote.
Sizing up their limited power and options, Democrats chose to deny the quorum as their only chance to put the brakes on Trump's plan and to rally national support.
Where they went
Many went to Illinois and New York.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has welcomed Democrats in Chicago. Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender who has been one of Trump’s most outspoken critics during the president's second term, had been in quiet talks with Texas Democrats for weeks about offering support if they chose to leave the state.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has hosted Texas Democrats in Albany, said the fight over congressional lines in Texas has implications nationally.
Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has said his state would move forward with partisan redistricting if Texas proceeds. California Democrats are considering redrawing the state's congressional map to carve out five districts and give the party 48 out of its 52 seats.
The governor said he would do this by calling a November special election to get approval from voters to circumvent the state's independent commission responsible for redistricting.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has asked the state Supreme Court, which is entirely controlled by GOP justices, to remove the Democratic House leader from office through an untested legal argument that the absent legislators have effectively forfeited their seats. Democrats blasted the lawsuit and the court has not ruled.
A lawmaker refusing to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules, and they can be fined $500 for every day they aren't at the Capitol. In 2021, the Texas Supreme Court held that House leaders had the authority to “physically compel the attendance” of missing members but no Democrats were forcibly brought back to the state after warrants were served that year in a similar quorum break.
Texas Democrats have fled the state before in attempts to thwart the Republican majority.
They twice denied the GOP a quorum in 2003 to stop Republican efforts to redraw voting maps, at one point leaving for Oklahoma and later for New Mexico. In 2021, Democrats left the state in the final days of the session over an elections bill and new voting restrictions. They stayed away for 38 days.
Both efforts only delayed the Republican-led measures that were ultimately passed once Democrats eventually returned to Austin.
And while the current special session ends Aug. 20, Abbott has the authority to keep calling lawmakers back to the Capitol for 30-day special sessions to pass the redistricting bill and any other item he believes should be addressed.
The current special session agenda includes help for communities devastated by the the July Fourth floods that killed at least 136 people. As part of their walkout, Texas Democrats have accused Republicans of prioritizing the politics of redistricting over flood victims.
Abbott has defended the redistricting plan as an effort to redraw lines to better reflect voters who supported Trump in the 2024 election, when he easily won Texas. He said there was nothing illegal about drawing lines on the basis of political makeup.
“All of these districts that are being added are districts that were won by Trump," he said in an interview with Fox News.
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Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Washington; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Nadia Lathan in Austin, Texas; and Philip Marcelo in New York contributed to this report.