Texas Attorney General Says He’ll Seek to Remove Democrats Who Don’t Return by Friday (AP Photo)
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton vowed to seek judicial orders declaring “runaway Democrats” as having vacated their elected office if they do not return to the state House by Friday, when it reconvenes.
“Starting Friday, any rogue lawmakers refusing to return to the House will be held accountable for vacating their office,” Paxton stated in an Aug. 5 press release. “The people of Texas elected lawmakers, not jet-setting runaways looking for headlines. If you don’t show up to work, you get fired.”
Paxton said the Texas Supreme Court rulings don’t allow for the minority faction in the legislature to “improperly interfere” with the majority’s prerogative to conduct business.
“By removing themselves from the state for the explicit purpose of interfering with the proceedings of the Texas Legislature, Democrats are refusing to perform their duties in a manner that amounts to abandonment of office,” he said.
Texas Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows announced Aug. 5 that state troopers were searching for Democrats who broke quorum for the second day to derail a GOP plan to redraw its congressional map. He announced the House would reconvene on Friday to give law enforcement time to locate no-show Democrats.
The state Department of Public Safety “is actively working to compel their attendance after I signed their civil arrest warrants yesterday, and will continue to do so until those members are back in this chamber,” Burrows said.
The roll call counted 94 members, indicating several Democrats were present. Republicans hold 88 seats in the lower chamber, and 100 members are needed to make a quorum to conduct House business.
The warrants empower state troopers to arrest any absent Democrats remaining in Texas and bring them to the Capitol, but are largely symbolic and do not include jail time.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that House leaders had the authority to “physically compel the attendance” of missing lawmakers.
More than 50 Democrats fled to states such as Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts on Aug. 3, holding press conferences with blue state leaders who vowed to counter the Republicans’ congressional redistricting proposal by potentially redrawing the maps in their own states to favor Democrats.
The missing Texas Democrats could face a litany of consequences, including fines, criminal charges, and removal from office, according to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans.
In 2023, Texas Republicans passed new House rules that allow daily fines of $500 for fleeing lawmakers, at the discretion of the state speaker of the House. Campaign or official funds can’t be used by legislators to cover their fines.
Abbott announced Aug. 4 on X that he had directed the Texas Rangers to begin investigating the absent Democrats for potential violations of Texas law.
“Any Democrat who solicited or accepted funds to break quorum may have violated bribery laws. Texas Rangers must quickly send any findings to the appropriate prosecutors,” he stated.
In an Aug. 3 statement, the Republican governor accused the Democrats of abandoning their duty to attend the session and said such conduct gave him the power to remove and replace them.
By blocking a vote on a redistricting plan, Democrats were “abdicating” their duties under the Texas Constitution, he said.
Abbott cited Paxton’s 2021 nonbinding opinion stating that although Texas courts recognize that a vacancy may occur by abandonment of office, determining whether abandonment occurred would fall to the courts.
Paxton’s opinion was in response to Democrats leaving Texas that year to deny Republicans a quorum during a special session aimed at strengthening election laws in 2021.
Democrats had threatened for weeks to leave Texas over the redistricting issue before taking action.
The current 30-day special session called by Abbott is scheduled to end Aug. 19.
The Democrats have not commented on their next move after leaving the state on Sunday.
“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement.
Texas Democratic Rep. James Talarico said during an Aug. 5 interview on CSPAN that he was at an Illinois hotel, but would not share his exact location because of “security concerns.”
Their 2021 exodus to stop Republicans from amending election laws lasted for about six weeks. Abbott called three special sessions until enough Democrats returned, allowing the legislation to pass.
The Democrats would need to stay out of the state until at least November to successfully block a new map, running up tens of thousands of dollars in fines.
