Texas state Democrats returned to the state capital on Monday for the start of the House’s special session on redistricting, ending a two-week strike to protest Republicans‘ plans to increase the number of GOP congressional seats in the state’s delegation.
The state House reconvened at noon Central time to begin the second special session, with the chamber meeting the 100-member threshold for a quorum, or the necessary attendance required to conduct legislative business, for the first time in two weeks.
TEXAS HOUSE ADJOURNS FOR SECOND TIME FRIDAY DUE TO DEMOCRATIC ABSENCES
Speaker Dustin Burrows adjourned the chamber for the weekend on Friday after the first session concluded “sine die” and the House failed to reach a quorum later that day at the start of the second session.
“My responsibility now is to keep this quorum intact and to maintain an atmosphere of order and respect until the job is finished,” Burrows said Monday.
“The House has been through a tumultuous two weeks, but this institution long predates us and will long outlast each of us,” the speaker added. “Representatives come and go, issues rise and fall, but this body has endured wars, economic depressions, and quorum breaks dating back to the very first session. It will withstand this, too, and what will remain is a chamber where the majority has the right to prevail, and the minority has the right to be heard.”
The House will reconvene on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Those who were present on Monday but were absent for the first session can leave the House but have to do so under the custody of a Texas Department of Public Safety officer “who will ensure your return” on Wednesday, Burrows said. For members still absent, the arrest warrants are still in effect, he said.
Burrows said last week he aims to have the second session wrapped up by Labor Day.
A majority of Texas’s 62 House Democrats fled the state on Aug. 3 and sought refuge in blue states like Illinois, California, and New York. They held press conferences to highlight Texas Republicans’ plans to redraw the congressional map and gain as many as five GOP seats.
But legal and financial pressure from state and national Republicans led to Democrats announcing on Thursday that they would return to the state. They said they would return on two conditions: when the first session concluded and when California introduced a new congressional map that would offset the Texas map. They’ve painted their walkout as a success by calling attention to the GOP’s “sham” redistricting plan.
Democrats have argued that Republicans are trying to manipulate the Texas congressional map because they are afraid they will not win in the 2026 midterm elections, in which Democrats only need a net gain of three seats to take back the House.
Republicans faced a similar dilemma in 2018, and Democrats successfully broke the GOP trifecta during President Donald Trump’s first term. The remaining two years of his presidency were met with pushback from the Democrat-controlled House on Trump’s agenda, resulting in two attempts to impeach him.
“Democrats fought back ferociously and took the fight to Trump across America,” state Rep. Gene Wu of Houston, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement. “We will return to the House floor and to the courthouse with a clear message: the fight to protect voting rights has only just begun.”
The Texas Democrats’ redistricting fight has drawn support from several national leaders, including former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Democratic governors. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has called a special election for Nov. 4 that will determine whether the state can circumvent the independent redistricting commission and draw a new map ahead of the midterm elections.
Republicans have pushed back on this, arguing that Texas law allows the legislature to redraw the map, but states like California must adhere to their redistricting commissions.
“Unlike other states, California must shred its own Constitution to succeed in its desperate gambit to ‘end the Trump presidency.’ Voters in California and across the nation see through this partisan stunt,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said in a statement Monday.
“Democrats across the nation have played politics with redistricting for decades, and this is just the latest example,” Johnson added. “Republicans who are following state and federal laws will not be lectured by people who abused the system.”
