Texas Democrats have left the state in an effort to block Republicans latest attempt to steal the midterm elections by gerrymandering more House seats.
In an extraordinary move to counter Republican redistricting in Texas, dozens of Democrats in the state House of Representatives are heading here Sunday to deny a necessary quorum for the GOP to move forward with those efforts.
The roughly 30 Democrats are expected to stay for the week in a plan brokered with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who had met with the Texas caucus late last month and has directed his staff to provide logistical support for their stay. Additional Texas Democrats were expected in Boston and Albany, New York. A news conference with the governor and Texas Democratsis expected later Sunday.
“We’re leaving Texas to fight for Texans,” Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said in a statement. “We will not allow disaster relief to be held hostage to a Trump gerrymander. We’re not walking out on our responsibilities; we’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent. As of today, this corrupt special session is over.”
Last week, Texas Republicans released a proposed new congressional map that would give the GOP a path to pick up five seats in next year’s midterm elections. It followed President Donald Trump’s public pressure for a new map in the state as he works to retain a majority in Congress in what historically is a difficult year for the party holding the White House.
In June 1870, 13 Texas senators walked out of the Capitol to block a bill giving the governor wartime powers, depriving the upper chamber of the two-thirds quorum required for voting. Though the fleeing members were arrested, and the bill eventually passed, the “Rump Senate incident” established quorum-breaking as a minority party tactic that has persisted in Texas politics ever since.
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While the Democrats technically can prevent the GOP’s redistricting effort by breaking quorum, it would require the entire delegation to stay out of the state until at least November, which political scientists say is unlikely given historical precedent.
"If we're going to follow our current primary schedule, we do need to have these districts approved by the Legislature before the opening of filing [for the 2026 midterms] in November," explained Mark P. Jones, a political science professor at Rice University.
The challenge for Democrats is that Gov. Greg Abbott can call unlimited special sessions lasting up to 30 days each. If Democrats break quorum during the current special session, which runs through late August, Abbott could immediately call another session the next day, and continue doing so indefinitely.
Even if Democrats managed to stay out of state until the November filing deadline, it could be possible for Republicans to simply hold a second round of primaries for the 2026 midterms according to Jon Taylor, a political science professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
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