Texas stalemate redistricting undone
By Philip Jankowski
The Dallas Morning News
(The Dallas Morning News) — Republicans and Democrats are both claiming victory after it was becoming clear that a special legislative session will come to an end Friday with a GOP-led effort to redistrict congressional seats undone.
The House and Senate are expected to adjourn the session Friday after both Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, indicated Tuesday that is their intention.
The Senate passed all of the proposals Gov. Greg Abbott requested, while the House passed none, as the lower chamber remained hamstrung by House Democrats who denied a constitutionally required quorum by refusing to show up.
Abbott said he will immediately call a second special session with a nearly identical agenda. Besides redistricting, the governor has called for the Legislature to pass flood relief bills, THC regulations and anti-abortion laws.
“There will be no reprieve for the derelict Democrats who fled the state and abandoned their duty to the people who elected them,” Abbott said. “I will continue to call special session after special session until we get this Texas first agenda passed.”
Democrats stopped short of saying they will participate in the second special session. House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, said in a statement that House Democrats will issue legislative demands on Friday.
“What happens next is entirely up to Greg Abbott,” Wu said. “After deliberation among our caucus, we have reached a consensus: Texas House Democrats refuse to give him a quorum to pass his racist maps that silence more than 2 million Black and Latino Texans — in keeping with our original promise to Texans, the First Called Special Session will never make quorum again, defeating Abbott’s first attempt at passing his racial gerrymander.”
Republicans had attempted to push through redistricting ahead of flood bills during the first special session, which many Democrats considered a tipping point that led to them leaving the state to block a vote on the partisan gerrymander.
President Donald Trump called on Texas Republicans to redraw the state’s congressional districts to help preserve a GOP majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm election. Republicans responded by creating a new map that could flip as many as five Democratically held seats to Republican control.
Dozens of House Democrats fled the state to Illinois, Massachusetts and New York and have since been pushing for other states to redraw their districts.
It’s sparked what many have described as a redistricting arms race, as Democrat-run states such as California, Illinois and Maryland consider redistricting to counteract any Republican gains in Texas. Meanwhile, Republican states such as Florida, Indiana and Ohio are considering redrawing maps as well.
In Texas, Republican leadership has attempted to pressure absent Democrats through mounting costs, lawsuits and threats of criminal charges.
Sen. John Cornyn has called on the FBI to investigate possible bribery related to their fundraising efforts on breaking quorum. Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton are seeking to oust some Democrats who left the state to block the redistricting vote.
Burrows is keeping a tally of daily fines and law enforcement costs as state police continue to search for the Democrats in Texas. Absent Democrats will be responsible for those costs, Burrows said Tuesday.
Speaking in Chicago on Wednesday, Wu said House Democrats’ goals in breaking quorum were to “wake up America,” and “to block this legislative session to give the people a chance to speak up and to tell their government, to tell their leaders what they actually want.”
In Austin, Burrows told lawmakers in a memo to be prepared to work through the weekend once the second special session gets underway.
©2025 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
