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Texas Governor Greg Abbott has threatened to remove Democratic members of the state legislature from their offices and charge them with felonies after they fled the state. Two dozen Texas Democrats traveled to Chicago, Illinois, on Sunday to deny the Republican–controlled legislature the quorum it needs to pass an off-cycle redistricting measure aimed at securing Republicans additional seats ahead of the 2026 midterms.
“The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance
when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025,” Abbott wrote in a letter issued on Sunday. “For any member who fails to do so, I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House.”
That same afternoon, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened to have the lawmakers arrested. “Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately. We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law,” he wrote on X.
Abbott added the potential of felony charges to his own ultimatum, writing that Democrats who solicited or accepted donations to help cover fines incurred by their absence may have committed felonies, and “violated bribery laws”
“The same could be true for any other person who ‘offers, confers, or agrees to confer’ such funds to fleeing Democrat House members. I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons,” Abbott wrote.
Democrats responded with a succinct challenge to the governor: “Come and take it.”
Abbott’s threat against those who aid the missing Democrats is a barely veiled challenge to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire who has announced he will be providing lodging and other logistical support for the group during their time in Chicago.
“Donald Trump is trying to cheat the system in Texas, but these Democratic legislators refuse to let it happen without a fight,” Pritzker wrote in a post on X. “Their fight is our fight. I’m proud to stand side-by-side with them as they protect their constituents.”
“They’re here in Illinois. We’re going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them and make sure that — because we know they’re doing the right thing — we know that they’re following the law,” Pritzker added. “It’s Ken Paxton who doesn’t follow the law. It’s the leaders of Texas who are attempting not to follow the law.”
Trump has supported Texas Republicans redrawing the congressional map to squeeze out Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterms, and Democrats in Congress have been urging their colleagues in the state legislature to block the effort. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) visited Texas last week, and California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Governor Kathy Hochul have met with Texas Democrats and indicated their states could respond with redistricting efforts of their own.
“This will have implications, not just in Texas, but for our entire nation and its future,” Hochul said at a press conference Monday, alongside some of the Texas Democrats who fled the state. “The gloves are off, and I say, bring it on.”
