Governor plans to use attorney general’s opinion designed to remove lawmakers who “abdicate” their duties.
By Gromer Jeffers Jr.
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com
Mark Black / AP
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday threatened to remove from office Democratic lawmakers who don’t show up when the House convenes Monday afternoon.
House Democrats Sunday left the state for Illinois in order to prevent the GOP-controlled Legislature from passing a controversial bill that would redraw the state’s congressional boundaries. The new maps would potentially flip five congressional seats from Democratic to Republican.
The Democrats, some of whom are also in Boston and Albany, N.Y., are expected to stay away from the Capitol until the special legislative session called by Abbott ends later this month.
“Democrats hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber’s business,” Abbott wrote Sunday in a statement. “That amounts to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office.”
Abbott gave Democrats a deadline to return to Austin.
“This truancy ends now. 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. “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.”
The governor also accused House Democrats of committing felony crimes.
“In addition to abandoning their offices, these legislators may also have committed felonies,” he wrote. “Many absentee Democrats are soliciting funds to evade the fines they will incur under House rules. Any Democrat who ‘solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept’ such funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have 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.”
State Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, left Sunday with many of his colleagues to the Chicago area. He said he’s not worried about Abbott’s threat.
“As the Texas Supreme Court has acknowledged, it is the right of legislators to deny quorum. And as Governor Abbott should know, we also have separation of powers in this country,” Turner wrote in a text message. “The executive doesn’t get to remove lawmakers just because he doesn’t like how we choose to represent those who elected us.”
One Democrat said Abbott’s threat is a “pathetic pander” to President Donald Trump, who asked Texas Republicans to change the state’s congressional boundaries.
“There’s no substance to what he’s doing,” said Democratic strategist Matt Angle, who is supportive of the House Democrats. “It’s an expression of cowardice and submission to Donald Trump.”
House Bill 4, authored by Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, would shift five congressional districts to Republicans’ favor, a desire of Trump as he hopes to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections.
During a 15-hour committee meeting Friday, in which lawmakers heard near-universal opposition to the plan, Hunter said the maps were drawn with partisan performance in mind.
Democrats from Austin to Washington have slammed the maps, saying the new districts would discriminate against Black and Latino Texans.
If at least 51 House Democrats refuse to attend the floor session for Monday’s vote, the House can’t gavel in for the day.
Abbott’s actions indicate the redistricting fight will be a bitter struggle. Democrats have broken quorum before, including in 2021 to delay a controversial elections reform bill.
The Howard University graduate and Chicago native has covered four presidential campaigns and written extensively about local, state and national politics. Before The News, he was a reporter at The Kansas City Star and The Chicago Defender. You can catch Gromer every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on NBC 5’s Lone Star Politics.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
