CHICAGO — After Governor Greg Abbott filed a petition to the Texas Supreme Court to remove him from office, Texas House of Representatives Minority Leader Rep. Gene Wu issued the following statement:
“This office does not belong to Greg Abbott, and it does not belong to me. It belongs to the people of House District 137, who elected me. I took an oath to the constitution, not a politician’s agenda, and I will not be the one to break that oath.
Let me be unequivocal about my actions and my duty. When a governor conspires with a disgraced president to ram through a racist gerrymandered map, my constitutional duty is to not be a willing participant. When that governor holds disaster relief for 137 dead Texans and their families hostage, my moral duty is to sound the alarm — by any means necessary.
Denying the governor a quorum was not an abandonment of my office; it was a fulfillment of my oath. Unable to defend his corrupt agenda on its merits, Greg Abbott now desperately seeks to silence my dissent by removing a duly-elected official from office.
History will judge this moment. It will show a Governor who used the law as a weapon to silence his people, and it will show those of us who stood for a higher principle.
To Governor Abbott: You have failed the people of Texas, and you are using the courts to punish those who refused to fail with you. My purpose has been clear from the start: to serve my constituents and fight for what’s right, no matter the cost. You will find that my commitment to the people of Texas is unbreakable.”
