Gov. Greg Abbott filed an emergency petition Tuesday with the Texas Supreme Court to remove state Rep. Gene Wu from office after Wu and other Democrats left the state to delay Republican efforts to redraw congressional district lines.
The lawsuit from Abbott, a Republican, argues that Wu, the Texas House Democratic Caucus chair, violated the state Constitution and that his absence amounted to abandoning office.
With their absence, Democratic lawmakers have denied Republicans the legislative quorum needed to move forward with plans to redraw congressional boundaries and give the GOP five more House seats in Congress.
The suit argues that quorum provisions make attendance in the state House “an affirmative constitutional obligation.”
“Representative Wu has openly renounced these constitutional mandates by fleeing the State of Texas to break quorum, obstruct legislative proceedings, and paralyze the Texas House of Representatives,” the lawsuit says.
“Absconding from the State during a constitutionally mandated session, not for lawful cause, but for the very purpose of subverting the Legislature’s ability to function, constitutes a flagrant violation of Wu’s oath and is an intentional abandonment of his constitutional duty,” it adds.
Wu did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening, but in a statement obtained by the Houston-based outlet KHOU, he contended that he was not abandoning his duties.
"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," Wu said.
"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," he added.
Wu said on social media Sunday from Illinois that he was "On the ground in Chicago… Fighting for the rights of Texans and all Americans."
Former President Barack Obama weighed in Tuesday on the standoff that's drawn national attention, calling the actions by Republicans “a power grab that undermines our democracy” in a post on X.
Abbott said in a statement that Wu and more than 50 other Democrats who left the state had failed to meet quorum requirements in refusing to return.
“Texas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans, and there must be consequences,” he said.
State attorney general Ken Paxton on Tuesday urged the high court not to dismiss the governor’s petition until after a Friday deadline he said House Speaker Dustin Burrows set for the lawmakers to return to the state Capitol.
Paxton, who is challenging Sen. John Cornyn in next year's GOP primary, said that his office would take legal action against the lawmakers, including proceedings to declare their offices vacant, if they have not returned by Friday.
At the same time, he appeared to suggest that Abbott's lawsuit was improper, saying in a letter to the Texas Supreme Court clerk that the court has set clear precedent allowing only the attorney general, a district or a county attorney to bring suits like the one filed by the governor.
Abbott had warned in a statement Sunday that he would seek Democrats’ removal if they weren’t present when the House convened the next day. During the Democratic lawmakers' absence Monday, he ordered the state Department of Public Safety to arrest them after a vote by the House to compel the sergeant-at-arms to “send for” the return of the lawmakers “under warrant of arrest, if necessary.”
Asked whether the FBI and the federal government should get involved in locating and arresting the lawmakers, President Donald Trump told reporters earlier Tuesday that they "may have to."
“A lot of people have demanded they come back. You can’t just sit it out. You have to go back. You have to fight it out. That’s what elections are all about,” he said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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