Texas State Rep. Gene Wu (D) on Thursday said Democratic lawmakers would return to the state when their GOP colleagues stop pushing a vote to gain five additional House seats before the 2026 midterm elections.
“Our group is committed to ending this corrupt special session. Whether that’s a week, whether that’s two weeks, I don’t know. That’s not up to us,” Wu said during an appearance on CNN.
“Gov. Abbott and the Republican leadership of Texas hold all the cards, and we can only react to them,” he added, referring to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R).
The feud in the Lone Star State gained national attention after President Trump told reporters that Republicans were “entitled” to more seats.
“We should have many more seats in California. It’s all gerrymandered,” he said Tuesday during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“And we have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats,” he added.
Democrats have urged lawmakers not to add new congressional districts outside the census that takes place each decade. Traditionally, redistricting has been done at this time.
“Donald Trump is trying to steal five seats from the people — frankly, of the country, not just the people of Texas — and disenfranchise people,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) told CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” when asked to describe what led the Democrats to leave the Lone Star State.
“We’re talking about violating the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution.”
Pritzker said Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to seek protection in Illinois will be safeguarded from retaliation after Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) urged the FBI to undertake efforts to return legislators.
“Our state troopers protect everybody in Illinois and anybody who’s here in Illinois,” Pritzker said during an appearance on “News Not Noise” with Jessica Yellin.
“And so, whether it’s federal agents coming to Illinois or state rangers from Texas, if you haven’t broken federal law, you’re basically unwelcome and there’s no way that our state legislators here — the Texas state legislators — can be arrested,” he added.
Wu called on citizens across the country to act in the face of injustice.
“If you believe in a country that still values hard work and fair play and following the rules, like, you have to stand up and speak up for it now. Not — whoever wins this one time, you get to rewrite all the rules whenever you want,” Wu told CNN.
“That’s not the American way. That’s not the way we should work. And if we don’t fight against that now, once this happens, that’s the end of our democracy. That’s the end of our republic.”
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Comments