By James Oliphant
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Texas Republicans tried on Monday to pressure Democrats to return to the state legislature after their absence again prevented a vote on a redistricting plan favored by President Donald Trump that seeks to add Republican seats in Congress.
After House Speaker Dustin Burrows declared there were too few members to conduct business, he said Republicans would move up to Tuesday voting on bills for measures related to floods that killed at least 137 people last month, a bid to persuade Democrats to return.
“The question is simple,” Burrows said. “Will you be in that chair to vote for these critical disaster-recovery bills, or will you be remembered as the one who did not show up?”
Democratic legislators in the Texas House of Representatives fled this month to deny Republicans the quorum necessary to pass the Trump-backed redistricting plan, which is intended to flip five congressional seats in the state from Democrat to Republican.
The Democrats have gone to more hospitable states such as California and Illinois, putting them out of reach of Texas' legal maneuvers to force their return.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other officials have vowed to track down the absent members and step up efforts to remove them from office.
Burrows said state Department of Public Safety agents had fanned out to “every region” of Texas.
“They are set up outside members’ homes, conducting surveillance, knocking on doors, calling their phones multiple times of day,” he said. “So far, no one is home, but the search continues, and it will not stop.”
Burrows said he would ask the department to establish a tip line for information about the absent members.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has threatened his own redistricting effort to boost his party, wrote Trump on Monday that California would drop that if Texas ended its redistricting initiative.
"You are playing with fire, risking the destabilization of our democracy, while knowing that California can neutralize any gains you hope to make," Newsom told Trump in the letter.
"This attempt to rig congressional maps to hold onto power before a single vote is cast in the 2026 election is an affront to American democracy."
Newsom said on Friday he will ask voters to approve a ballot measure in November redrawing the state's congressional map in a way likely to create five more Democratic seats.
Democrats need to flip only three Republican-held seats to retake the majority in the 435-seat U.S. House next year, so even modest gains for either party via redistricting could prove decisive. If Democrats win the House, they could stymie much of Trump's legislative agenda and pursue multiple investigations into his administration.
Texas House Democrats did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last week, several members argued that Abbott has the authority to release surplus disaster-assistance funds without the legislature's involvement.
(Reporting by James Oliphant; editing by Donna Bryson and Cynthia Osterman)
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