Texas Democratic State Rep. Nicole Collier spent Monday night locked in the state House of Representatives in Austin after refusing to sign a pledge to return for a vote on Republican redistricting proposals.
Collier’s protest came after 51 of the state’s opposition lawmakers fled for Illinois, New York and Massachusetts two weeks ago to deny the GOP majority a quorum in the House, preventing it from holding a ballot on plans to create five new red seats ahead of next year’s midterms that would almost certainly have passed had the Democrats participated.
After a fortnight of Republican fury in which House Speaker Dustin Burrows issued civil arrest warrants, the runaways finally returned to their posts, only to find that Burrows expected them to sign a statement committing themselves to returning for the scheduled vote at 10 am on Wednesday – and be accompanied by individual law enforcement escorts in the interim.
The speaker’s ultimatum meant the rebel Democrats would not be able to leave the chamber without risking arrest unless they put pen to paper.
Collier, who represents Fort Worth, flatly refused to comply with what her side mockingly characterized as a “permission slip” or “hall pass” system that effectively rendered their liberty conditional.
“I refuse to sign,” she told Fox News’s Austin affiliate. “I will not agree to be in [Department of Public Safety] custody. I’m not a criminal. I am exercising my right to resist and oppose the decisions of our government. So this is my form of protest.”
In a subsequent statement, she elaborated: “My constituents sent me to Austin to protect their voices and rights. I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts.
“My community is majority-minority, and they expect me to stand up for their representation. When I press that button to vote, I know these maps will harm my constituents – I won’t just go along quietly with their intimidation or their discrimination.”
The Independent has contacted Collier’s office for further comment.
Refusing to play ball but still bound by the speaker’s conditions, Collier instead spent the night among the otherwise empty chairs of the legislative chamber, offering a livestream of her quiet protest on her X account.
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu and fellow representative Vince Perez stayed with her on the House floor in a show of solidarity, with Wu posting a picture of the snacks he was bringing with him, including dried peaches and grapes and instant ramen noodles.
Collier also received a message of support from former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, who said: “A true hero, refusing to submit, fighting these fascists by herself if she has to. We are with you Nicole!”
The drama began on August 3 when the Democrats went into exile in the three northern blue states rather than enable a gerrymandering push that would, in all likelihood, have ended with their Republican counterparts redrawing the electoral map to their advantage with one eye on the November 2026 midterm elections, creating five extra seats in right-leaning areas.
That would enable the Lone Star State to send five more Republicans to Washington, D.C., to help force through President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda on Capitol Hill, a great help to the president when the congressional GOP’s majority is currently so slender.
By fleeing, the Democrats denied the GOP the two-thirds majority attendance it required in the 150-seat state House to go ahead with its vote on the proposals.
The lawmakers won the support of the Democratic National Committee, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and influential blue state governors like Gavin Newsom and JB Pritzker. Still, they risked arrest and $500 per day fines for their actions.
After Newsom vowed to fight fire with fire in California and redraw his map to favor Democrats as a means of remedying the measures being undertaken by the Texas Republicans, the southerners were finally able to make their way home.
“Now that we have California backing us up, we try to get back here as fast as possible,” Wu said. “With that margin of the safety, we can come back here and say, let's stick this thing to court.”
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