Texas Republicans are moving closer to approving new congressional maps amid a Democratic show of protest over the GOP House speaker’s order that members who fled the state weeks earlier be placed under law enforcement watch.
The state House is set to reconvene Wednesday as Republicans push ahead with their Trump-backed redistricting plan, which would create five more GOP-leaning House districts in time for next year’s midterm elections. The House could vote Wednesday and the Senate as early as Thursday. It’s not yet clear exactly when the House will vote, however, and a lengthy floor debate could delay the process.
Relegated to the minority, Democrats have no viable way to stop passage of the maps, but have continued to protest GOP tactics to prevent them from leaving the state again.
House Speaker Dustin Burrows required that the quorum-breaking Democrats be placed under the around-the-clock supervision of the Department of Public Safety to be allowed to leave the House floor. However, state Rep. Nicole Collier has refused to do so and has been confined to the House chamber. Other Democrats on Tuesday evening ripped up the written agreements that allowed them to leave the chamber and vowed to spend Tuesday night on the House floor.
“This is a civil discussion and disagreement, and in order to win, the other side is willing to use force — to use the arms of a state to get what they want. Good guys don’t do that,” Rep. Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic leader, told CNN’s Pamela Brown on “The Lead.”
In California, Democrats moved forward with their own redistricting countermeasure. Two committees advanced a trio of bills that ask voters to amend the state constitution and approve new maps that create five additional Democratic leaning seats.
When will Texas lawmakers vote?
Now that Democrats have returned to the state, the House is all but guaranteed to have the two-thirds quorum it needs to conduct business when Burrows gavels the chamber into session Wednesday.
The only item on the day’s agenda is House Bill 4 — the measure that would redraw the state’s congressional map to add five more Republican-leaning seats. That bill cleared a committee on a party-line vote Monday.
What’s not clear is how long debate will last before votes place. It could drag well into Austin’s evening hours.
The state Senate, where the redistricting plan’s passage is all but certain, is scheduled to return Thursday night.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday on Fox News that the new congressional maps “will become law probably by the end of this week.”
How are Democrats protesting?
Burrows imposed an unusual requirement on the Democrats who ended their 15-day boycott and returned to the Capitol on Monday: They’d be released from the House floor into the custody of a Department of Public Safety officer who would ensure their return Wednesday.
The move came after the civil arrest warrants Burrows signed shortly after Democrats fled the state proved unenforceable outside of Texas.
Most Democrats complied with the law enforcement escort, showing reporters what they called “permission slips” they received to leave the House floor and pointing to the officers escorting them around the Capitol.
But some Democrats protested. Collier refused to leave the House floor, sleeping there Monday night and planning to do so again Tuesday. Wu and Rep. Vince Perez, who signed the “permission slips” to leave with a police escort, stayed with Collier through Monday night.
“My constituents sent me to Austin to protect their voices and rights,” Collier said. “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.”
Other Democrats joined Collier and Wu on Tuesday night.
State Rep. Penny Morales Shaw said after returning to the Houston area under police escort, she realized it was a mistake to enter into the agreement, arguing she is now “correcting course.”
“Yesterday, I left in custody and I came back in custody, because I stand with Nicole Collier and Gene Wu,” she said. “This is illegitimate, this is a wrongful use of power, and I will not condone it, and I don’t want to be a part of setting a very bad and low precedent for future legislators.”
When will California Democrats vote?
The state’s Senate and Assembly elections committees both advanced Democrats’ redistricting countermeasure Tuesday, despite opposition from Republicans on the panels.
“When other states decide to do something else, we shouldn’t react to them,” Republican state Assemblymember David Tangipa said Tuesday. “We should prove by example that we can do this better.”
Democrats have framed their push to redraw the maps as a check on Texas Republicans.
“Let’s not dance around the issue here: If California Democrats had our way, the midterms would continue as they are, with a map drawn by the state’s independent California citizens redistricting commission,” Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, the Assembly’s Democratic majority leader, said during the chamber’s elections committee meeting. “But that’s not good enough for this president or the Republicans following his commands in Texas and DC.”
Under the proposals, voters would have the opportunity to approve or reject a constitutional amendment allowing Democrats to override the state’s independent redistricting commission and redraw congressional lines through the 2030 elections. The proposed lines could net Democrats an additional five favorable seats as well as shore up the districts of some vulnerable incumbents.
The bills will be considered by the Assembly’s appropriations committee Wednesday at 9 a.m. PT/12 p.m. ET before the full legislature votes on Thursday. Democrats, who have a supermajority, will need two-thirds support in both chambers.
What kind of opposition are Democrats facing?
Many California Republicans have acknowledged that their best chance to block the new maps are by defeating them in November. But that hasn’t stopped GOP lawmakers from attempting to stop the proposed constitutional amendment from making it onto the ballot.
California Republicans filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court Tuesday requesting an emergency injunction to stop the redistricting effort on the grounds that the legislature didn’t give voters enough notice.
State Rep. Carl DeMaio, a San Diego Republican, also filed a proposed citizens’ initiative that would retroactively ban lawmakers who approve the constitutional amendment from running in one of the new districts.
The proposal mirrors a rule that bans members of the independent redistricting commission from running on maps they drew. It’s also a dig at DeMaio’s Democratic colleagues, including Mike McGuire, the senate president pro tempore. McGuire, who is term-limited, is seen as a likely candidate to run in a redrawn Northern California district under the new maps. If DeMaio and his allies gathered enough signatures, the measure would not appear before voters until 2026.
Republicans have also grilled Democrats over the origin of the maps, leading to tense exchanges during the Assembly’s elections committee meeting Tuesday.
“Who drew the maps? It’s a very simple question,” state Assemblymember Alexandra Macedo, the committee’s Republican vice chair, said during the panel’s Tuesday meeting.
“The assembly did,” Aguiar-Curry said.
“I’m in the Assembly, and I did not draw these maps,” Macedo responded.
The chair of the Assembly’s elections committee, Gail Pellerin, also declined to say who drew the maps during a gaggle with reporters Tuesday. Pellerin said it was a “collaboration” with several people.
One reporter asked: “When you consume something, don’t you want to know who makes it?”
“When I go to a restaurant, I don’t need to meet the chef,” Pellerin said. “I just enjoy the food.”
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