Tension between Republicans and Democrats has reached a tipping point as Governor Greg Abbott (R) has threatened to remove from office any Democrats who attempt to break quorum.
Governor Abbott has responded to news of over 50 Democratic state House members leaving Texas over the weekend and heading to Chicago, New York, and Boston, which threatens to break quorum and halt a scheduled vote on a controversial mid-decade congressional redistricting plan that could give Republicans five new seats.
In a statement, the governor scolded the protest, writing that “real Texans do not run from a fight. But that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did.”
He accused the lawmakers of orchestrating a “premeditated” scheme to deny the House the quorum necessary to conduct its business, framing the move as a direct abdication of their duties.
Governor Abbott then set a deadline, urging the Texas House members to return by 3:00 P.M. on Monday, August 4th, 2025, when the Texas House is scheduled to reconvene. If not, he plans to invoke Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382, which he argues empowers him to seek court removal of legislators whose abandonment of office creates a vacancy.
The governor also warned that Democrats accepting funds to cover fines, which is $500 per day under new House rules, “may have committed felonies” under Texas bribery statues, and threatened extradition of any out-of-state legislators who may qualify as fugitives.
Since the beginning of the special session, Democrats have threatened to break quorum as a protest to Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting effort to gain 5 GOP seats.
House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu (D) called the effort to break quorum a response to the governor “using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal.”
