Texas Republicans plan to ramp up the pressure Friday on Democratic state lawmakers who fled to suburban Chicago and other Democratic areas this week to prevent the GOP from giving themselves five more safe congressional districts.
Republican state legislators and Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) have set a Friday deadline for Democrats to return, and Paxton has said he’ll go to court to try to remove them from office if they do not. Democrats said they are committed to staying out of state. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has already sued the Democratic leader of the state House, who is required to respond Friday to the lawsuit before the Republican-dominated state Supreme Court.
The brawl over congressional lines in Texas has set off a nationwide political clash, with red and blue states preparing to engage in an unprecedented round of map drawing for political gain. Republicans hold a narrow 219-212 majority in the U.S. House and a handful of redrawn seats could help decide the balance of power in Congress for the second half of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Trump is at the center of the fight. He urged Texas to act, insisting he’s “entitled” to five more seats there while calling for other GOP-led states to shift more districts from Democrats to Republicans. On Thursday, he said he would conduct a census that excluded people in the United States illegally. Doing so would reshuffle how many congressional districts each state gets and would likely draw litigation.