I’m surprised there isn’t a thread on tis (if there is, I couldn’t find it)
Summary: Texas’ R dominated legislature wants to redistrict to add 5 more R US congresscritters in the 2026 midterms. Some (most?) Democratic legislators left the state so the vote cannot be held due to lack of quorum.
Assuming that the Rs will not give up (seems unlikely that they would) the Ds will have to come back at some point (if only for some other vote) and the redistricting will happen. The only way to prevent redistricting seems for the Ds to stay away until November 2026 which seems unlikely to me.
Note that CA and NY have threatened to do the reverse (redistrict to favor Ds) in retaliation – while understandable I find this distasteful – Please keep discussion to Texas only – I acknowledge that Ds are not pure when it comes to gerrymandering.
They could impeach Democratic state congresspeople to remove them from rolls, and then get on with the business of continuing to turn Texas into the Ye-Haw Hermit Kingdom of Big Belt Buckles and Absurdly Giant Mums.
What is the endgame? To maintain control of the House of Representatives at all costs at the midterms. There’s nothing they won’t do, no line they won’t cross. The haven’t gotten this far by respecting norms, traditions or laws.
The only and perennial answer is: Power. It’s all they care about.
Special sessions only last 30 days and can only cover what the governor calls the session for. After the 30 days he’ll have to call a new session. I think he called three special sessions last session(two years ago). Don’t recall off the top of my head ever having four but probably has happened. The Republican party seems only to care about themselves lately, not their constituents.
…state attorney general, Ken Paxton, said that if the absent Democrats did not return by Friday, he would seek a court order declaring their seats vacant.
Senator Cornyn has called for the FBI to pursue, arrest and return any of the Democrats who fled the state. DJT has suggested it may be necessary to do this.
Arrest warrants have already been issued and they are set to be fined $500 a day for each day they are absent. Noises are being made by Abbott to prosecute them all for any donation they may have received to help them leave the state. The charge would be bribery.
Abbott has already filed an emergency petition with the Texas Supreme Court seeking the removal of Houston Rep. Gene Wu from office. The governor argued that by his absence, Mr. Wu had forfeited the office of state representative. More like this to come.
I predict the next move will be to outlaw the Democratic Party in the state.
First they’re going to edit the official record to make Ann ‘Ma’ Richards an unperson and replace her with Claytie Williams. They don’t want any inconvenient facts in their history.
Indeed. I wondered if that’s where they got the idea.
I think some laws were changed here that barred them for re-running for reelection if they pulled that shit past a certain point. I’m hazy on the details, though, without looking it up (and I’m tired tonight and don’t feel like doing that). I know they stopped doing it.
Yes. Although I would add that abiding by one’s principles is reason enough to respect norms, and that the implicit sanction you inevitably give to the opposition when you break said norms is of secondary concern (though still important).
From what I’ve read even Paxton himself has said that such a court order would not be certain to work and would likely end up in the courts for a long time.
Using the FBI to track down and arrest state legislators would be highly inflammatory but you can’t put it past Trump to at least try.
Doubtful. Various factions of lawmakers and other officials have been withdrawing from governing bodies and segregating themselves in an attempt to deny legitimacy to the remainder for a long, long time.
Paxton and Abbott are just as proto-fascist as DJT. I doubt they will wait for court orders to tell them they can’t expel or lock up Democrats.
They have already justified putting razor wire in the middle of the Rio Grande to kill brown people.
Using the FBI to track down the state legislators would indeed be highly inflammatory. These people don’t care. They are all for the right wing authoritarianism.
The Texas GOP has been pretty frank in admitting that the goal is to insure a continuing Republican majority in Congress for Trump, a tacit admission that the GOP is pretty worried about the midterms.