'Time for y'all to love America again': Texas Dems in Illinois call on Republicans to 'be brave'

Texas Democrats who fled to Illinois this week to break quorum called on state Republicans to "be brave" and refuse President Donald Trump's demand to redraw the state's congressional districts.

More than 50 Texas House Democrats have fled the state to stop Republican lawmakers from redrawing congressional district maps.

On Tuesday, Texas Democrats held a news conference with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin to urge Texas Republicans to reconsidered a midterm redistricting plan spurred by Trump to add five new Republican seats to the U.S. House of Representatives.

What they're saying:

Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins asked how much more power state Republicans needed. Republicans already hold the majority in the state House and Senate and hold the governor's office.

"What more do you want? You have the power," Gervin-Hawkins said. "It is time for y'all to love America again. I'm looking for my colleagues, my Republican colleagues, to be brave and stand up to what this demand has come."

Martin said Trump and Republicans were using Texas as a "test case" for redistricting across the country.

"What Republicans are trying to do in Texas is a model for other red states to lie, cheat, and steal their way to victory," Martin said. "They don't give a damn about the will of voters or their needs. In fact, they'd rather bend the knee to Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. Than advocate for Texas."

Democrats who left the state face fines, warrants

A majority of the remaining members of the Republican-controlled Texas House have voted to track down and arrest their absent colleagues through civil warrants signed by House Speaker Dustin Burrows – a largely symbolic move since the warrants can only apply in Texas.

Gov. Greg Abbott warned House Democrats that he would attempt to remove them from office if they did not return to Austin.

The other side:

"This morning I met with House Administration Chairman [Charlie Geren], DPS Director Freeman Martin, and Lt. Colonel Walt Goodson about enforcing the civil arrest warrants issued yesterday," Burrows said on X. "The Texas Constitution requires members of the Legislature to show up, and Texans expect us to do our jobs. I remain fully committed to obtaining a quorum and resuming the business of the Texas House."

Abbott called the lawmakers "un-Texan" saying the move to break quorum caused the Democrats to abandon Central Texas flood victims.

No bill for flood victim relief has been put up for debate yet.

Leaving the state will also cost the Democrats financially.

Lawmakers approved $500-a-day fines after Democrats fled in 2021 in an unsuccessful bid to stop Republicans from overhauling the state's election laws.

Abbott has also threatened members that they could face felony charges for "solictiing funds" to pay for those fines after Democratic donors were encouraged to help cover expenses. Abbott said the donations could be in violation of the state's bribery laws.

Texas Republicans say maps were drawn to help political performance.

Currently, Republicans hold 25 of Texas’ 38 House seats. The proposed map could help Republicans pick up five more. The plan would dismantle four congressional districts that the U.S. Department of Justice said unconstitutionally combined Black and Hispanic voters. The state has disputed that charge in an ongoing lawsuit, arguing the lines were drawn without an eye toward race.

The draft advanced by a House committee would have likely faced changes before getting final approval from both chambers of the Legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott, but Texas Republicans made their partisan intentions clear.

Setting aside the legal justification offered by the DOJ, state Rep. Todd Hunter, the Republican state lawmaker championing the redistricting legislation, said the proposed "five new districts are based on political performance".

While the newly drafted district lines almost certainly assure Republicans at least some new seats, an analysis of the tentative redistricting plan suggests the GOP is far from guaranteed to gain all five seats.

Denying quorum is a political strategy that rarely works

History and political scientists suggest that quorum breaks are largely symbolic and have limited success blocking legislation.

While the Democrats technically can prevent the GOP’s redistricting effort by breaking quorum, it would require the entire delegation to stay out of the state until at least November, which political scientists say is unlikely given historical precedent.

Texas Democrats’ 2021 quorum break collapsed after six weeks when internal divisions fractured Democratic unity and three Houston Democrats returned citing the COVID-19 pandemic. That allowed the controversial legislation to pass.

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