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Democrats fled the Texas House to prevent a new gerrymander. Now, they're setting terms for a return.

Several Black Catholics are among more than 50 lawmakers who acted this month to protest and prevent disenfranchisement in the Lone Star State.

Congressional Democrats and Texas House Democrats are seen during a press conference at IBEW Local 701 in Warrenville, Ill., on Aug. 4, 2025. (Jamie Kelter Davis/The Texas Tribune)

Democrats in the Texas State House say they will continue to deny Republicans a quorum to approve new congressional maps that would disenfranchise African Americans and other minority groups ahead of the 2026 midterm.

The group of more than 50 legislators says they will remain away from the state Capitol until the end of a special session on Friday and until the introduction of retaliatory Democrat-backed maps in California under Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“Under the advice of legal counsel, Democrats must return to Texas to build a strong public legislative record for the upcoming legal battle against a map that violates both the current Voting Rights Act and the Constitution,” they said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

"Trump thought he could easily get his way in Texas with compliant Republicans, but Democrats fought back ferociously and took the fight to Trump across America. We will return to the House floor and to the courthouse with a clear message: the fight to protect voting rights has only just begun.”

Most Texas House Democrats have been away from the state since early this month, just before Republicans planned to convene to vote on gerrymandered congressional maps that would create five additional GOP-heavy districts for the U.S. House of Representatives. In a July letter, the new-look Department of Justice under President Donald Trump granted the GOP-led Texas legislature authority to make the changes due to the alleged unconstitutionality of several majority-minority districts created in 2021. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a MAGA-aligned Republican, called a special session of the Texas legislature beginning July 21 to begin introducing the maps, which are believed to have been created by the Mississippi-based law firm Butler Snow. Abbott has vowed to continue calling special sessions until the new maps are approved, which he describes as part of a “Texas First” agenda.

Texas House Democrats have since fled Austin to a number of Democratic-led states, including California, Illinois, New York, and New Mexico, where they have strategized amid threats of legal retaliation and violence. On Aug. 4, Republicans in the Texas state legislature voted overwhelmingly to issue arrest warrants for their absent Democratic colleagues, which cannot be enforced outside of Texas. Two days later, the Q Center—a hotel where some Texas Democrats were staying in St. Charles, Illinois—received a bomb threat that forced the evacuation of 400 people.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, himself under a swirl of controversy related to personal as well as legal matters, has sued to remove from office 13 Texas House Democrats who he says “made incriminating public statements” about their refusal to return to Austin.

All but two Democrats in the Texas State Senate staged a walkout of their own on Aug. 12, protesting a party-line GOP vote in favor of a companion bill to that currently being delayed in the lower chamber. The nine members involved included State Sen. Borris Miles, a Black Catholic from Houston.

“Texans are clear: our top priority must be flood relief and disaster preparedness. Families devastated by the July 4th floods cannot afford more delays,” the Senate Democratic Caucus said in a statement.

“Governor Abbott has the power to move relief funds to survivors immediately using the same emergency budget authority he's used many times for his border wall, school safety and even to restore the legislature's own funding. But now, he's tying the passage of urgently needed relief to an unconstitutional redistricting plan.”

Among the Texas State Representatives who remain away from the Texas Capitol are also several Black Catholics, including Harold Dutton Jr., Jolanda Jones, and Senfronia Thompson—the state’s longest-serving female lawmaker.

"We're not running from anything," said Dutton at a press conference in Illinois on Aug. 4. “We're trying to make sure that when democracy is in Texas, it is going to be of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

President Trump, who himself urged Texas Republicans to enact their gerrymandering operation, has said the GOP is “entitled” to the extra seats in Congress from the Texas delegation. He has also suggested using the FBI to retaliate against the absent Democratic lawmakers—a possibility echoed by the state’s senior senator, John Cornyn.

Meanwhile, several Democrat-led states have floated their own gerrymanders as a rejoinder to the GOP effort in the Lone Star State. On Thursday, California’s Gov. Newsom announced a Nov. 4 special election to enact his plan, and Illinois’ Gov. JB Pritzker has joined New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in expressing openness to a similar plan.


Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.



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