Texas House Orders Arrest of Dem Lawmakers Who Left State to Block GOP Gerrymandering

Republican state lawmakers in Texas voted Monday to issue what are likely unenforceable arrest warrants for Democratic colleagues who traveled to other states in order to thwart a vote on a GOP-grerrymandered congressional map.

"I have signed the civil arrest warrants," House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-83) told reporters following Monday's vote, adding that Republicans would work with the Texas Department of Public Safety "to locate members."

However, Chad Dunn, a longtime Texas election and voting rights lawyer, told Democracy Docket that "a warrant issued by the Texas House is not effective out of the state unless another state chooses to domesticate it and enforce it under that state's laws."

Many of the more than 50 absconding Democrats are in Illinois, whose Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker told reporters Sunday that "we're going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them."

Other Texas Democrats went to Democrat-controlled states including Massachusetts and New York, where Gov. Kathy Kochul said Monday that she is open to retaliatory redistricting in order to "fight fire with fire."

"I have newsflash for Republicans in Texas. This is no longer the Wild West," Hochul said during a Monday news conference. "We're not going to tolerate our democracy being stolen in a modern day stagecoach heist by a bunch of law breaking cowboys."

"If Republicans are willing to rewrite these rules to give themselves an advantage, then they're leaving us no choice, we must do the same," she added.

A analysis published Friday by the National Democratic Redistricting Committee found that the congressional map proposed by Texas Republicans "packs voters of color into as few districts as possible in some areas and cracks them across several districts in others, effectively reducing the overall number of districts where Black and Latino voters are able to elect candidates of their choice."

The gerrymandered Texas map would eliminate the seat currently held by Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar, who would likely be forced into a primary battle with Rep. Lloyd Doggett. On Monday, Casar called for an emergency march and picket outside the mansion of Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who on Sunday threatened to remove Democrats who left the state from office.

The proposed map is meant to create five more Republican-leaning districts in Texas ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. In addition to Hochul, Democratic governors including Gavin Newsom of California have expressed openness to redrawing their states' maps to create more districts likely to swing Democratic.

"It's incumbent upon Democrat governors, if they have the opportunity, to respond in kind," outgoing Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said Friday at a Democratic Governors Association meeting in Madison, Wisconsin. "I'm not a big believer in unilateral disarmament."