The Texas House of Representatives was set to convene again Friday, and GOP leaders warned they would ratchet up pressure if the holdout continued, including expanding efforts to try to remove Democratic lawmakers from office.
“We have an agenda to pass priorities critical to Texans, and we will get it done. I’ll call special session after special session—no matter how long it takes—until the job is finished," Abbott posted Friday on the social platform X.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has pledged legal action to try to get the missing Democrats removed from office if they do not return to the House chamber. State Rep. Gene Wu, the chairman of the state House Democratic Caucus faced a Friday deadline to respond to a similar effort filed by Gov. Greg Abbott with the state Supreme Court.
Abbott has threatened to keep calling state lawmakers into special sessions until outnumbered Democrats return to face the redistricting vote, telling them they can't stay away forever. The current special session ends Aug. 19, and the missing lawmakers already face mounting fines for every day they are gone, and civil arrest warrants issued by the state House.
The fleeing Texas Democrats have been accused of gross hypocrisy because of the fact that the states where they have gone, including Democrat controlled Illinois and New York, have all been accused of gerrymandering districts to favor their party.
