Texas Democrats end walkout, allowing redrawn map to pass

AUSTIN, Texas — Democrats in the Texas Legislature who had left the state to halt an aggressive redistricting returned to Texas and ended their two-week walkout Monday, opening the way for Republicans to pass a redrawn congressional map called for by President Donald Trump.

For the past two weeks, Republican leaders in Texas bristled at the Democrats’ flight and took extraordinary steps to pressure them to return. Gov. Greg Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton sued to try to remove the absent Democrats from office. Sen. John Cornyn got the FBI involved in locating them. The speaker of the state House, Dustin Burrows, issued civil arrest warrants and threatened to impose $500-a-day fines under House rules.

But in the end, Democrats said they decided to return after their walkout succeeded in preventing a vote on the map in the first special legislative session, a move that drew national attention to Trump’s push for a rare mid-decade redistricting and helped propel Democratic-run states to begin their own redistricting efforts.

California state lawmakers introduced legislation Monday to redraw that state’s congressional map to be more favorable to Democrats as a counter to the changes in Texas — a move championed by California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom. They are expected to vote Thursday on the proposal.

The standoff among Texas lawmakers began Aug. 3, when dozens of Democratic state representatives boarded a charter plane to Chicago. And it ended in much the same way, with a large group of Democrats flying together back to Austin.

But in an unexpected coda Monday afternoon, one Democrat refused to leave the state House floor in protest over a Republican requirement that all returning Democrats have state police officers with them to make sure they did not flee again.

The Democrats’ charter jet landed Monday just over an hour before the Texas House was set to convene at noon local time, and about two dozen representatives went directly to the Capitol from the airport.

They were cheered by a crowd of supporters, some waving signs reading “Thank you, Dems,” and others wearing union shirts, who lined the steps near the state House chamber.

“We have woken the nation up,” said state Rep. Mihaela Plesa, a Dallas-area Democrat, after returning from Chicago.

The walkout did not change the raw political dynamics in Republican-dominated Texas, where the state House of Representatives is made up of 62 Democrats and 88 Republicans. Democrats remained powerless to permanently stop the chamber from adopting a new congressional district map. But when that happens, as is expected, the Democrats say they will sue to challenge its legality.

“Our return allows us to build the legal record necessary to defeat this racist map in court,” said state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, who led the walkout.

At least 100 members of the Texas House must be present to have a quorum and conduct business; recently there had been around 96 members on hand. With the Democrats’ return Monday, 120 total members were marked present.

“We are done waiting; we have a quorum,” said Burrows, R-Lubbock. “Now is the time for action.”

Soon after, the process for passing the congressional map began again. Republican lawmakers introduced a new version of the map, which still flipped five U.S. House seats held by Democrats, but also tried to make existing Republican-held districts stronger. The map passed out of committee on a party-line vote 12-8.

A final vote could come later this week.

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