The Democrats of Texas prevented the House of Representatives from their state on Monday from advancing, at least for the moment, with a new electoral card desired by President Donald Trump in order to consolidate the prospects of the Republicans in the mid-term elections of 2026.
After the departure of dozens of state democrats, the Chamber, dominated by the Republicans, could not bring together the quorum of legislators required to carry out his work. Texas governor Greg Abbott threatened to remove certain opposition members.
Democrats replied that Mr. Abbott used “smoke and mirrors” to assert a legal authority that he does not have.
The chamber has launched civil arrest mandates aimed at constraining absent members to return, but it is still unknown whether these mandates can or will be applied beyond the borders of Texas.
The president of the chamber, the deputy Dustin Burrows, urged the Democrats to return “to accomplish their duty”.
“If you continue on this path, there will be consequences,” he said.
The Democratic revolt and the threat of Mr. Abbott intensified an increasingly wide conflict around electoral cards, which started in Texas, but which extended to Democratic governors, who spoke of the possibility of rushing their own map of states in retaliation, even if their options are limited.
Photo Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press Archives
Texas Republican Governor, Greg Abbott
This conflict also illustrates the aggressive vision of Donald Trump of presidential power and his grip on the Republican Party at the national level, while putting the balance of powers, long established, between the federal government and the States.
At the heart of the growing impasse is Mr. Trump’s hope to add five additional seats to the Congress, favorable to the Republican Party, in Texas before the mid-term elections of 2026.
This would strengthen the chances of his party to keep his small majority in the House of Representatives, while the Republicans did not succeed in the 2018 mid-term elections, under the first presidency of Mr. Trump. The Republicans currently hold 25 of the 38 seats in Texas.
A national issue
Mr. Abbott essentially admitted, on Monday on Fox News, the existence of a partisan power game, stressing that the Supreme Court of the United States had deemed “nothing illegal” to shape electoral districts to the advantage of a majority party.
He even openly recognized that it was “electoral charcuting” (partisan electoral division) before correcting himself by affirming that Texas is “tracing lines”.
More than 2,800 kilometers from Austin, the governor of New York State, Kathy Hochul, presented himself alongside the Democrats of Texas and argued that their cause should be national.
Photo Julia Demoree Nikhinson, Associated Press
New York State Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul
“We will not tolerate that our democracy is stolen during a modern robbery by a band of outlaw cowboys,” said Mr.me Hochul on Monday, surrounded by several legislators who left Texas.
If the Republicans are ready to rewrite the rules to give themselves an advantage, they do not give us the choice: we must do the same. We must fight the fire by the fire.
Kathy Hochul, governor of New York State
A vote on the proposed cards was scheduled for Monday in the House of Representatives of Texas, but it cannot take place if the Democrats deputies prevent the quorum by going to another state, which puts them out of reach of the Texan police.
No legal recourse, according to a democrat
Mr. Abbott insisted before the planned session on the fact that the legislators “fled”, in violation of their duties towards the State.
“I think they lost their seats in the State Legislative Assembly because they do not do the work for which they were elected,” he said during an interview on Fox News.
Democrats said they had no intention of accessing the Governor’s return requests.
“He has no legal recourse,” said Texas representative Jolanda Jones, one of the elected officials present in New York on Monday. “The assignments to be made in Texas do not work in New York, so he cannot come and pick us up. The assignments to appear in Texas do not work in Chicago (…). He throws powder in the eyes. »»
The refusal of the Texan legislators to present themselves constitutes a civil violation of the legislative rules. As for his threat to dismiss the legislators, Mr. Abbott quoted a non -binding legal opinion issued by the Public Prosecutor General Ken Paxton, as part of a partisan conflict on the Quorum in 2021. PAXTON suggested that a court could declare a legislator deprived of his functions.
Photo Eric Gay, Associated Press Archives
The Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton
Mr. Paxton, candidate for the Senate, wrote on X that the Democrats who “try to flee as cowards should be found, arrested and brought back to the Capitol immediately”.
Legislative blockages often only delay the adoption of a bill, especially in 2021, when many Democrats in the House of Representatives of Texas left the State for 38 days to protest against the new voting restrictions. Upon their return, the Republicans still adopted this measure.
The legislators cannot adopt bills in the House of Representatives of Texas, which has 150 members, without the presence of at least two thirds of them. The Democrats hold 62 seats in this Chamber with a republican majority, and at least 51 of them have left the State, said Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the Democratic group of the House of Representatives.
