Texas Democrats caved and will return to the Capitol for Governor Abbott’s 2nd special session to vote on the GOP’s redistricting effort.
The Democrats fled last week to block the Republicans from voting on a new congressional redistricting map.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatened the derelict Democrats with arrest and removal from office if they didn’t return to the Capitol.
The Texas Democrats caved and will return to the House.
The Republican-controlled Texas Senate officially passed a new congressional redistricting map today.
Despite nine of the 11 Senate Democrats walking out before the vote, leaving the floor nearly empty, the Republican majority pressed ahead.
The map, passed 19–2 along party lines, is designed to create up to five new Republican‑drawn U.S. House seats in anticipation of the 2026 midterm elections.
ABC News reported:
Texas House Democrats who left the state to prevent a vote on new congressional maps will return to Texas, feeling they have accomplished their mission of killing the first special session, raising awareness and sparking national backlash about the mid-decade redistricting, multiple sources confirmed to ABC News and ABC station KTRK on Tuesday.
ABC News has not confirmed the date that Democrats plan to return or if they will return in a group, though one source told ABC News the House Democrats loosely plan on returning this weekend.
Those plans could change, one source noted, if Republicans go back on their word to begin a second special session on Friday.
Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows said Tuesday morning that the chamber will sine die on Friday, rendering the current special session adjourned if Democrats do not return by then.
Abbott would then call a second special session “immediately,” he said in a statement. He indicated the second special session would include every item from the first and potentially additional items — though his office could not say what those additional items might be.
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