Governor Greg Abbott filed a lawsuit Tuesday night with the Texas Supreme Court seeking to begin the process for the removal of House Democrat Caucus Chairman Gene Wu and others. The Chairman, along with most of his Democrat House colleagues, fled the state to block a quorum in protest of the GOP’s efforts to carry out congressional seat redistricting.
“Today I took emergency action to begin the removal from office of derelict Democrat Texas House members who refuse to show up for the special session,” Governor Abbott (R) wrote in a post on Tuesday. The governor filed the suit directly with the Texas Supreme Court to quickly “make clear the authority I have to bring the lawsuit (for removal of legislators from their offices).”
On Sunday, Abbott ordered the House Democrats who fled the state to break quorum to return to work or he would take action to vacate their legislative seats and appoint replacements, Breitbart Texas reported.
“This truancy ends now,” Governor Abbott said in a Sunday night statement. “The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025.” The governor said he will invoke “Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the absent Democrats from their elected office.”
The governor stated:
In that Opinion, the Attorney General considered “whether Texas law allows for a determination that a legislator has vacated office” if they intentionally break quorum. The Attorney General concluded that “whether a specific legislator abandoned his or her office such that a vacancy occurred will be a fact question for a court.”
Sunday afternoon, Texas House Democrats fled the state to Illinois to stop the State Legislature from moving forward on plans to redistrict Texas Congressional Districts, Breitbart News’ Elizabeth Weibel reported. Democrat Caucus Chair Gene Wu (D-Houston) said the governor is “using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal.”
The “derelict Texas House Members” ignored the governor’s order and did not return to the Capitol.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a notice with the Texas Supreme Court in support of the governor’s lawsuit.
“Texas is taking every available avenue to force runaway Democrats to return to Texas and hold them accountable for breaking quorum,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Under the Texas Constitution and Texas law, the Office of the Attorney General has the legal authority to bring these cases against the renegade House members. I have alerted the Texas Supreme Court that I will be making additional filings on Friday if the Democrats continue to abandon their legislative duties.”
Abbott wrote a letter to the Texas Supreme Court about his action of filing directly with the State’s top court, bypassing the district and appellate courts. The governor cited Section 22 of the Texas Constitution and court precedent for his actions.
Late Tuesday night, the Supreme Court requested a response from the respondent, Chairman Gene Wu, no later than Friday, August 8, at 5 p.m. The case number for the Emergency Petition for Writ of Quo Warranto is 25-0674
Texas Tribune reporter Kayla Guo posted comments from Chairman Wu in response to the governor’s latest actions to remove him and his fellow Democratic legislators.
“I took an oath to the constitution, not a politician’s agenda, ” Wu wrote. “Denying the governor a quorum was not an abandonment of my office; it was a fulfillment of my oath.”
“Greg Abbott now seeks to silence my dissent by removing a duly-elected official from office,” the chairman stated.
Wu’s statement did not indicate whether he would respond with an answer to the lawsuit by the Friday deadline.
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran and serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.
Abbott Lawsuit to Remove Texas Democrat House Members
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