Texas Governor Greg Abbott warned House Democrats that they will forfeit their offices if they are not present at the Legislature by 3 p.m. on Monday. The governor stated he plans to remove them from office and fill the vacant seats under powers authorized by the Texas Constitution.
“This truancy ends now,” Governor Abbott (R) 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.
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 chairman said House Democrats will “not be complicit in the silencing of hard-working communities who have spent decades fighting for the power that (President Donald Trump) wants to steal.”
The House Democrats left the state on Sunday and reportedly flew to Illinois.
“Real Texans do not run from a fight. But that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did,” Abbott wrote in his letter on Sunday night. “Rather than doing their job and voting on urgent legislation affecting the lives of all Texans, they have fled Texas to deprive the House of the quorum necessary to meet and conduct business.”
Abbott added:
These absences are not merely unintended and unavoidable interruptions in public service, like a sudden illness or a family emergency. Instead, these absences were premeditated for an illegitimate purpose— what one representative called “breaking quorum.” Another previously signaled that Democrats “would have to go by an extreme measure” of a quorum break “to stop these bills from happening.” In other words, Democrats hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber’s business.
That amounts to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office.
“The absconded Democrat House members were elected to meet and vote on legislation — not to prevent votes that may not go their way,” he wrote.
The governor called the question about whether Democrats forfeited their offices by leaving the state “a fact question for a court.”
Abbott Letter About Texas House Democrats Vacating Their Offices
Abbott concluded that “through a quo warranto action, a district court may determine that a legislator has forfeited his or her office due to abandonment and can remove the legislator from office, thereby creating a vacancy.”
“That empowers me to swiftly fill vacancies under Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution,” Abbott stated.
Abbott further warned that Texas Democrats may have committed felonies in addition to forfeiting their offices.
“Many absentee Democrats are soliciting funds to evade the fines they will incur under House rules,” the governor indicated. “Any Democrat who ‘solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept’ such funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have violated bribery laws.” He added that any person who provides such funds could also be guilty of bribery.
Chairman Wu made just such a solicitation Sunday night when he posted on X, “Please support our efforts. Donate to @TexasHDC!”
“It seems to me that the only way some of the fleeing Democrats can avoid bribery charges is to not break quorum,” Abbott wrote in a social media post on Sunday.
“I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons.” Abbott’s letter concluded.
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.
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