Texas governor asks court to remove House Democratic leader from office over walkout
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday asked the state’s highest court to remove the Democratic House leader from office, escalating efforts to end the holdout that is blocking redrawn U.S. House maps sought by President Donald Trump.
Bypassing lower courts, Abbott filed a rare emergency petition straight to the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court just three days into a walkout by Democrats. It hinges on a legal theory that even some Republicans have acknowledged is untested, arguing that absent legislators have effectively forfeited their seats by not returning to the Texas Capitol.
The move intensifies Republicans’ attempts to compel dozens of Democrats back to Texas, including signing civil arrest warrants and mobilizing state troopers. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn asked the FBI earlier Tuesday to help find and arrest Democrats, and Trump later told reporters that federal agents “may have to” get involved, though he did not elaborate.
“Texas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans, and there must be consequences,” Abbott said.
The lawsuit from Abbott, a former state Supreme Court justice, seeks the removal of state House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Gene Wu, who is one of dozens of members of his caucus staying in Chicago. The governor asked the court to respond by Thursday.
Wu, a former prosecutor in Houston, said leaving Texas to halt the maps was not “an abandonment of my office” but a fulfillment of his oath.
“Unable to defend his corrupt agenda on its merits, Greg Abbott now desperately seeks to silence my dissent by removing a duly-elected official from office,” he said.
Texas leaders try turning up pressure
Republicans face barriers to following through on their threats — just as Democrats still have obstacles in the way of stopping Republicans from ultimately approving the map sought by Trump to shore up his party’s 2026 midterm prospects.
Legal experts and even Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton say it would be difficult to enforce consequences against the Democratic lawmakers while they are safely camped out in sympathetic Democratic-controlled states and effectively out of reach of Texas law enforcement looking to bring them home.
Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate against Cornyn in the 2026 GOP primary, threw out some of the earliest calls for arrests. But even he has called enforcing the various threats “a challenge.”
“Until they show up themselves back in Texas, sometimes it’s hard to actually execute on that,” Paxton said in interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.
By leaving Texas for Illinois, New York and Massachusetts, the Democrats prevented the 150-member state House of Representatives from reaching a quorum for a scheduled vote on the new U.S. House voting map. Trump hopes to pick up five Republican seats from Texas in 2026.
Republicans hold an 88-62 majority in the House, and the Texas Constitution requires at least 100 members be present to do business. With at least 51 Democrats absent, the House failed to reach a quorum Monday and again Tuesday.
The current special session ends Aug. 20 but Abbott can keep calling lawmakers back to the Capitol to pass the redistricting bill.
Texas Republicans sought changes after a previous walkout
Following a walkout by Texas Democrats in 2021, Paxton issued a nonbinding legal opinion that argued the state could sue the lawmakers to have their seats declared vacated. This week, Paxton said that could be a long process that would require individual lawsuits filed against each missing lawmaker, sometimes in district courts he said would not be friendly to Republicans.
Still, Paxton said Tuesday that he will press ahead with lawsuits if lawmakers don’t return by Friday.
“We’ll see where it goes,” Republican state Sen. Charles Perry said. “It’s a tall order to remove an elected official from the Legislature.”
Abbott also ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate possible bribery charges related to how the Democrats are paying for their quorum break, alleging anyone who financially helped them leave the state could be culpable.
State Rep. James Talarico, one of the Democrats who left, encouraged donations to support their effort.
“And that’s appropriate because this fight is for the people and it should be funded by the people,” he said.
David Froomkin, an assistant law professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said the removal effort and bribery charges would be on weak legal ground, and the threats of arrests and investigations are more likely meant to intimidate.
“It’s much more aggressive hardball than we have seen in battles over the quorum requirement,” Froomkin said. “In general in this country today, we’re seeing incumbents be much more inclined to make aggressive use of their power in order to try to maintain their power.”
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This story restores a dropped word to correct a statement from Rep. Gene Wu. He said leaving the state was not “an abandonment of my office,” instead of an abandonment.
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Nadia Lathan in Austin, John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed.
By JIM VERTUNO
Associated Press
