Texas Democratic state Rep. Jolanda Jones offered an apology for comments she made Tuesday comparing the party’s fight against Republicans‘ mid-decade redistricting plan to the Holocaust.
Jones is one of more than 50 state Democrats who left Texas to postpone a legislative session to vote on new congressional maps that would add as many as five new GOP House seats before the 2026 midterm elections, an attempt spearheaded by President Donald Trump to secure a larger Republican majority.
Democrats have said the GOP maps will disenfranchise minority voters and criticized the Republican plans for triggering a “war.” Jones, in particular, said it is important to stand up against the “racist” actions to avoid the mistakes made in the Holocaust.
“We better have the courage to stand up, otherwise we will fall for anything,” Jones said to former CNN host Don Lemon on Tuesday. “And in this country, we will be defeated, deported. I mean, we will lose all of our rights. And if you think it can’t happen, it can.”
“And I will liken this to the Holocaust,” she added. “People are like, ‘Well, how did the Holocaust happen? How was somebody in a position to kill all them people?’ Well, good people remain silent, or good people didn’t realize that what happens to them can very soon happen to me or somebody I love. And so, even if you made it, man, you have an obligation to help people who can’t because, God forbid, they end up targeting you and your family.”
Jones later apologized for the comment in a statement to the Washington Examiner. It was first reported by Fox News Digital.
“I made a statement on the Don Lemon show comparing Trump’s attempt to disenfranchise Black and Brown people to the Holocaust,” Jones said. “That was a mistake, and I apologize for it. Trump is coming for my community, and I get emotional about it and make strong statements. But that was going too far, and I retract that comparison. Thank you.”
Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) press secretary criticized Jones’s remarks in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“Fleeing Texas House Democrats continue to beclown themselves through this desperate, anti-democratic stunt,” Andrew Mahaleris told the outlet. “Unlike these radicals, Governor Abbott refuses to abandon Texans. If the House Democrats who deserted Texans were serious about delivering results, they would come back to the Texas Capitol and do the job voters elected them to do.”
Jones was elected to the 147th state district in 2022. Her previous background includes finishing in 18th place as a contestant on Survivor: Palau, serving as a member of the Houston City Council, and being a criminal defense lawyer.
She is the first black member of the LGBT community to be elected to the Texas state legislature. In June, she launched a bid in the competitive race to represent Texas’s 18th Congressional District. She is running to succeed the late Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner, who died earlier this year after winning in 2024 to replace the late Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
Jones and her fellow Democratic colleagues in the Texas House left the state on Sunday and are staying mostly in Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York. The state caucus has met with Democratic governors, as several blue states are now looking to conduct their own mid-decade redistricting to counter Texas Republicans’ efforts.
The absent Democrats denied Abbott and state House Republican leaders a quorum during Monday’s scheduled session, meaning they did not have enough members present to move forward with the legislative agenda. Financial relief for the recent flooding disasters in Texas is also expected to come up at some point. Democrats have accused Republicans of politicizing the funding relief by tying it to the redistricting efforts.
On Monday, the state House passed a motion for arrest warrants for the lawmakers who left the state, a largely symbolic move, as the warrants only apply within state lines.
Abbott has pledged to remove the Democrats from office, directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to locate and arrest the absent legislators, and ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate the state House Democrats for possible bribery, as well as “any other potential legal violations connected to their refusal to appear for a quorum, conduct business, and cast votes.”
On Tuesday, both Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton issued statements condemning the Democrats’ actions and calling for separate legal consequences for the absentees.
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Cornyn has engaged with FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate possible criminal acts committed by the lawmakers, while Paxton is seeking a court ruling to vacate the seats held by the absent Democrats if they do not return to the state legislature by Friday.
Both Cornyn and Paxton are running in a competitive GOP primary for the Senate race in 2026. Cornyn, the incumbent, is trailing the attorney general in the polls. Other politicians, including two House Republicans, are also considering bids.