California Democrats are moving full steam ahead on their efforts to counter Texas’s mid-decade redistricting plan despite Lone Star State Republicans escalating their crackdown on absent state Democrats who fled the state.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), along with congressional and state leaders from California, held a press conference on Friday to provide further details on California’s redistricting plan and offer support to the Texas Democrats who left the state last weekend. Over a dozen Texas state leaders were in attendance.
It came just hours after the Texas state Legislature once again did not have a quorum or the attendance needed to conduct business for its scheduled session on Friday. State Speaker Dustin Burrows gave absent Democrats a deadline to return by Friday, but none came.
In response, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit to vacate the seats of 13 Texas House seats held by Democrats on the grounds of “continued unlawful absences.” Burrows said he is also ending direct deposits of the checks for lawmakers, noting he doesn’t have the power to withhold Democrats’ money, but he can require in-person paycheck pickup.
“The rogue Democrat legislators who fled the state have abandoned their duties, leaving their seats vacant,” Paxton said in a statement. “These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process and violated the oath they swore to uphold. Their out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked, and the business of Texas must go on.”
During the press conference in California, Texas state Democrats insisted they are “running from nothing.”
“We see the danger that is coming, and we are running straight for it,” state Rep. Ann Johnson said.
Texas Democrats who fled the state are facing threats to return from GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, who has engaged the FBI, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and Texas Rangers to locate and, if needed, arrest the absent lawmakers and return them to the legislature for a special session on redistricting and Texas flood aid.
But the Democrats insist that the FBI has “no authority” over them, and threats of arrest are not deterring them from their mission of stopping the redistricting vote that could add more GOP seats in the U.S. House and help save President Donald Trump’s majority after the 2026 midterm elections.
“We had 700 calls on this bill proposing a new map that hasn’t even been out a week for the public to see. Four were opposed. The rest were all in support of my breaking quorum,” state Rep. Gina Hinojosa said. “I’m doing exactly what my constituents want, and it is shameful for our governor or for our attorney general to try to remove a duly elected representative of the people from office.”
As Republicans seek to add five GOP congressional seats to their Texas delegation, Democrats in California are looking to slash five Republican districts from the state’s congressional map to offset losses in the Lone Star State.
Newsom made it clear on Friday that the goal is not to eliminate the state’s independent redistricting commission. Instead, it would seek “emergency measures” to create new maps for a special election intended for November. State leaders from the California legislature echoed this plan, noting they predict the new maps will be released for public viewing as early as next week.
California’s countermove has spurred legislation from Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA), one of the five GOP incumbents whose districts would suffer from the new maps. His bill seeks to ban mid-decade redistricting and “stop a damaging redistricting war from breaking out across the country.”
But California leaders are brushing off the argument that “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“We don’t move unless they move,” Newsom said of Texas. “This is triggered. They drew first blood. We’re responding to this action, and this is how we choose to respond.”
Pelosi echoed Newsom, arguing California’s redistricting decision is “self-defense for our democracy.”
Abbott has said he will call “special session after special session” until the congressional maps are passed, “regardless of how long the Democrats hold out in these leftist states.”
ABSENT TEXAS DEMOCRATS SLAM FBI OVER REDISTRICTING MANHUNT: ‘NO AUTHORITY’
Like many Democrats this week, Johnson said she wouldn’t be deterred by threats of prosecution, job loss, and daily $500 fines.
“We are now facing threats, the threat that we’re going to lose our jobs, the threat of financial ruin, the threat that we will be hunted down as our colleagues sit on their hands and remain silent,” Johnson said, adding that those most concerned about keeping their jobs “are not worthy of public service.”