Ex-Impeachment Enemies Team Up in Bid
for California Help Chasing Texas Dems
Capitol Inside
August 9, 2025
GOP Speaker Dustin Burrows convened and adjourned the Texas House in a span of 11 seconds on Saturday without a quorum on Saturday before teaming with a former enemy in Attorney General Ken Paxton in a bid to have local officials help then executive arrest warrants for a half-dozen Democrats who fled the state to block a vote on congressional redistricting.
After voting to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2023, Burrows announced in an email that he and the state's top lawyer had joined forces with a complaint they filed together in a state superior court in northern California in an attempt to have State Reps. Rhetta Andrews Bowers of Rowlett, Gina Hinojosa of Austin, Ann Johnson of Houston, Ray Lopez of San Antonio, Mary Ann Perez of Houston and Vince Perez of El Paso detained for hearings on extraditions back to Texas.
Burrows and Paxton asked the Superior Court of California in Tehama County to begin contempt proceedings for Texas Democrats for "unlawfully seeking to evade Texas' duly issued Quorum Warrants" that the Department of Public Safety has attempted to execute for missing Democrats with no signs of success since the search got under way on Monday. The Texas leaders want to district court to set a hearing as soon as possible for the Democrats who they're targeting in an 11-page petition that Paxton and nine assistant AGs submitted to the court.
“We came here knowing the risks," Johnson said on Friday at an appearance for California Governor Gavin Newsom. "Lawsuits, threats, and intimidation won’t stop us. We swore an oath — not to Trump, not to Abbott, and not to any party. We swore to defend the Constitution and the people we represent. We’re not backing down.”
Tehama County may seem like a logical place for the Texas GOP leaders to pin hopes for a favorable ruling in light of the fact that President Donald Trump won there in 2024 with 70 percent of the vote. But Tehama County Superior Court Laura Woods was appointed to the post by former Democratic Governor Jerry Brown in 2017 and re-elected as recently as 2024.
"This political game holding up our efforts has gone on long enough, Burrows said. "All members will eventually have to come back, but the business before the House is too important to wait on the outside political influences pushing these members to delay the inevitable. Working with Attorney General Paxton, I will continue taking all necessary actions to bring these members back to fulfill their obligations to the legislative process and the people of our state.”
Burrows ramped up an ongoing attempt to shame Democrats who've held the quorum hostage for almost a week - saying that the lawmakers who are out of state are taking disaster relief and flood preparedness measures down with the holdout on a map the Republicans say they have no chance to kill.
Burrows decided to forego an official roll call on Saturday when he announced to an empty chamber that it was obvious that the Texas House did not have a quorum for the fourth time in four tries this week as a consequences of a walkout by dozens of Democrats on the Republican redistricting plan.
The speaker had given House Republicans and seven Democrats who were present on Friday permission to skip the session this afternoon so they could go home for the weekend before returning to Austin to meet again on Monday. But 55 Democrats who were missing without leave on Friday were due back today - and Burrows appeared to be uncharacteristically glum in the dais when none of them showed up as ordered in a chamber that he convened and adjourned in a span of 11 seconds.
Burrows offered no update for members on the progress of the DPS hunt for missing Democrats that he initiated when they broke quorum on Monday for the first time in the current special session to prevent a vote on a map that aims to give the GOP give more seats in the U.S. House.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn had no news for the Republicans as well on Saturday on his enlistment of the FBI to help the DPS round up the absent Democrats and force them back to the chamber for the head count for a quorum. Cornyn said on Friday that FBI Director Kash Patel had agreed to his request for the federal agency's intervention in the standoff on a voting map. But the FBI has said nothing publicly about a role in the pursuit of state legislators for breaking a quorum - which is not a federal crime.
Governor Greg Abbott took Cornyn's word on Friday and warned Democrats who he berated as scoffaws that FBI agents were on their trail and would be bringing them back to Austin as promised by the senator in a team effort with the DPS. But the governor hadn't reported by Saturday evening on the results of the state and federal law enforcement sweep - a sign that the number of House Democrats who've been nabbed up to now remains at zero.
“The Texas House stands ready to conduct the work expected of us by our constituents, but until the absent members return, our state will continue to do without critical disaster relief and solutions for a more prepared and resilient Texas," Burrows said.
more to come ...
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