GOP Throwing in Towel on Redistricting in First Special Before 2nd Starts Friday
Capitol Inside August 12, 2025
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows announced on Tuesday that Governor Greg Abbott and the Republicans are tentatively giving up on a redistricting effort in the first special session in 2025 and planning to convene in a second three days from now if Democrats haven't returned to Austin to let them vote on a new congressional map before then.
But Burrows declined to comment on whether the Republicans might try to double the number of Democratic U.S. House districts that they're targeting in light of Governor Greg Abbott's new threat of have GOP members draw a map that gives the Texas majority 10 more seats.
Abbott warned in a television interview on Monday that the Republicans in Texas would shoot for a double-digit gain if California retaliates first with a belated redistricting plan that aims to more than offset the effort here that currently has five new seats in the GOP's sights.
The governor wasn't concerned that the threat that he issued in an appearance on CNN would give 55 Texas House Democrats who were absent again on Tuesday a greater incentive to try to stretch a walkout that begin 10 days ago into the fall in a bid to kill the GOP map. The Republicans would control 35 of 38 seats in the Texas congressional delegation if Abbott follows through with the threat and the GOP picked up all of the seats that were drawn to be red in the general election in 2026.
Burrows adjourned the Legislature's lower chamber on Tuesday several minutes after failing to field a quorum for the sixth time in six attempts with only 95 members present for the roll today. The progress that House Republicans thought they'd made on Monday with 96 members on the floor proved to an illusion when one fewer Democrat was present today.
Instead of trying to get the Democrats back in time to pass a plan in the current session that has a full week left before it expires after 30 days, Burrows said the House and Senate would adjourn sine die on Friday when the governor would call a second special session to get under way that day.
The first-term speaker revived shaming tactics that he's employed repeatedly without success when he said the missing Democrats had prevented a vote on the floor on disaster preparedness and relief legislation that stems from the deadly flooding in the Hill Country on July 4th.
The attempt to make House Democrats feel guilty about missing votes on flood-related measures is an intriguing ploy for the Republicans after they put the disaster proposals on hold for a couple of weeks while holding hearings on redistricting as their number one priority for the summer by far. Abbott and the Republicans would have known that the addition of redistricting to the summer call would blow up the first called session based on the House Democrats' history on the subject.
But the Republicans were willing to gamble the entire 18-bill Abbott agenda on the Democrats rolling over on a new map without the kind of resistances that GOP leaders and lawmakers have encountered. The Republicans and Democrats will blame each other for the first special session's historic failure barring an unexpected rush back to Austin by members who've been absent for more than a week. But the finger-pointing will not keep the first called session from going down in history in a tie for the most unproductive meeting of the Legislature in Texas history.
Burrows reminded Democrats who are absent on Tuesday that the Department of Public Safety stakeouts as the missing members' residences would continue with Democrats responsible for overtime expenses that he reach "six figures" based on the running count.
Burrows said the governor promised at a meeting on Monday to keep calling special sessions "over and over and over again" if the Democrats refuse to cooperate on redistricting. That could push the fight into the period that's normally reserved for candidate filing in November.
While Abbott has warned the battle over the congressional map could go on "literally for years," the current effort would be appear to be dead for the 2026 elections if the Republicans have failed to approve the new map by November.
more to come ...
My lawsuit in the Texas Supreme Court against the ring leader of the derelict Democrats in the Texas House goes to the next level.
Closer to consequences for Texas Democrats running away from their duties and spending the summer in California and Illinois. pic.twitter.com/bWlmhPMTL7
