House Democrats Split for Extended Stay
Out of State in Killer Blow to GOP Remap
Capitol Inside
August 3, 2025
Texas House Democrats blew up a special session on Sunday when dozens headed to Chicago to block a vote on a congressional redistricting plan for at least two more weeks in a move that could ignite an unprecedented arms race for political power across the nation.
The House Democratic Caucus pronounced the summer gathering dead in a social media post that accused Governor Greg Abbott and the Republicans of trying to capitalize on the July 4th flood in the Hill Country as cover for the Republicans' push for five more U.S. House districts in Texas to bolster a razor-thin majority.
"Governor Abbott has turned the victims of a tragedy into political hostages in his submission to Donald Trump," the Texas HDC said in a post on X. "We will not allow disaster relief to be held hostage to a Trump gerrymander."
The caucus said "the choice was clear" in the final call on the second walkout by House Democrats in the past four years. "Stand by while Abbott silences millions of Black and Latino voters, or use every tool available to stop this assault on our democracy. The corrupt special session is over."
The Select Congressional Redistricting Committee put the proposal on a super fast track during the weekend when the panel's Republicans staged a hearing on House Bill 4 on Friday, approved it early Saturday morning and watched from there as the Calendars Committee voted on Sunday to set it for a vote on the floor on Monday.
GOP Speaker Dustin Burrows tapped the brakes on Sunday when he informed House members in a memo that the chamber would not convene at 10 a.m. on Monday as it had planned to do and would meet at 3 p.m. instead. Burrows said he pushed back the start date for Monday's session "for the purpose of filling and referring to committee additional flood response legislation before we convene a new legislative day."
Abbott called the special session initially with the regulation of hemp THC as the top priority before the catastrophe last month on the Guadalupe River prompted him to declare disaster preparedness and flooding relief as the singular most pressing issue. But GOP lawmakers haven't treated flood-related legislation as a priority by any stretch during the special session's first two weeks.
A total of 45 bills had been filed in the House by Sunday night under the headings of disaster preparedness or floods. Twenty-seven of those were submitted by Republicans. But the speaker had only assigned one flood-related measure to the Select Disaster Preparedness & Flooding Committee at that point in time with a proposal that died in the Senate in regular session after clearing the House. Burrows' maneuvering with the session starting date on Monday proved to be too little too late if it had been a tactic designed as bait to keep Democrats from walking out.
Abbott can expect to end the first called session of 2025 on a historic low - going zero for 18 with the list of proposals he added to the summer agenda barring an unexpected deal that brings the Democrats in time for a vote on the map in HB 4. But the governor and his GOP allies in Austin will hope that the disappearing Democrats act gives them an excuse that Trump will accept for an effort that appears doomed in the current session. That could be a major leap of faith for Republicans who has no plans to redraw the congressional map until Trump ordered them to do so last month.
The governor's agenda appears to be a dumpster fire for the time being with other priorities like bans for abortion inducing drugs, taxpayer-funded lobbying and men in women bathrooms going down with the redistricting effort. The list of collateral damage casualties includes property tax relief, a bill to eliminate Staar tests and a measure designed to protect victims of human smuggling from criminal liability.
Abbott may be prepared to summon lawmakers back into a special session immediately if the map crashes as expected in the current gathering. That's exactly what he did in 2021 after House Democrats broke quorum in regular and special session to prevent a vote on a restrictive elections bill.
Republican Governor Rick Perry called three special sessions in 2003 after House Democrats killed a U.S. House redistricting plan in regular session. Senate Democrats blocked a vote for six weeks in a pair of special sessions that year before returning in time for Republicans to adopt a map in October that produced four new seats for the GOP in Congress at the polls the following year.
At least 51 Democrats would have to be gone for three months or more if they're serious about killing the map instead of simply stalling it. But the Democrats have received substantial encouragement from Democratic leaders in Congress, governors from other major blue states and donors who've promised to foot the bill for expenses and penalties that Republicans here have threatened to impose.
The combined toll for 51 Democrats who are hit with daily fines of $500 for unexcused absences could surpass $2.3 million if they held out for three months. But that's a drop in the bucket compared to the fundraising windfall that the walkout will trigger for Texas House Democrats who will be stars overnight on national news shows with the significance of the boycott growing exponentially the longer they are gone.
Illinois was the favored landing place after a group of Democratic state representatives met with Governor JB Pritzker last week on their options.
more to come ...
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