Abbott Wants to Kick Dems Out of House
and Charge Them with Bribery for Bolting
Capitol Inside
August 4, 2025
Governor Greg Abbott threatened on Monday to have Texas House Democrats thrown out of the Legislature and charged with bribery if they failed to show up on Monday afternoon for a vote on congressional redistricting plan that they left the state the day before in a desperate attempt to kill.
"Real Texans do not run from a fight. But that's exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did," Abbott said in a statement that read like a riot act.
The Republican governor contended that the walkout was "premeditated for an illegitimate purpose" to get Democrats out of having to vote on "urgent" legislation in the final two weeks of a special session.
"In other words, Democrats hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber's business," Abbott said. "This amounts to abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office."
The remark may have seemed ironic giving the lack of urgency the House's ruling Republicans have shown on a real emergency with disaster preparedness measure stemming from the July 4th Hill Country flooding as a distant second fiddle priority to a new U.S. House that would give the GOP five more seats. Speaker Dustin Burrows only referred one flood-related bill to committee during the special session's first two weeks out of nearly four dozen measures that were filed for consideration this summer.
But Abbott declined to mention the foot-dragging on disaster protection in the ultimatum he issued to Democrats who fled to Illinois, New York and other potential destinations unknown at this time for the sake of blocking a vote on the new Congress map that they could bury if they're willing to hold out for three months or more.
Abbott's threats of extreme actions that would be unprecedented for any state will be perceived as little more than bluster and bluffing until proven otherwise. The tough talk appeared to be tailored more for the conservative base. The governor knows it's too late to save the map in the current special session.
Abbott said he planned to have House Democrats who skip work today removed from office based on a non-binding opinion that Attorney General Ken Paxton issued the last time Democratic representatives here disappeared to block a vote on election security legislation that was designed to give the GOP a boost in the 2022 elections.
But the governor acknowledged that a court would have to make the final call on whether to House Democrats should get the boot from office for playing hardball with the Republican majority. Abbott might find that to be a challenge in light of the fact that he failed to raise any of the same issues when House Democrats walked out in regular and special session in 2021 or when he was the Texas attorney general in 2003 when they fled the state to delay votes on a new U.S. House.
Abbott appeared to be pulling rabbits out of the hat with the threat of charging Democrats with bribery amid insinuations of an illegal quid pro quo based on promises from donors to foot the bill for monetary fines that their GOP colleagues have threatened to assess for missed time.
The governor's ballistic rhetoric and threats is an attempt to innoculate himself and GOP lawmakers from President Donald Trump's wrath as the singular instigator of the midcycle remap effort.
more to come ...
| 
