House Democrats Deny Report on Return
as Spotlight Shifts to Senate in Map Fight
Democrats to Return after 1st Special Session
Capitol Inside
August 12, 2025
Nine of the Texas Senate's 11 Democratic members strolled out of the chamber on Tuesday before the ruling Republicans voted to approve a congressional redistricting plan in a largely symbolic move that could be a harbinger of what to expect in a second special session that a Houston television station says House Democrats plan to attend.
The ABC affiliate KTRK reported shortly before 5 p.m. that the Democratic House members plan to return for the second summer session that Governor Greg Abbott plans to call to begin on Friday as soon as GOP legislative leaders adjourn the current session five days before it has to end.
The Channel 13 Eyewitness News team said that multiple sources have confirmed that the Democrats in the House are coming back to the second called session that could push the map fight into mid-September if it stays in business for a full 30 days. The station quoted the governor as saying that the Legislature's second gathering this summer would start with the same 18-point agenda from session one along with additional items he may add to the call as it progresses.
KTRK said the House Democrats feel like they accomplished their mission by shining the national spotlight on the battle in a holdout that blocked a quorum for a vote on the GOP's new U.S. House map for the past 10 days with no sign of ending until the TV report this evening.
But the House Democratic Caucus disputed the breaking news piece on their earlier-than-expected return in a social media post about 15 minutes after the story aired.
"Members are still assessing their strategies going forward and are in meetings to make decisions about future plans currently," the caucus said. "If and when Texas House Democrats breaking quorum decide to go home is squarely dependent on the actions the Governor, Speaker, and Texas Republicans in charge make with regard to prioritizing flood victims over redistricting that hurts Texans."
But the spotlight will shift to the Senate Democrats when their House counterparts are back in the Capitol City. The prevailing sentiment at the statehouse has been that Senate Democrats won't go to the same extremes to stall votes on the GOP remap plan in the second summer session. The walkout on the congressional proposal in Senate Bill 4 on Tuesday was largely symbolic - with Senate Democrats re-emerging in the chamber for votes on more than a half-dozen measures that were purely for show barring an early return for Democratic representatives in a session where they're going nowhere otherwise.
The Senate action today on the U.S. House map and other proposals was tantamount to a dress rehearsal for the second special session. But there are no guarantees in the upcoming session where the Senate Democrats could take the torch from House members and push the fight into the fall if all of them left the state and were willing to stay away for several weeks.
The map in Senate Bill 4 emerged from the upper chamber on a vote of 19-2 with all of the Republicans voting aye and Democratic State Senators Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen and Judith Zaffirini of Laredo casting the opposing votes while the other Democrats were outside the chamber refusing to participate in the vote.
But Hinojosa and Zaffirini allowed the GOP to reach a quorum for a vote on the U.S. House map with their presence on the floor. The veteran Democratic solons who represent districts on the border were in the chamber for votes on several bills last week when the nine who walkout briefly today were appearing at a press conference in Boston with Governor Maura Healey to express their opposition to the new Texas map.
Senate Republicans would be stranded without a quorum in the next special session if all 11 Democrats vanished before a vote on the map in a replay of the GOP's first mid-decade redistricting effort in Texas in 2003 when its members had their first House majority since Reconstruction. But there would be no reason to leave the state until the House Democrats are back.
more to come ...
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