Dems Get Bomb Threat for Wake Up Call
as Wu Vows to Stand Firm Despite Threat
Capitol Inside August 6, 2025
Pritzker Says Texas Democrats
Off-Limits to the FBI in Illinois
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker fired a torpedo on Wednesday into the GOP's hopes for federal reinforcements in a standoff on redistricting when he said the FBI could not arrest Texas House Democrats in the Chicago area because they have official protection from the state police.
"Whether it’s federal agents coming to Illinois or state rangers from Texas, if you haven’t broken federal law, you’re basically unwelcome and there’s no way that our state legislators here — the Texas state legislators — can be arrested,” Pritzker said in an appearance with Jessica Yellin on the podcast News Not Noise.
“Look, we follow the law and the law is what I just laid it out to be," Pritzker said. "But, as you know, Donald Trump does not follow the law. Indeed, he’s a convicted felon.
“And in Texas, they are also not following the law," the Democratic governor added. "They are thwarting the Constitution with the Voting Rights Act and making threats that they can’t carry out. John Cornyn, of course, is running against Ken Paxton for his seat in the U.S. Senate; and so they’re fighting, bickering over who can be tougher on this topic.”
The Texas congressional redistricting saga took yet another wild turn on Wednesday when some of the Democratic state lawmakers who are holding the effort hostage were evacuated from a hotel in suburban Chicago in the midst of a bomb threat that they attributed to incendiary rhetoric coming out of Austin.
"This is what happens when Republican state leaders publicly call for us to be ‘hunted down’," State Rep. John Bucy of Austin said in a post on X. "Texas Democrats won’t be intimidated.”
The Texas Democrats were among 400 people who were forced to leave the Q Center hotel and conference center in St. Charles shortly after 7 a.m. when a bomb squad that local authorities had dispatched arrived to investigate and eventually cleared the scene without finding any explosives.
Law enforcement officials in Kane County and St. Charles have not indicated whether the Democrats at the hotel from Texas were the target of the terrorist threat in an area that's clear across the Windy City from downtown on the shores of Lake Michigan about 40 miles away. But they're getting protection from a calvary that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has assembled with protection from the state police.
House Democrats can expect similar reactions from Democratic governors in New York and Massachusetts where some landed initially in Albany and Boston. Some of the Democratic legislators from Texas have been sighted at the National Conference of State Legislatures summit in Boston that wrapped up on Wednesday.
Fifty-four House Democrats fled Texas on Sunday to prevent a vote on the GOP proposal that was crafted to give the party five additional seats in the state's delegation to Congress. The Republicans set the stage for the walkout when they tried to rush a plan through the Legislature after showing no interest whatsoever in the subject during the regular session.
Governor Greg Abbott and his Republican allies in Austin and Washington D.C. have given the House Democrats substantial cause to dig in even deeper since they bolted. Abbott urged the Texas Supreme Court in an emergency petition on Tuesday night to remove State Rep. Gene Wu of Houston from the House based on his role in the holdout as the Democratic Caucus chairman.
Abbott said the court should rule that Wu forfeited his House seat as punishment for being absent two days in a row. The governor accused Wu of bribery as a result of a fundraising video that promoted the House Democrats' departure and boycott. But Abbott offered no evidence of an illegal quid pro quo in a 29-page treatise on why the high court should single out Wu for punishment that would be unprecedented for the alleged transgression.
Wu - the only current Texas legislator who was born in China before moving to the U.S. as a child - was staying at the Q Center when guests were roused from their rooms and forced to leave the building immediately. The caucus chair issued a joint statement with State Reps. Ramon Romero of Fort Worth and Barbara-Gervin of San Antonio.
“We are safe, we are secure, and we are undeterred,” the Democrats said. All three expressed their gratitude to Pritzker for vowing to have their backs and "quick action" after learning of the bomb threat. Wu promised to hold his ground despite the bluster from the governor and Republicans in Austin.
“This office does not belong to Greg Abbott, and it does not belong to me. It belongs to the people of House District 137, who elected me," Wu said in a statement and video on Wednesday. "I took an oath to the constitution, not a politician’s agenda, and I will not be the one to break that oath.
“Let me be unequivocal about my actions and my duty," Wu added. "When a governor conspires with a disgraced president to ram through a racist gerrymandered map, my constitutional duty is to not be a willing participant.”
But Lieutenant governor Dan Patrick said that it would be impossible for the Democrats to stop a new congressional map. Patrick told Sean Hannity that the Republicans here deserve more representation in Congress because Texas is a red state.
“We’re going to move it forward and, working with the Speaker," Patrick said. "We’re either going to do it now. We’re going to do it in later August. We’re going to do it in September. We’re going to do it in October. Whatever it takes, Sean, whatever it takes, we’re going to get it done. There’s nothing they can do to stop us.”
Patrick's prediction for success might be the safest bet at this point. But the prognosis isn't accurate in light of the fact that the Democrats could bury the map for the new election cycle if at least 51 of them were willing to hold out for three months or so. The GOP has 25 U.S. House seats on the current map compared to 13 that Democrats control. Republicans would only have 22 congressional seats in Texas if the map was designed to reflect their candidates' support in 2024 when they scored 58 percent of the general election vote.
The Democrats' choreographed departure has Republicans squabbling among themselves as well. Attorney General Ken Paxton threw a curve into Abbott's push to have Wu ousted on Tuesday night when he announced that he - not the governor - had the authority to make such a move.
Paxton vowed to have any Democrats who failed to return to the floor by Friday kicked out of office by the state Supreme Court after Abbott only singled out one.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn scored some headlines on Tuesday when he suggested that the FBI join the Texas Department of Public Safety in a hunt for missing House Democrats. Trump said that could be a possibility when asked about the Texas remap clash on Tuesday.
more to come ...
Derelict House Democrats abandoned their duty and Texans when they fled the state.
Make no mistake: they will be found and brought back by Texas DPS.
