Texas House Democrat Nicole Collier spent Monday night inside the capitol building, alone.
Collier, who represents a district that includes part of Fort Worth, had refused to sign a permission slip allowing a Department of Public Safety officer to personally follow her around until the conclusion of the Texas Legislature’s second special session.
House Speaker Dustin Burrows ordered all Democrats who broke quorum during the first session to sign permission slips authorizing a personal surveillance escort, intended to ensure they wouldn’t flee the state again as the GOP-led redistricting battle rages on.
Because Collier refused to sign, they didn’t let her leave.
Rep. Collier stayed in the chamber for hours yesterday afternoon before being allowed to go to her office — still in the capitol building — in the evening.
“This is the kind of bullshit that’s happening right now in the Texas legislature,” Texas Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, said in an Instagram reel posted late Monday night from the capitol rotunda, as a crowd of protesters behind him chanted, “Let her out!”
“Dustin Burrows has locked up Nicole Collier because she won’t sign some bullshit permission slip to allow a DPS escort,” Gutierrez continued. “That’s a cop following her around for the next three weeks to make sure that she comes in and votes for this bullshit Donald Trump redistricting bill.”
“Forcing elected officials to sign ‘permission slips’ & take police escorts to leave? That’s not procedure. That’s some old Jim Crow playbook,” tweeted U.S. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, who will be carved out of her own Dallas-area district under the newly proposed map. “Texas Republicans have lost their damn minds.”
Collier has indicated she’ll remain in the capitol building until Wednesday when the body reconvenes for a second reading of the redistricting bill, according to NBC correspondent Ryan Chandler, who interviewed her on the empty House floor.
Redistricting is the only item on the agenda for Wednesday, as Gov. Greg Abbott and Burrows ram through Trump’s plan to “pick up five seats” in Texas for U.S. House Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms.
As the night wore on and Collier remained locked in the capitol building with dozens of DPS officers keeping watch, a crowd of protesters grew in the rotunda.
Four female protestors who sat peacefully on the floor of the rotunda were arrested, according to multiple social media videos from the scene. Among them were political influencer Megan Thuy, Texas Stonewall Democrats President Jessica Cohen and Angel Carroll-Grays, an organizer with Black Austin Dems.
The group of women was released from Travis County jail at 5 a.m., according to a video Megan Thuy shared on Instagram.
“We are now not allowed on Capitol grounds for 1 year, so it’s up to you all to keep it going,” Thuy wrote in the caption.
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This article appears in Aug 7-20, 2025.
