The Texas Capitol was evacuated Tuesday night due to an alleged social media threat as protestors gathered in solidarity with Rep. Nicole Collier, a Democrat who remains on the House floor in protest rules imposed by the GOP House Speaker.
A protest was planned to take place from 7-9:30 p.m, Austin TV station’s KVUE reports. However, just after 7 p.m., the Department of Public Safety cleared the capitol grounds due to the alleged threat.
Department of Public Safety officials said a person made threats online to go to the Capitol and shoot and kill “those who will not allow lawmakers to leave,” according to KVUE.
In online posts after the evacuation, activists ousted from the grounds expressed doubt about whether the threat was real. Some questioned whether it was a ploy to prevent them from protesting. It doesn’t appear that Collier was evacuated with the rest of the Capitol grounds.
Protestors had planned to gather to support Collier as she remains inside the Capitol building for refusing to sign a permission slip that would enable a Department of Public Safety escort to surveil her 24/7 to ensure she returns to the House floor.
Authorities had already arrested four protestors at the previous night’s demonstration, where a crowd chanted “Let her out!” in the rotunda.
Collier, who represents a district in Fort Worth, said she will remain on the House floor “as long as it takes.” Tuesday evening, more Democrats ripped up their permission slips and joined her on the House floor overnight in solidarity.
“Who’s ready to tear up this slip?” state Rep. Mihaela Plesa said Tuesday as she tore through the agreement in front of the doors to the House chamber, CNN reports.
Houston Rep. Penny Morales Shaw told CNN after returning home under police escort, she realized she had made a mistake agreeing to the surveillance. She added that she’s now “correcting course.”
“Yesterday, I left in custody and I came back in custody, because I stand with Nicole Collier and Gene Wu,” she said. “This is illegitimate, this is a wrongful use of power, and I will not condone it, and I don’t want to be a part of setting a very bad and low precedent for future legislators.”
Gene Wu, House Minority Leader, has also spent much of the past two days in the House chamber with Collier.
State Reps. Plesa, Morales Shaw, Rhetta Bowers, Cassandra Garcia Hernandez and Salman Bhojani joined Collier and Wu on the floor overnight. DPS agents continue to follow the rest of the Democrats to ensure they don’t flee again, as the Texas GOP attempts to ram through Trump’s redistricting map.
“Why would we be considered a flight risk if we walked in of our own volition?” Houston Rep. Rhetta Bowers told CNN. “This is a blatant violation of our freedoms as Texans, as Americans and as duly elected officials.”
The House has reconvened Wednesday for a second hearing on the Republicans’ proposed redistricting map.
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This article appears in Aug 7-20, 2025.
