Minutes after adjourning this summer’s first special session of the Texas Legislature, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday called yet another while Texas House Democrats remain out of state.
The Dems departed Austin earlier this month to prevent GOP lawmakers, who control the Lege, from forcing a vote to redraw the state’s congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms. Abbott and his allies want to redistrict the state so it can gain five more Republican seats in the U.S. House.
“Delinquent House Democrats ran away from their responsibility to pass crucial legislation to benefit the lives of Texans,” Abbott said in an emailed statement announcing the new session, which is already underway.
The governor also accused the errant Democrats of abandoning their duties while Central Texas families wait for flood relief.
“Because of their dereliction of duty, Texas families and communities impacted by the catastrophic Fourth of July flooding have been delayed critical resources for relief and recovery,” Abbott added in his statement. “Numerous other bills to cut property taxes, support human trafficking survivors, eliminate the STAAR test, establish commonsense THC regulations and many others have all been brought to a halt because because Democrats refuse to show up for work. We will not back down from this fight. That’s why I am calling them back today to finish the job. I will continue to use all necessary tools to ensure Texas delivers results for Texans.”
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows echoed the governor’s sentiment on the House floor Monday.
“The only thing standing between Texas and real disaster relief is whether our absent colleagues decide to show up,” said Burrows, R-Lubbock, according to a Texas Tribune report. “When the gavel drops, the question is simple: Will you be in that chair to vote for these critical disaster recovery bills, or will you be remembered as one who did not show up?”
However, Democratic lawmakers argue that it’s Abbott and the Texas GOP who are using flood relief as a chess piece rather than treating it as a legislative priority.
“Abbott doesn’t need a special session for flood relief, and he knows that,” state Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston, told the Texas Tribune. “The only thing standing between Texas and real disaster relief isn’t Democrats, it’s Republicans who chose politics over people for over a month.”
During the first special session, the Lege held just two joint hearings related to flood relief, compared to at least four in the House and two in the Senate for redistricting, before Democrats staged a walkout to halt what they called “illegal gerrymandering.”
In Abbott’s emailed statement, redistricting is buried deep among his listed priorities for the second session, after camp safety, flood relief and alert systems, THC regulation, abortion, STAAR testing and obscuring police disciplinary records.
However, voting-rights advocates warn that the new session will be much of the same, with flood relief dangled like a carrot to coax lawmakers back for the necessary quorum to pass Abbott’s real priority: Trump’s decree for Texas Republicans to “pick up five seats.”
“Minutes after adjourning the first Texas Special Session, Gov. Abbott called another with the same, partisan agenda centered on the Trump Administration’s request for mid-decade redistricting to lock in five additional GOP seats in Congress,” voting-rights group MOVE Texas said in an emailed statement. “This move ignores urgent calls from Texans to pass flood relief and disaster preparedness legislation after recent catastrophic flooding.”
Texas House Democrats are expected to return to Texas once California redraws its congressional map in answer to the Texas GOP’s effort. The Golden State is expected to add at least enough Democratic seats to cancel out Abbott’s attempt to pick up five more for the Republicans.
“We are grateful to the lawmakers who listened to Texans and held the line against the racially gerrymandered congressional map put forward in the first session,” MOVE Texas Action Fund Interim Executive Director Mia Balderas said. “The eyes of the nation are on Texas and will remain here over the coming weeks.”
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This article appears in Aug 7-20, 2025.
