Former Democratic U.S. congressional candidate Isaiah Martin of Houston is restrained and led out of the House’s first redistricting committee hearing at the State Capitol on Thursday. Credit: X / Isaiah Martin

AUSTIN — A group of Texas House Democrats left the state Friday after the first hearing on Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to redraw the state’s political maps descended into chaos the day before and ended with state troopers dragging a former congressional candidate out of the capitol in handcuffs.

Fifteen members of the House Democratic Caucus headed for Illinois and California on Friday to meet with Democratic leaders there. In a statement to the Current, caucus members said they arranged the meeting to better understand how to combat the Lone Star State’s unconventional and rapidly unfolding redistricting effort.

Abbott added redistricting to this month’s special legislative session after President Donald Trump urged Texas to redraw its maps so Republicans can pick up five seats ahead of the 2026 midterms. With the president’s approval rating at a second-term low of 37% in a new Gallup poll, the GOP is facing a bloodbath as voters express anger with the administration.

The governor’s redistricting scheme is highly controversial since the process typically occurs only once a decade. This redrawing comes just five years since the last, prompting critics to accuse Texas Republicans of shredding democratic norms for the party’s gain.

“Since Governor Abbott is acting like a child, we are going to find adults to go talk to,” Texas Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, said in a statement of the caucus’ out-of-state trek.

The Dems’ departure comes days after rumors began to swirl that party members would stage a mass walkout to break quorum, the number of lawmakers needed to be present to conduct business.

This week, state Democrats also sent a letter to House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, stating they wouldn’t discuss redistricting until lawmakers first voted on disaster relief for the flood-devastated Texas Hill Country.

“There are dozens of dead kids and people are missing from the Central Texas floods,” state Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, said in a statement. “But Donald Trump is focused on manipulating elections to help himself.”

The members of the House Democratic Caucus meeting with colleagues in California and Illinois are expected to return on Friday evening.

The group’s maneuver follows the House’s first emotionally wrought redistricting hearing, which splintered into chaos Thursday.

During the meeting — which featured two overflow rooms and a virtual waiting area — Democrats and concerned Texans lambasted Republicans’ plans to create new maps to gain the political upper hand before the midterms.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, testified that Texas’ GOP lawmakers are little more than Trump patsies.

“There has been no discussion in Congress about the floods that occurred in Kerr County … no discussion on the Epstein files, no discussions on the Iran leaks and all those messages by the Secretary of Defense and others,” Castro said. “There is literally no accountability right now in Congress, and the people that are going to pay for this are the folks in Black and Brown communities in our cities. They’re going to have their districts cracked, packed and unlocked because of this effort.”

League of United Latin American Citizens State Director Gabriel Rosales argued that the redistricting plan amounts to Texas’ latest in a long line of attempts to disenfranchise Hispanic voters. 

Meanwhile, during a Thursday rally outside the Capitol, former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke called Abbott’s plan a “consolidation of authoritarian power” to “destroy democracy once and for all,” the Texas Tribune reports.

As the hearing inside reached a fever pitch, Department of Public Safety troopers tackled former Democratic U.S. House candidate Isaiah Martin when he refused to leave the podium after exceeding his speaking time. Troopers led Martin, a Houston resident, away in handcuffs.

“You need to have shame,” Martin said amid applause as he was restrained. He shouted that history would remember lawmakers’ actions.

Martin now faces misdemeanor charges of criminal trespassing, resisting arrest and disrupting an official meeting, Travis County records show.

After GOP leaders cut the hearing short, top House Democrats organized their own hearing in a separate room to allow Texans to express their grievances.

The next redistricting hearing will take place in Houston this Saturday, followed another Monday in Arlington. Residents can submit comments through an online portal.

A group of high-profile Texas Democrats is expected to hold a rally at Austin’s Delco Activity Center, 4601 Pecan Brooke Drive, at 6:30 p.m. Friday to call further attention to the state’s redistricting scheme. The lineup includes O’Rourke, Castro and Wu along with State Rep. James Talarico of Round Rock, U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, of Austin and San Antonio and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crocket of Dallas.

Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

Related Stories

This article appears in Jul 23 – Aug 6, 2025.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...