Texas House Democrats say they’re ready to run down the clock on state’s legislative session

Texas House Democrats said Monday they plan to “kill” Gov. Greg Abbott’s special legislative session by continuing to break quorum — unless the Republican governor prioritizes flood-relief legislation over redistricting.

“If Gov. Abbott says, ‘We will take care of the people of the State of Texas first,’ if he makes that commitment today, we’ll be back,” state Rep. Gene Wu, leader of the House Democratic Caucus, said during a news conference in Chicago.  “All we want him to do is actually listen to the people and do what they ask. That’s it.”

House Republicans have tried to tie debate of legislation responding to July’s deadly Hill Country floods to passage of a redistricting bill. That controversial measure, backed by Abbott, would redraw the state’s congressional maps to give additional seats to the GOP ahead of the midterms.

“We hope the governor will start putting flood victims before political power grabs,” Rep. Mihaela Plesa, D-Dallas, said during Monday’s presser.

The statement from House Democrats comes as the quorum break enters its second week.

House Democrats filed to California, Illinois and Massachusetts to prevent Abbott and the Republicans moving ahead with redistricting. Democrats and voting-rights advocates maintain the GOP scheme would damage the power of Black, Latino and Asian American voters.

With less than two-thirds of Texas House members present, business in the body has come to a standstill, leading Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton to threaten absent lawmakers with arrest, fines and removal from office. The latter is unlikely to succeed in courts, according to legal experts.

Wu said the threats and legal maneuvering — including U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s claim he’d enlisted the FBI’s help to return Democrats — are part of a larger Republican plan to dismantle U.S. democracy and usher in authoritarianism.

“This is all together, one piece. This is about the rise of authoritarianism in our country,” Wu said, referencing President Donald Trump’s Monday deployment of the National Guard to the streets of Washington, D.C.

Trump has said his move is to bolster safety in the nation’s capital, even though violent crime there dropped 26% this year.

“This is happening across our country, and if we don’t stop it, this is the end,” Wu said. “If we don’t stop this authoritarianism, by the time we realize that we need to fight back, it may be too late.”

Meanwhile, Abbott has vowed to keep calling special sessions until House Democrats return to vote on congressional redistricting.

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This article appears in Aug 7-20, 2025.