AUSTIN (Nexstar)– Texas Democratic lawmakers remained out of the state Thursday as Republican leaders escalated legal threats to force their return, with Gov. Greg Abbott petitioning the Texas Supreme Court to remove at least one legislator from office and the FBI now involved in locating the absent lawmakers.
Abbott filed a petition seeking to remove House Democratic Chair Gene Wu, D-Houston, alleging he forfeited his office by leaving the state. Wu has until 5 p.m. Friday to respond to the petition.
Attorney General Ken Paxton has vowed to begin removal proceedings for other absent lawmakers on Friday if they don’t return to Austin by then.
Despite mounting pressure, Texas Democrats appear undeterred by the threats.
“We must march forward,” said State Rep. Mihaela Plesa, a Dallas Democrat who represents Collin County.
Plesa is facing pressure from Republican delegates in her district who signed a letter calling on her to return to work. But she defended the quorum break as a constitutional tool.
“My district has asked for me to break quorum. Breaking quorum is a tool in the toolbox that our forefathers, that wrote the Texas Constitution, gave us,” Plesa said.
The stakes have been raised further with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s announcement that the FBI will help Texas locate the lawmakers. it remains unclear whether federal agents can arrest anyone to bring them back to Texas.
“We don’t know, but I anticipate, with Donald Trump as our president, that they can, and we’re all prepared to do that,” Plesa said.
While Democrats remained outside state lines, redistricting efforts continued in the Texas Senate, where tensions flared during committee proceedings. State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, compared Texas’ redistricting process favorably to Democratic states, like Illinois and Massachusetts.
“The results of their non-partisan process yield hyper partisan results, much more than Texas has today,” Hughes said.
The comment prompted a blunt response from State Sen. Boris Miles, a Houston Democrat.
“We’re Texans. I really don’t give a s**t what goes on in any other community in another state. I just care about Texas,” Miles responded.
The Senate redistricting committee approved the same congressional map that the House committee approved last week. The measure now heads to the Senate floor for a final vote.
It remains unclear when the Texas Supreme Court will make its decision on Wu’s case, but Paxton has made clear he will pursue judicial remedies against other lawmakers starting Friday if they don’t return to the Capitol.
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