Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned Sunday that he is prepared to call an indefinite number of special sessions until Democratic lawmakers return to Austin and consider a new congressional redistricting map.
This pledge escalates an ongoing standoff where House Democrats have fled Texas to prevent a quorum for passing a GOP-backed map that could add up to five new Republican seats in Congress, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Abbott made an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” to discuss this ongoing saga, explaining that he is prepared to take drastic measures to make sure these Democrats return to office.
“I’m authorized to call a special session every 30 days. It lasts 30 days. And as soon as this one is over, I’m gonna call another one, then another one, then another, then another one,” Abbott said.
“If they show back up in the state of Texas, they will be arrested and taken to the Capitol. If they want to evade that arrest, they’re gonna have to stay outside of the state of Texas for literally years.”
Abbott also detailed the legal action he has taken in an attempt to remove absent Democrats from office, accusing them of violating their constitutional duties by breaking quorum and abandoning their posts.
“We have a situation where lawmakers are violating the law in Article 3 of the Texas Constitution, where they are required to act on bills. Because they’re violating that constitutional mandate, that means they are not fulfilling their oath of office, and they can be removed from office in this legal action that I’m taking,” Abbott said, per Fox News.
The dispute centers on a congressional map Republicans say corrects demographic shifts. At the same time, Democrats argue the map will unfairly benefit one party by adding additional Republican seats to the Texas House of Representatives.
Rather than fight against this potential change in the Lone Star State, Democrats have fled to states including Illinois and New York with support from their governors.
Abbott has said that he is considering even more legislative actions, explaining that he could look into redistricting the state in a way that will likely provide even more seats to Republican candidates.
“What I’m thinking now is that if they don’t start showing up, I may start expanding,” he said, according to KFox 14.
“We may make it six or seven or eight new seats we’re going to be adding on the Republican side.”
While there is currently no end in sight to the Democrats’ holdout, the FBI has agreed to assist Texas in the fight to bring them home.
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) recently announced that FBI Director Kash Patel has agreed to assist the Lone Star State in this standoff following the Texas House issuing civil arrest warrants, as reported by DX. Despite the claims made by Cornyn, the FBI has yet to confirm whether it will assist, as breaking quorum is not a crime.