Texas Democrats Leave for Chicago to Block Redistricting Plan

Texas Democratic lawmakers said they left the state in an effort to temporarily block Republicans from redrawing its congressional maps — a redistricting initiative pushed by President Donald Trump to help retain GOP control of the US House of Representatives in the midterms.

Many have gone to the Chicago area, selecting a location where local and state governments are led by Democrats. Some the politicians also went to Boston and Albany, New York.

“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that they’re welcome here, that they have the ability to stay as long as they need to and want to,” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said at a press conference in Carol Stream, flanked by the Texas lawmakers.

By fleeing, Democrats will leave the Texas state legislature short of the minimum number of lawmakers required to hold votes. They will be fined $500 a day due to a rule adopted in 2021 after the caucus broke quorum over voting legislation.

“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” said Gene Wu, the Democratic leader in the lower house of the Republican-dominated legislature. “We’re not walking out on our responsibilities; we’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent.”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott cited the state’s attorney general view that a district court may decide if the departure amounted to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected office, where he in turn would be empowered to “swiftly” replace them. He added that they may have committed felonies with the move.

“This truancy ends now,” Abbott said in the statement, urging the Democrat lawmakers to return to Texas as the house reconvenes at 3 p.m. local time on Monday. “Real Texans do not run from a fight.”

Earlier, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for the Republican nomination for US Senate, called for the arrest of Democratic lawmakers who leave the state to block redistricting. “We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law,” he said on X.

The unusually timed revamp of Texas congressional districts has drawn national attention, with Trump making it central to his goal of bolstering the GOP’s power in the 2026 midterm elections. In response, Democratic governors such as California’s Gavin Newsom and New York’s Kathy Hochul have threatened to retaliate with new maps of their own. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the US House of Representatives, met with lawmakers in Austin on July 30.

The US Justice Department sent a letter to Texas officials in July arguing that four of the state’s congressional districts were racially gerrymandered. All four seats cited were won by Democrats last year. Trump then called on Texas Republicans to push through redistricting to help defend the party’s slim majority in the US House in next year’s midterm elections.

The state typically revamps its congressional maps every 10 years based on new census information. It most recently redistricted in 2021 after a data delay caused by the pandemic. Those maps were already considered favorable toward Republicans and spurred lawsuits.

In 2003, Democrats fled to neighboring states in a bid to foil a redistricting effort. The move was unsuccessful.

Welcoming the Texas lawmakers also elevates Pritzker’s standing on the national stage after Chicago hosted last year’s Democratic National Convention. The billionaire is often cited as having White House ambitions and has steered the Democratic resistance to Trump, speaking out against tariffs and immigration raids, as well as supporting rights for women and the LGBTQ community.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Joe Lovinger in Dallas at jlovinger@bloomberg.net;
Isis Almeida in Chicago at ialmeida3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Julie Fine at jfine44@bloomberg.net;
Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net

Brendan Case, Kevin Whitelaw

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