Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatens to file bribery charges against Democratic lawmakers fleeing the state to prevent a vote on a controversial re-fact plan, which will greatly support Republicans.
At least two-thirds of the 150-member state legislature must be voted on. When 51 Democratic lawmakers left the country, the quorum became unrealized.
The proposed congressional map announced by the Texas Republican Party last week will create more Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and they currently have a slim majority.
Abbott warned that lawmakers who refuse to return to the map to vote could face second-degree felony charges.
“If any legislator spends money to perform or refuses to enforce actions on the legislature, it will be a bribe,” Abbott said on Fox News on Monday. “These reports are those legislators seeking money and providing money to skip the vote, leave the legislature and take legislative actions. It will be a bribe.”
The governor also sent a letter to Democrats asking them to return to Texas on Monday afternoon.
“This kind of truancy is now over,” he wrote. “Abandoned Democratic lawmakers must return to Texas and attend when they re-attended at 15:00 local time on Monday (20:00 GMT). In the letter Posted Sunday night.
Previously, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, threatened to arrest Democratic leaders.
Paxton wrote on X that the state should “use every tool we can use to find those who think they are beyond the law.”
Most Democrats fled to Illinois, and Gov. JB Pritzker said he “will do his best to protect each of them” as threatened by Abbott’s arrest.
Democrats say they plan to stay away from Texas for two weeks until the special legislative session ends.
“We’re going to do everything we can. We don’t know,” said Gene Wu, a leader of the Democratic caucus in Texas.
Texas Republicans currently have 25 of the 38 congressional seats in Lone Star State.
They hope the new map can increase that number to 30 — a constituency that President Donald Trump won with at least 10 points last November.
Trump’s party currently has 219 out of 435 seats in the House, while Democrats have 212 seats. Re-dividing can help cheer up the slim Republicans in the House, which is lower than Congress.
Both Republicans and Democrats have been accused of manipulating the boundaries of electoral districts – commonly known as Grimand.
Some Democratic leaders in other states have suggested they could redraw their own legislative maps to deal with the proposed losses of Texas seats.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she is exploring a constitutional amendment to raise the timeline to re-establish legislative lines in his state.
New York – California, Colorado and Washington – will be reassigned to nonpartisan, independent commissions, rather than state legislatures.
When the voting map is remarked to explain population changes, states usually re-divided every 10 years.
The most recent U.S. census was in 2020. In the mid-tenth, re-demarcation of areas was unusual.
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