Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) will call the state legislature back into special session Friday in a new bid to compel Democrats who fled the state to return to adopt legislation — including a plan to redraw congressional district lines.
In separate statements, House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who heads the Senate, said their respective chambers would adjourn sine die on Friday, just shy of the 30-day limit the state constitution places on special sessions.
In his own statement, Abbott said he was ready to bring lawmakers back to Austin.
“The Special Session #2 agenda will have the exact same agenda, with the potential to add more items critical to Texans. There will be no reprieve for derelict Democrats who fled the state and abandoned their duty to the people who elected them,” Abbott said. “I will continue to call special session after special session until we get this Texas first agenda passed.”
Since July 21, the Senate has methodically ticked off Abbott’s top priority bills, including measures to restrict transgender people’s access to bathrooms, improve emergency communications in rural counties, and drop a standardized test students take in high school.
But those bills will die at the end of session, after more than 50 House Democrats left the state to avoid another of Abbott’s priorities: legislation to redraw congressional district lines in a way that would help Republicans pick up as many as five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Democrats who have fled — some to Illinois, some to New York — are denying the House the quorum needed to operate. The state constitution requires more than two-thirds of the 150 members to be present to achieve a quorum.
Those who left face daily $500 fees. Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sued to remove several Democrats from office, claiming they “abandoned” their positions.
Abbott’s pledge to call continuous special sessions until district lines are drawn underscores the challenges Democrats face: The minority party has little power besides the right to leave the state. If even a few of them return, quorum will be re-established — just as it was after previous Democratic walkouts in 2003 and 2021.
Democrats have acknowledged they have little hope of successfully stymying Republican plans to redraw the map. In an interview on WAMU’s 1A on Monday, state Rep. Ann Johnson (D) tried to downplay expectations.
“Right now, we are in the first called special session by the governor, and our goal is to defeat this particular special session,” Johnson said. “The governor decides what’s important for us to debate or talk about on behalf of the people of Texas. And despite the fact that we have had a devastating flood in Central Texas where at least a 137 people died, he has made it the priority that what we’re supposed to do is redistrict mid-decade.”
Republicans are not completely in the clear, however: They face a ticking clock ahead of election administration deadlines and the March primary. Previous redistricting debates have delayed party primary elections in the past, notably in 2012, when a U.S. Senate primary was pushed back several weeks as lawmakers debated how to draw map lines.