By Aileen Graef, Ed Lavandera, and Steve Contorno, CNN
(CNN) — Texas Democrats pushed back on the Republican effort to rewrite the state’s congressional map by leaving the state Sunday, to prevent a quorum needed to advance the measure in the Texas House.
The redistricting, if passed, could potentially eliminate five Democratic US House seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections as Republicans hope to hold on to their slim House majority.
States typically redraw congressional district boundaries once every 10 years following the release of new population data from the United States census. A mid-decade revision of the map would be an extraordinary move – one that Democrats contend is a nakedly partisan effort aimed at bolstering Republicans prospects of retaining control of the House in 2026.
Two-thirds of the state House is required to achieve a quorum in Texas. Democrats in the legislature attempted the same move in 2021 to block a bill that would have imposed new voting restrictions. After that effort, new Texas House rules were put in place to fine members $500 a day if a member is absent, including “for the purpose of impeding the action of the House.”
Texas Republicans argue the move is necessary over concerns that the current maps are unconstitutional and racially gerrymandered. Democrats have said it would suppress the votes of people of color.
The move comes as US House Speaker Mike Johnson, self-declared head of the “majority protection program,” has faced extensive negotiations within his slim majority to pass President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Democrats nationwide have threatened to respond to the redistricting in Texas with the same tactics in states like California and New York. National Democratic Redistricting Committee Chairman Eric Holder, a longtime critic of partisan gerrymandering, says it may now be time for Democrats to change their approach.
“We have to understand that the nature of the threat that has been put upon the country through what they’re trying to do in Texas has really increased the danger to our democracy. And as a result of that, we’ve got to do things that perhaps in the past, I would not have supported,” he said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
Holder, a former attorney general, said Democrats would still pursue avenues including raising voter awareness and bringing litigation against the state.
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