Texas Hold 'em: Gov. Abbott threatens legal action for absent Dems

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened more than 50 Democrats with legal action and removal from the state legislature after the lawmakers fled the Lone Star State en masse Aug. 3 amid a heated redistricting battle.

At President Donald Trump's urging, Texas Republicans have proposed a revised congressional map that could give the party a leg up in next year's midterm elections and the ability to flip as many as five U.S. House seats.

Democrats in the state, limited by their minority position, employed one of their few viable methods of protest by leaving Texas to break necessary quorum. Many traveled to Illinois, greeted by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, while other, smaller groups landed in Boston, Massachusetts and Albany, New York.

In a memo late Sunday evening, Abbott said he would expel any Democrat who was not back in Austin by the time the legislature reconvened Aug. 4 at 3 p.m. CT.

"Democrats hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber's business," the governor wrote. "That amounts to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office."

Abbott based his ultimatum on a 2021 nonbinding opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. In it, Paxton asserts that district courts could rule to remove a lawmaker who has left in order to break quorum, leaving a vacancy that Abbott would then be able to fill.

The absent Democrats are already facing consequences in the form of a $500 per day fine for being out of state. The penalty was put in place after state Democrats in 2021 fled in order to protest new voting restrictions and halted operations for 38 days.

Deep-pocketed donors and officials on the left − including Pritzker, a billionaire, and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a congressional Texan and star fundraiser − have offered to assist Texas Democrats.

Abbott, in his note, accused the state lawmakers of violating bribery laws by accepting the support.

"In addition to abandoning their offices, these legislators may also have committed felonies," Abbott wrote. "I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons."

Texas Democrats say they are not deterred by the governor's warnings.

At a press conference with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, state Rep. Jolanda Jones, a Democrat from Houston and an attorney, said Abbott was "making up" a threat he could not follow through on.

"He's going to come get us how?" Jones added. "Let me be clear − he's putting up smoke and mirrors."