Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the state’s highest court on Aug. 8 to remove 13 Democrats from the Texas House of Representatives, arguing the lawmakers abandoned their offices by leaving the state during efforts to create new congressional maps.
Lawmakers, including state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, who represents UT and West Campus, and other Austin-area state legislators, such as state representatives John Bucy and Vikki Goodwin, left the state on Aug. 3 to break quorum in the Texas House. The quorum is the number of members required to be present for the House to conduct business.
The Democratic members’ goal was to block Republican efforts to redraw U.S. congressional districts outside the standard redistricting process that occurs once every 10 years. Critics of the proposed maps, including elected officials and UT students who testified at public hearings last month, said the changes would give an unfair advantage to Republican candidates and reduce the voting power of minority voters.
According to the Texas Constitution, a legislative seat becomes vacant if a member resigns, dies or becomes ineligible. Paxton wrote in a filing that the public statements made by members who refuse to return to the legislative session were evidence of “abandonment of office.”
“The rogue Democrat legislators who fled the state have abandoned their duties, leaving their seats vacant,” Paxton wrote in a news release. “These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process and violated the oath they swore to uphold. Their out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked.”
On Friday, only 95 of the House’s 150 members were present, five short of the 100 required to reach quorum. Without this, the House cannot take up the special session agenda set by Gov. Greg Abbott, which includes legislation related to Central Texas flood relief and Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) products.
Abbott also criticized the lawmakers for leaving the state and filed a separate lawsuit last Tuesday to remove state Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus.
In a press conference, Hinojosa rejected the claim that she had abandoned her office. She said her team continued to receive and respond to constituents’ calls during the walkout.
“I am doing exactly what my constituents want,” Hinojosa said. “It is shameful for our governor and attorney general to try to remove a duly elected representative of the people from office.”
If the Texas Supreme Court sides with Paxton, the lawmakers’ seats would be declared vacant, and the governor can call special elections to fill them, according to the Texas Constitution. The vacancies would also lower the number of members needed for a quorum from 100 to 92, meaning the House could resume the legislative session with the 95 members currently in Texas.
The effort now sits before the Texas Supreme Court, which is solely made up of Republicans, six of whom were appointed by Abbott, including Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock. However, Blacklock wrote in a previous judicial opinion that the Texas Constitution allows legislators to break quorum.
No timeline has been set for the court to hear or rule on the case at the time of writing. The Texas Supreme Court has no formal deadline, but it has previously expedited rulings in similar state government disputes. After Texas Democrats broke quorum in 2021, the court took eight days to resolve whether the House could compel members’ attendance and ruled it could fine members for not attending sessions.
