Republican Governor Greg Abbott has demanded that Democratic Party state lawmakers who fled the state be arrested.
But the runaway representatives told the Daily Beast that Abbott does not have the power to back up his threat.
More than fifty Texas House Democrats skipped town on Sunday in an effort to block a vote as Republicans look to redraw congressional maps that would benefit them.
The Democrats’ exit on Sunday broke quorum, so the Texas House could not hold a vote. Abbott warned that if lawmakers were not back in the state by the time the House reconvened on Monday, lawmakers faced being arrested.
That deadline came and went without Democrats returning, prompting Abbott to order their arrests.
“Speaker Dustin Burrows just issued a call for the Texas House and issued warrants to compel members to return to the chamber,” Abbott said in a statement. “To ensure compliance, I ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans. This order will remain in effect until all missing Democrat House members are accounted for and brought to the Texas Capitol.”
Multiple Texas House Democrats who left the state told the Daily Beast, they were not fazed by what they insisted were empty threats.
“First of all, there’s no crime, much less a felony in the Texas penal code,” said Texas state Rep. Jolanda Jones, who has been a lawyer for 30 years. “It is a fake threat.”
She also dismissed Abbott’s Sunday warning he would remove Democrats from office, noting it would require a vote in the House and the Senate.
“They’re lying about what the law is. It’s just disingenuous,” Jones said.
The Texas Democrat said even if Abbott had the power to follow through on his threats, she would still take a stand.
“Sometimes in life, you got to pick a side, and I’m picking the side of right,” Jones said. “Dr. King got arrested. John Lewis got arrested. They got arrested multiple times.”
Democrats were adamant they would hold the line, despite Abbott’s order as well as $500 daily fines while they’re gone.
“We’re not going to be sought after and arrested like criminal fugitives. It doesn’t work that way,” added Texas state Rep. Jon Rosenthal. “What makes this so dire right now is it’s really an attack on our entire system of government.”
The Republican redistricting pushed by President Donald Trump that Texas Democrats are trying to block could give the GOP five additional seats in Congress and allow them the keep their majority.
Other red states are also considering redistricting as well, while blue states like California and New York have vowed they would retaliate with their own redistricting to help Democrats.
Rosenthal fears the GOP redistricting push in Texas has become a race to the bottom, but claimed: “The Republican Party has shown that they don’t have a bottom.”
Rosenthal was among the Democrats in the House who also broke quorum in 2021 to protest a Texas GOP bill restricting vote-by-mail.
The Texas Democrat called the move the option of last resort, but he said he was prepared to remain out of state as long as it would take, while acknowledging the chances of blocking redistricting for good were slim.
Rosenthal, an engineer by trade, said he could “survive in the wild” and was prepared for the long haul.
“I am prepared to leave the state for as long as I need to leave the state to save Texas and to save America,” Jones declared.
