For over a century, Chicago was a beacon city during the great migration from the south. But this week, dozens of Texan Democrats are making the city home after fleeing the Lone Star State. Their exodus, on Sunday evening, is a last-ditch bid to block the proposed remapping, or gerrymandering, of the state election maps in what they argue is a nakedly biased attempt at a power-grab to boost the Republican seats in congress when the midterm elections take place in November 2026.
By Monday afternoon, the session in the state capitol in Austin had deteriorated into an unholy mess. By absenting themselves, the Democrats prevented the designated two-thirds quorum at the afternoon session and so achieved their aim of closing business for the day: the remapping Bill could not even be introduced.
By crossing the state line, the Democratic Texans also denied the state governor, Greg Abbott, the opportunity to order state troopers to track down and physically transport them to the capitol. Instead, he issued a $500 fine for each day absent and called for their arrest. Abbott has furthermore ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate the absent representatives for possible bribery through accepting donations to cover the costs they will incur during their time out of state.
“Texans don’t run from a fight,” Abbott said.
RM Block
“To run to New York and Illinois to protest redistricting is kind of like running to Wisconsin to protest cheese. It’s just outrageous. Those are two hallmark states that have already done redistricting to eliminate Republicans.”
Fifty-six Democrats failed to show on Monday. “They have left the state, abandoned their posts and turned their backs on the constituents they swore to represent,” said Dustin Burrows, the Republican House speaker, before issuing civil arrest warrants for his absent colleagues.
By Monday evening, a protest was under way at the gates of Abbott’s mansion, in Austin. The rebelling Democrats are adamant that they will remain in the host states of Illinois, Massachusetts and New York until August 19th, when the 30-day special session to consider the remapping officially ends.
However, there is nothing to prevent Texan Republicans from then holding a new special session.
Representative Ann Johnson, in a host of interviews with the main networks on Monday, was adamant that the exodus was about protecting “the voice of everyday Texans and voters”.
“I think the governor’s threats of the past 24 hours show just how scared they are of voters next November,” she said.
“Everybody needs to know this is not normal. The Texas constitution says once every ten years let’s redraw lines. That’s what we do as a nation. Once every ten years. But last year Trump said he wanted North Carolina to redraw, and they took seats for him then. And now he is saying he wants Texas to do it. I don’t know of a single voter who wants to go to the polls knowing a politician has already determined who is going to win the race.
“Nobody likes gerrymandering. Nobody wants this extremism and it is why for sessions I have offered an independent commission to redraw lines. But they are purposely saying they will redraw right now mid-decade, even though this is not constitutional on a political partisan basis, to ensure they can steal five Republican seats for Trump at a time when his big, ugly Bill passed by one vote.”
The Texas Democrats who went to Chicago were welcomed by JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, the billionaire and the potential 2028 presidential candidate.
“To be in public office right now is to constantly ask yourself: how do I make sure that I am standing on the right side of history,” Pritzker said.
“There is a simple answer. The wrong side of history will always tell you to be afraid. Expect fear and fear will rule the day.”
Governor Abbott is unapologetic about the intentions of his party, stating that there is nothing illegal or improper about the remapping. The proposed changes would alter key districts around the urban strongholds of Austin and Dallas, narrowing Democrat strongholds and almost certainly forcing sitting congressman Greg Casar into a primary election with Lloyd Doggett, the veteran liberal Democrat, in a reconfigured Austin area map.
President Trump has been blithe about Republican Party intentions. “Texas would be the biggest one,” he acknowledged recently.
“Just a very simple redrawing, we pick up five seats.”
Gene Wu, the Texas House minority speaker, described the Republican proposals as “a racist gerrymandered map”.
“A map that seeks to use racial lines to divide hard-working communities who have spent decades building up their power,” he said at the press conference organised by Illinois Democrats. Wu also accused Abbott of focusing on a Bill that would please Trump rather than concentrating on the legislation promised in the aftermath of the Kerr County flooding disaster on July 4th, during which more than 100 people lost their lives.
“Instead, governor Abbott has used this tragedy, taken these families who are grieving and used them as hostages in a political game. It has been two weeks. They don’t even have a Bill filed to deal with what they promised to deal with.”
The countercharge is that the absent Democrats leave it impossible for the Texas House to now enact any legislation. The Texas redrawing looks set to mark the beginning of an embittered period when the grappling for control of the House of Representatives is reduced to district redrawing across key states.
New York governor Kathy Hochul and California governor Gavin Newsom have both hinted that they are prepared to remap their states to return more Democrats. Republican voices have called out the hypocrisy of their opponents whom, they say, have long designed blue states to ensure that GOP representation is kept to a minimum.
“Massachusetts has a horrible gerrymander,” Arkansas senator Tom Cotton said on Monday.
“They don’t even have a single [Republican] member of congress. And Illinois’s congressional map I would compare to the scribblings of a small child. But it would be unfair to small children. It is a horrific gerrymander. So, it’s rich that the Democrats have fled Texas to these deeply Democratic states.”
The flight from Texas has been interpreted as both the first real sign of energetic resistance by the Democratic Party since last year’s election and an ineffective stunt that will delay rather than prevent the new legislation. So far, this has been the year of president Trump getting his way, and Texan Republicans are confident that they can wait the rebellion out.
“Eventually they will have to come back,” Texas attorney general Ken Paxton predicted in an interview with podcast host Benny Johnson.
“They have to. They have jobs. They have lives. They have families. They’re not going to live in Chicago, especially when it starts getting cold.”
