Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has threatened to use his power to remove from office and potentially prosecute any state congressional Democrat who refuses to show up to work on Monday.
“Real Texans do not run from a fight,” Abbott wrote Sunday in a lengthy statement. “But that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did. Rather than doing their job and voting on urgent legislation affecting the lives of all Texans, they have fled Texas to deprive the House of the quorum necessary to meet and conduct business.”
“This truancy ends now. The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025. For any member who fails to do so, I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House,” he added.
🚨HAPPENING TODAY🚨
Texas Governor Greg Abbott says he will REMOVE any Democrat from office who abandons their duty by refusing to show up by 3pm CT today.
Democrats are refusing to show up in an attempt to block the Congressional maps from being redrawn. pic.twitter.com/tCIMW68fms
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) August 4, 2025
The threat was spurred by Texas state House Democrats purposefully fleeing the state on Sunday to block their Republican colleagues from passing a new congressional map that could bestow the GOP with five additional U.S. House seats.
This sudden move by the Democrats has deprived their GOP colleagues of a quorum, which represents the minimum number of lawmakers that must be present to move forward with legislation.
“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,” Abbott explained in his statement. “That amounts to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office.”
Democrats pulled a similar stunt in 2021 to block passage of a voting-reform bill.
Should Texas lawmakers who fled the state be removed from the legislature?
The quorum for the Texas state House, as specified in Article III, Section 10 of the Texas Constitution, is two-thirds of its members, which means at least 100 out of 150 total elected representatives.
Since 2023, Texas state House rules demand a $500 per day fine for lawmakers who break a quorum, The Texas Tribune reported. Furthermore, the rules prohibit lawmakers from using campaign funds to pay these fines.
In his statement, Abbott also threatened prosecution for any of the Democrats who solicit money to pay their fines.
It seems to me that the only way some of the fleeing Democrats can avoid bribery charges is to not break quorum.
It seems that would eliminate any potential quid pro quo connected to any payment they received to deny a quorum and skip a vote. https://t.co/eyTbgybLvW
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 4, 2025
“In addition to abandoning their offices, these legislators may also have committed felonies,” he wrote. “Many absentee Democrats are soliciting funds to evade the fines they will incur under House rules.”
“Any Democrat who ‘solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept’ such funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have violated bribery laws. … The same could be true for any other person who ‘offers, confers, or agrees to confer’ such funds to fleeing Democrat House members,” he added.
State House Democrats have for their part claimed they’re acting with supposed “moral clarity.”
“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” state Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the state House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement to The Texas Tribune.
Without citing any evidence, he also accused Abbott of “using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal.”
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