More than 50 politicians flee from Texas

Trump Act

More than 50 politicians flee from Texas in protest

In Texas, a dispute rages across constituency boundaries. The Democrats want to prevent a necessary coordination – and leave the state.

A dispute between Republicans and Democrats in the parliament of the US state of Texas with potentially national importance is pussy. A meeting in the capital Austin started in the afternoon (local time) without most democratic MPs: More than 50 democratic politicians had left the state the day before to boycott a coordination of new borders for some constituencies in the elections to the US House of Representatives in Washington.

Republicans under US President Donald Trump want to expand their majority in the national parliamentary chamber with additional mandates from Texas in the congress elections in November 2026.

The Texas Democrats therefore initially fled to the democratically ruled states of Illinois and New York to prevent the necessary quorum for the vote (“breaking quorum”). They also succeeded for the time being, like the Republican Chairman of the Texas House of Representatives, Dustin Burrows, defendant at the opening of the meeting in Austin. “Instead of facing the real problems of people, some of our colleagues (…) escape their responsibility,” said Burrows.

The Democrat Gene WU, on the other hand, spoke of a “corrupt process” of the Republicans. It is by no means a matter of “playing political games”. He is one of the MPs who left Texas in the direction of Illinois. Together with party colleagues, they had rented a coach and had fled their home state for an indefinite period. Other Democrats made their way to New York, another state ruled by Democrats.

“If you are a party in the minority and you cannot block legislation, then one of the last options is of course to leave the country,” said US policy professor Mark P. Jones to the broadcaster NPR. “This prevents the executive from saying goodbye to certain laws”. At least 100 parliamentarians must be present in the Texas House of Representatives so that the organ is quorate. In Texas, however, the Republicans only have 88 seats, so they rely on the fact that at least twelve or more members of the opposition appear in the event of a vote.

How long the parliamentarians that are now outside of Texas can stay absent is the big question. In addition to their function as a politician, many of the MPs also pursue other professions, for example, work as lawyers in law firms.

There had been a similar incident in the state in 2021 when some Democratic MPs also left Texas to prevent a Republican initiative to change the electoral law. After the Democrats had spent five weeks outside the state, they returned – and the law was passed.