A second bomb threat was cleared Friday at the St. Charles hotel and conference center where Texas Democrats are staying in an attempt to stop their Republican counterparts from redrawing congressional maps they say would give the GOP an edge in the 2026 midterm elections.
At 8:32 a.m. Friday, the St. Charles Police Department responded to a report of a second potential bomb threat at the Q Center hotel and convention complex, according to St. Charles police. After a sweep, no threat was found and all 70 guests of the hotel were unharmed.
Wednesday, police responded to a bomb threat at the complex around 7:15 a.m. that was also cleared.
Texas statehouse Rep. Josey Garcia is one of dozens of Texas Democrats staying in Illinois to deny Republicans a quorum to vote on a congressional redistricting plan that they say would eliminate Democratic House seats and disenfranchise minority voters across the state.
She said the threats were expected when the lawmakers found a safe haven outside their home state.
“When people are desperate, they do desperate things, but even more so when our government and attorney general are inciting the nation to hunt us and deeming us criminals,” Garcia told the Chicago Sun-Times Friday. “I don’t expect those will stop us.”
Garcia, a first-term member of the Texas House representing the 124th District, said this wasn’t her first brush with threats. An Air Force veteran who served in Iraq, she said she has faced more danger at home, such as when armed men claiming to be “patriots” pointed rifles at her and others during protests in 2020 and 2021.
“To say that I felt more vulnerable in my own backyard being hunted by my brothers and sisters in Texas is jarring,” Garcia said. “These are terroristic attacks trying to force us to bend a knee. [But] having served in combat, I can tell you I will never bend a knee to terrorism, especially not at home.”
The heavily Republican Texas House of Representatives has issued civil arrest warrants for lawmakers who left the state, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state troopers to search for them and arrest them, but lawmakers outside the state are beyond its jurisdiction. The Democrats who have left the state still face fines of up to $500 per day.
Thursday, Texas Sen. John Cornyn said the FBI has agreed to help track dozens of Texas Democrats who fled to Illinois and New York, though Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called it “grandstanding” and said he wouldn’t allow federal agents to arrest them.
Garcia said that while she hasn’t seen much come of the threats from Texas Republicans or the FBI — largely due to the fact that the group of legislators isn’t breaking any laws — she was treating them as serious.
“Everything they say they will do, they will do,” Garcia said.