Forty Texas House Democrats have fled to Illinois to deny Republicans a quorum needed to approve new maps that would expand the state’s GOP congressional majority ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
The walkout, which Texas Democrats called an “extraordinary and necessary step,” came a day after a House panel advanced a congressional map that would add five new Republican districts next year.
The rare mid-decade redistricting plan comes amid pressure from President Trump to draw new maps to protect the GOP’s narrow 219-212 majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Texas Democrats will join Gov. JB Pritzker at a Sunday evening press conference in Carol Stream.
Pritzker met with Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu in Oklahoma on June 28 after delivering a keynote address at a Democratic Party dinner, and the two discussed the possibility of Democrats leaving Texas to deny a quorum, according to a source close to the governor.
Pritzker offered up Illinois as a place of refuge for the Democrats, and his team has helped to coordinate hotels and meeting spaces in Chicago.
“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” Wu said in a statement. “Governor Abbott has turned the victims of a historic tragedy (the recent flood that killed more than 100) into political hostages in his submission to Donald Trump.
“He is using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal. Apathy is complicity, and we will not be complicit in the silencing of hard-working communities who have spent decades fighting for the power that Trump wants to steal.”
Texas Republicans called a special state legislative session at Trump’s urging last month to consider redrawing their political maps in an effort to carve out the additional districts that would be more favorable to GOP candidates in the 2026 midterm elections.
Texas Republicans hold an 88-62 majority in the House and a 19-11 majority in the state Senate, leaving Democrats in that state with few options.
Moving the lines in Texas would give Trump more breathing room to advance his agenda in the U.S. House and Senate, where Republicans hold razor-thin majorities.
Pritzker on July 25 hosted Texas Democrats for a South Side roundtable discussion about the remap and voiced support for a Democratic counterbalance should Republicans rewrite the maps.
“They want to change the rules in the middle of the game. We’re not suggesting we want that,” Pritzker said. “But we are suggesting that if you’re going to attack democracy by going state-by-state — here they’re starting in Texas, but you’ve heard it talked about for other places, too — then the rest of us are going to have to say, ‘Well, what can we do?’”
Pritzker’s openness to a remap prompted complaints from the state’s Republicans, who accused him of signing “one of the most extreme gerrymandered maps in the country,” a claim he denied.
The Illinois Supreme Court earlier this year rejected an Illinois GOP legal effort to scrap the state’s current map approved in 2021 and authorize an independent redistricting commission.
The latest map led to Illinois Democrats picking up an additional seat in Congress for a delegation now totaling 14. Republicans lost one seat and now have three U.S. House members. Democrats hold all statewide offices and wield supermajorities in the Illinois General Assembly.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom last month vowed to counter Texas’ redistricting plan by having California redraw its boundaries. Last week, Newsom said he’s exploring a November special election to have voters approve new House maps. for that state.
Both Newsom and Pritzker are largely seen as potential 2028 presidential contenders.
Texas Democrats are planning additional events in Illinois in the coming week to highlight their redistricting fight.