Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has gone nuclear on Democrats who fled the state.
“I’ve filed a historic lawsuit against Democrat runaways in SCOTX to secure an order declaring their seats vacant,” Paxton wrote on X.
Although the Democrats are a minority in the Texas legislature, their absence prevents the legislature from having a quorum, which means no business gets done in a special session called to pass redistricting legislation that would put Democrats in a deeper hole.
The stunt was done in 2003 and 2021, resulting in a delay in the eventual passage of the legislation Democrats wanted to block.
BREAKING: I’ve filed a historic lawsuit against Democrat runaways in SCOTX to secure an order declaring their seats vacant.
These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process. Their out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked, and the business of Texas must go on. pic.twitter.com/FDVVEjQDIx
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) August 8, 2025
Paxton said his lawsuit seeks to have a judge declare that “13 Texas House seats have been vacated due to continued unlawful absences by Democrat legislators who failed to meet the return deadline set by Speaker Dustin Burrows,” according to a news release posted on his website.
“The rogue Democrat legislators who fled the state have abandoned their duties, leaving their seats vacant,” Paxton said in the release.
“These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process and violated the oath they swore to uphold. Their out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked, and the business of Texas must go on. I have asked the Texas Supreme Court to declare what has been clear from the beginning: that the runaway members have officially vacated their offices in the Texas House,” he said.
The release said the lawsuit focuses on 13 Democrats who the release said “made incriminating public statements regarding their refusal to return, essentially confirming in their own words the very grounds for this legal action.”
In his filing, Paxton argued that “Members of a legislative minority are intentionally interfering with ‘the prerogative of the majority to conduct business.’”
“These actions aim to prevent the Legislature from exercising the legislative power conferred on it by the Texas Constitution … depriving the people of Texas of a functioning government and, if allowed to continue, would create ‘an absolute supermajoritarian check on the legislature’s ability to pass legislation opposed by a minority faction,’” the lawsuit said.
“Despite express and unequivocal notice that their continued failure to perform the duties of their offices would constitute an abandonment of those offices, members of the legislative minority have continued their course of action. To restore a functioning legislative department to the people of Texas, the Attorney General petitions this Court, on behalf of the State of Texas, for writs of quo warranto declaring Respondents’ offices vacant,” Paxton’s filing said.
Paxton noted that the Democrats “readily admit that they intend to disrupt the operation of the Texas House of Representatives and the Legislature more broadly.”
Democrats’ “persistent and willful refusal to perform their duties is undisputed — indeed, gleefully conceded — and therefore demonstrates as a matter of law an intent to abandon and relinquish their offices,” Paxton argued.
The lawsuit noted that Paxton is not trying to muzzle dissent.
“The Texas Constitution, statutes, and rules provide a broad range tools for members of a legislative minority to be heard. But those tools do not include concerted effort by members of the minority to disrupt the functioning of the Legislature by abdicating their duties, including spurning the constitutional authority of the remaining members to compel their attendance,” the filing said.
“When members of the Legislature disregard arrest warrants, refuse to perform their duties, and announce that they intend to prevent the Legislature from exercising its constitutional responsibilities, they have, through words and conduct, demonstrated an intent to relinquish and abandon their offices. The alternative would empower a minority faction to disrupt the operation of the chamber,” the filing said.
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