Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton set a Friday deadline for Democratic state lawmakers to return to work in the legislature or else face removal from elected office.
Mr. Paxton, a Republican, said he’ll ask a court to declare vacant the seats of every House Democrat who fled the state earlier this week in a bid to block a GOP plan to redraw Congressional district lines.
The GOP-led Texas House voted Monday to issue civil arrest warrants for the missing Democrats, and Sen. John Cornyn asked federal law enforcement to help track down the lawmakers and carry out the arrests.
Roughly 50 Democrats have fled to Illinois, New York and Massachusetts. They plan to stay there until the Texas special legislative session expires in two weeks.
The Democrats intend to block the Republican-led House from passing a newly drawn congressional district map that would likely cost Democrats five of the 12 seats they now control in the U.S. House.
Mr. Paxton, under orders from Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, is now intent on replacing the missing lawmakers if they don’t return by Friday.
“Democrats have abandoned their offices by fleeing Texas,” Mr. Paxton said in a statement. “And a failure to respond to a call of the House constitutes a dereliction of duty as elected officials.”
Republicans believe Texas law is on their side in seeking to declare the seats vacant.
If a judge agrees, Mr. Abbott would call for a special election to fill the seats.
Democrats believe they have a right to deprive the legislature of a quorum.
The GOP is illegally gerrymandering the congressional districts in a manner that will deprive Black and Hispanic voters of adequate representation in Congress, Democrats said.
On Monday, the Texas House voted to issue civil arrest warrants for Democrats who did not show up for the day’s session, where lawmakers planned to consider the new congressional map.
The House voted 85-6 to authorize the sergeant-at-arms and state law enforcement to track down and arrest absent Democrats.
But the vote was essentially symbolic because most of them have fled the state and they cannot be pursued outside of Texas state lines.
Mr. Cornyn, Texas Republican, ramped up the threat on Tuesday. He wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel “encouraging federal cooperation” with Mr. Abbott and Texas law enforcement, which, he said, are investigating “potential criminal acts” committed by Democratic lawmakers.
Mr. Abbott accused Democrats of accepting bribes in the form of donations, paying for them to remain out of state to block the redistricting vote.
“The FBI has tools to aid state law enforcement when parties cross state lines, including to avoid testifying or fleeing a scene of a crime,” Mr. Cornyn said. “Specifically, I am concerned that legislators who solicited or accepted funds to aid in their efforts to avoid their legislative duties may be guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses.”
The FBI had not responded to Mr. Cornyn by late Tuesday, staff told The Washington Times.
Texas Democrats on Tuesday continued to rail against the new redistricting proposal and showed no intent of returning to the state.
In addition to the threat of arrest, the missing Democrats face fines of $500 each day they are absent from the legislature.
“I’ll pay that price for America,” state Rep. Ramon Romero said at a press conference Tuesday in Illinois, where most of the runaway Democrats are hiding out.
Party leaders have rallied behind the Texas Democrats and called the state GOP “bullies” who are committing racial gerrymandering and playing partisan politics to subvert voting rights.
“Texas Democrats are doing their damn jobs,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said. “They are standing up for the constitution, they are standing up for democracy, they are standing up for the voices of their constituents.”
Democrats have used similar gerrymandering tactics to gain more seats in state legislatures and are planning to further redraw the maps to help them win future elections.
New York, California and Wisconsin are among blue states considering changes to state laws that will enable them to redraw congressional lines in favor of Democrats in the next two years.