Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the runaway Democrat lawmakers who bolted from his state in an effort to prevent the passage of a congressional redistricting bill would need to stay gone for years for their approach to work.
“I’ll tell you this also, Democrats act like they’re not going to come back as long as this is an issue,” Abbott told NBC News on Thursday. “That means they’re not going to come back until like 2027 or 2028, because I’m going to call special session after special session after special session with the same agenda items on there.”
The Republican governor and Texas’ GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton have called for the AWOL Texas Democrats to be arrested for their maneuver, which was intended to deny the state House a two-thirds quorum, or the minimum number of lawmakers needed to conduct business. Without a quorum, Republicans cannot pass a new congressional map that could favor the GOP in next year’s midterm elections.
UPI reported that the Texas House of Representatives is set to reconvene at 2 p.m. EDT Friday and there will need to be at least 12 Democrats present to achieve a quorum.
Texas Democrat Rep. Armando Walle said on a call with reporters that he believed the majority of his colleagues are planning to remain out of state until the end of the special legislative session.
In comments earlier on Thursday, Abbott said the FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety were “tracking down” the more than 50 absent Democrats.
The governor told NBC that he has not spoken with President Donald Trump about potentially using federal resources to locate the missing Democrat members. Earlier this week, Trump said that the FBI “may have to” get involved to end the standoff.
“I’m not going to disclose, though all may or may not be involved,” Abbott said Thursday when asked if the agency has a legitimate role to play. “All I can say is we’re going to use every tool that we can to make sure that these runaway Democrats are going to be held accountable.”
Experts who spoke with The Hill said it wasn’t clear whether the FBI had the authority to involve itself in the situation, as it is unknown if the Texas Democrats broke any federal laws.
“There’s only one thing that’s denying our ability to get legislation passed and it’s these Democrats who have fled the state, turned their backs on their fellow constituents,” Abbott told NBC. “And those Democrats are going to lose their job in the upcoming election, if they don’t get kicked out before then, because they’re not stepping up, helping out their constituents who are in desperate need.
“Any aid to their constituents who’ve been harmed by these floods is being delayed and denied by the derelict Democrats,” he added.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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