Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday warned state Democrat lawmakers who have left the state to deny a quorum and block redistricting legislation that they face the threat of arrest upon their return for "literally years."
The GOP governor also told "Fox News Sunday" that he can keep the Texas Legislature in special session indefinitely, which will force absent lawmakers to either return and face being arrested, or keep them out of state for the long haul.
"I'm authorized to call a special session every 30 days," Abbott said. "They last 30 days. "And as soon as this one is over, I'm going to call another one, then another one, then another one."
And once the absent Democrats set foot in Texas, they will be taken into custody and escorted to the Capitol, said Abbott.
"If they want to evade that arrest, they're going to have to stay outside of the state of Texas for literally years," he added.
Abbott accused the roughly 50 Democrats, enough to prevent a quorum in the 150-member House, of abandoning their constitutional duties, pointing out that under Article 3 of the Texas Constitution, lawmakers are required to act on bills.
By refusing to show up, the lawmakers have broken their oath of office, which opens the door for legal action to remove them entirely from their seats, he said.
Most of the Democrats are staying in Illinois and New York, under political cover from Democrat Govs. JB Pritzker and Kathy Hochul. They stood alongside Illinois lawmakers last week to denounce the redistricting plan, which is backed by President Donald Trump.
Last week on the "Ruthless Podcast," Abbott floated the idea of increasing the number of GOP-leaning seats if Democrats continue their boycott.
"If they don't start showing up, I may start expanding," he said. "We may make it six or seven or eight new seats we're going to be adding on the Republican side."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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