Can Texas Democrats Stop the Redistricting By ‘Breaking Quorum’?

Republicans are racing to pass a new Texas congressional map in the coming weeks. They’re following the marching orders of President Donald Trump, who has instructed them to draw an even more GOP-friendly map to help the party hold onto its narrow House majority in the 2026 midterms. 

Texas Democrats have few options for fighting back, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is explicitly threatening them with arrest if they attempt to use the most powerful tool they have.

Democrats don’t hold many cards in Texas, but one thing they can do to block the map is break quorum – in other words, walk off the job so there won’t be enough members present for Republicans to hold a vote. 

Democrats have signaled they’re considering a quorum break to stop the redistricting scheme. 

“I am ready, willing, and able to get into good trouble by breaking quorum when justice is on the line,” state Rep. Ron Reynolds (D-Houston) wrote in a social media post.

They’ve been encouraged to do so by national Democrats.

“All options will continue to be on the table as it relates to our efforts to push back legislatively and legally in Texas,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told reporters last week.

But in a social media post, Paxton said he has a plan ready if Democrats break quorum: “They should be found and arrested no matter where they go.” 

“My office stands ready to assist local, state, and federal authorities in hunting down and compelling the attendance of anyone who abandons their office and their constituents for cheap political theater,” Paxton continued.

But Chad Dunn, a lawyer for Democratic lawmakers, told Democracy Docket that what Paxton is threatening is unlawful: Federal authorities have no power to arrest Texas lawmakers if they decide to break quorum. 

“It should send a chill down anybody’s spine that federal agents would be able to exercise such control over state legislators,” Dunn said. “There’s no criminal offense in breaking quorum. And therefore, there would not be probable cause to issue an arrest warrant and use criminal authority, in state or across state lines, to arrest a member.”

Democrats could, however, face civil arrest.

“There are procedures that are governed by the House rules and the will of the legislature…to compel the attendance of members. But it’s not a criminal arrest. It’s a civil arrest,” Dunn said, adding that legislative power ends at the state’s borders. 

That means if Democrats left the state, the leaders of the Texas House and Senate would no longer have the power to order their civil arrests, nor would an official in another state have that authority, Dunn said.

“A civil arrest isn’t capture and handcuff and put them behind bars and hold for some indefinite period of time,” Dunn said. “It’s to obtain possession of an individual and return them to the House chamber.”

Texas has been down this path before. Democrats fled the state in 2003 to block a mid-decade redistricting effort, and they broke quorum in 2021 to stop an election bill with sweeping voting restrictions. 

If Democrats do decide to break quorum, that path has its limits. They’re only able to block the map for as long as they stay out of the state. Their quorum break in 2021 ended as Democrats gradually trickled back from Washington, D.C. to Austin, while others stayed behind to continue advocating for federal election legislation. The bill they hoped to block became law.

A group of House Democrats sued in 2021 to prevent their arrests. A Democratic district court judge ruled in Democrats’ favor. But the GOP-controlled Texas Supreme Court sided with Republicans, ordering the judge to withdraw the temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing their arrests. 

“The question now before this Court is not whether it is a good idea for the Texas House of Representatives to arrest absent members to compel a quorum,” Justice Jimmy Blacklock wrote in the opinion. “Nor is the question whether the proposed voting legislation giving rise to this dispute is desirable. Those are political questions far outside the scope of the judicial function. The legal question before this Court concerns only whether the Texas Constitution gives the House of Representatives the authority to physically compel the attendance of absent members. We conclude that it does, and we therefore direct the district court to withdraw the TRO.”

The Texas House Democratic Caucus sent a July 21 letter to Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) demanding that the House pass legislation responding to the deadly July 4 floods in Central Texas before taking a vote on redistricting. 

“House Democrats refuse to engage in any other legislative work until after adequate flood relief and disaster mitigation legislation are passed and signed by the Governor,” the caucus wrote.