Greg Abbott was asked Sunday on Fox News how long the Democrats who left Texas to stop Donald Trump’s mid-decade redistricting can stay away. The governor fantasized that he could banish them for years.
“I’m authorized to call a special session every 30 days,” Abbott said with an edge of bravado. “And as soon as this one is over, I’m gonna call another one, then another one, then another, then another one. If they show back up in the state of Texas, they will be arrested and taken to the Capitol. If they want to evade that arrest, they’re gonna have to stay outside of the state of Texas for, literally, years.”
Uh, no, Austin Rep. Gina Hinojosa told the Chronicle. The Democrats have never claimed they would stay out of Texas for multiple special sessions.
“We’re taking it day-by-day, and who knows what tomorrow brings?” Hinojosa said. “You know, who could have predicted a week ago that there are proceedings filed in the Supreme Court to remove me from office?” she added, laughing.
Hinojosa is one of 54 Democrats who left Texas on Aug. 3 to stop a gerrymandering effort led by Trump and Abbott that could add five Republican congresspeople to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 election. She is one of 13 Democrats that Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the Texas Supreme Court to permanently expel from office last Friday. Five of the 13 are Austin representatives, including James Talarico, John Bucy, Lulu Flores, and Vikki Goodwin. In his court challenge, Paxton called the representatives cowards and claimed they “deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process,” despite the fact that the Texas Constitution guarantees the right to break quorum.
“Who could have predicted a week ago that there are proceedings filed in the Supreme Court to remove me from office?” – Austin Rep. Gina Hinojosa
Abbott, who had made a similar motion Aug. 5, joined Paxton on Friday in asking the court to expel Houston Rep. Gene Wu, the Democratic Caucus leader. The same day, House Speaker Dustin Burrows moved to enforce civil arrest warrants for all 54 Democrats now holed up in Illinois, California, and New York, saying DPS troopers have been posted outside their homes and are calling their phones several times a day. Sen. John Cornyn has asked the FBI to help find the quorum breakers and FBI director Kash Patel has reportedly agreed.
Hinojosa said she has no idea how the Texas Supreme Court will respond to Paxton’s request to remove her from office. “To be clear, there’s no legal authority for that to happen. But if, by some chance, it does, I will figure out a way to make it worthwhile. I’m not gonna go quietly into the night, that’s for sure.”
Beto O’Rourke isn’t being quiet either. Last week, Paxton accused him of bribing the Democrats to break quorum and a district judge blocked O’Rourke from providing them more financial support. But O’Rourke is continuing to rally citizens across the country. “These Republicans are running scared, they’re in full panic mode,” he told a Fort Worth crowd on Saturday. The next night he spoke to hundreds more in Abilene.
Gene Wu described the difficulty of being away from home and emphasized that the quorum break can’t go on forever in an appearance on MSNBC Sunday. “People are calling in bomb threats. They’re harassing our families back in Texas. They’re trying to break into people’s houses. This is a lot of stress on not only us, but on our families and our loved ones. We’re going to try to hold out as long as we can, but we’re human beings. At some point we can’t go on. But we’re trying to buy enough time that other people come in and fight with us.”
Hinojosa said that for now the Democrats’ schedules are jam-packed with rallies, press conferences, and interviews. She traveled to California to meet with Gov. Gavin Newsom last week and later raised money in Ohio and Minnesota.
“They get it,” Hinojosa said. “It’s like Team America has activated for this fight. Everybody gets the stakes and everybody is ready. And they just love that we’re fighting.”
This article appears in August 15 • 2025.
