LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Most of the 62 Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives are not in Texas today. They left the state yesterday, intentionally, to prevent Republicans from getting a quorum in the House. Why? Well, on the planned agenda for today is a Republican proposal for a new congressional map.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Trump wants the state to make new districts to help Republicans pick up five more seats and increase their odds of keeping control of Congress. The Texas Democrats are now in Boston, Albany and Chicago. Texas Democrat Trey Martinez Fischer, the vice chair of the Texas House Committee on Ways and Means, spoke at a news conference in Chicago last night.
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TREY MARTINEZ FISCHER: We have a problem. The largest democracy in the world, and yet a Texas governor would bend a knee to Donald Trump because he's afraid to lose an election fair and square.
MARTIN: Also in Chicago, Texas Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu. He said Democrats instead wanted to focus on passing relief for victims of the July 4 floods.
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GENE WU: Instead, Governor Abbott has used this tragedy, taken these families who are grieving, taken these communities who are struggling to recover and use them as hostages in a political game.
FADEL: On social media, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the Democrats cowards and said the state should, quote, "hunt down" the lawmakers and bring them back to Austin. Rules adopted by Texas Republicans in 2023 allow Democrats to be fined $500 a day, which can't come from campaign funds, and threatened with arrest. And late last night, Governor Greg Abbott issued a new threat, that the Democrats who left Texas were abandoning their office and could be removed, with Abbott choosing who will fill those vacancies himself. He also suggested the lawmakers were committing a felony by soliciting funds to pay for the fines. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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