They order the arrest of dozens of democratic legislators who fled from Texas to prevent Republicans from changing the state map

To celebrate the vote on the new electoral map, two thirds of the 150 members of the state legislature must be present.

However, 51 Democratic legislators fled from Texas, most of Illinois, stripping the Republicans of the necessary quorum.

In Texas and some other states are state legislatures that have the power to redraw the electoral map used in the elections for the US Congress.

The Democrats who fled Texas said they plan to be absent for two weeks until the end of a special legislative session.

That session was convened by the Governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, who after several threats ordered the arrest of legislators participating in the boycott.

Through a statement, Abbott said that the Texas Public Security Department will locate, arrest and return to the House of Representatives to any of its members who have abandoned their duty.

The order, according to the statement, will remain in force until all the absent parliament democrats are identified and returned.

According to the Washington Post newspaper, it will not be easy for Texan authorities to arrest the Democrats, since most are outside the jurisdiction of Texan authorities.

Shortly before, the Republicans of the Texas House of Representatives approved a motion to issue civil arrest orders against their Democratic peers.

In addition to the electoral redistribution, the session of the Texas Legislative Assembly has on the agenda the provision of aid after the mortal floods last month in the state and the prohibition of THC, the active substance of cannabis.

Each of the 51 absent legislators could face a fine of US $ 500 for each vacancy, and Texas attorney general, Republican Ken Paxton, has threatened to make them stop them.

Paxton wrote in X that the State must “use all the tools at our disposal to hunt those who believe above the law.”

“The Democrats of the Texas Chamber trying to flee as cowards must be located, detained and taken back to the Capitol immediately,” he added.

For his part, Abbott has threatened to present bribery charges against his escaped rivals.

“The reports indicate that these legislators have requested and offered money so as not to attend the vote, to leave the legislature or to carry out a legislative action. That would be bribery,” he said.

He also sent a letter to the Democrats asking them to return to Texas for the camera meeting on Monday afternoon.

In a statement, Texas Democrats defended the measure.

“We are not going to avoid our responsibilities,” said Gene Wu, state legislator and president of the Democratic group.

He added: “We are abandoning a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent.”

“We will do what is necessary. We do not know how that will be realized,” he said.

State Democrats received the support of national party figures. The minority leader in the representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, said the group was demonstrating “courage, conviction and character.”

Although Democrats from all over the country have threatened response measures similar to that taken by Republicans in Texas, their options can be limited.

In the states in which they manage the electoral redistribution process, such as Illinois, New Mexico and Nevada, the Democrats have already manipulated the districts similar to the Republicans.

The most recent map of Illinois, for example, was qualified as politically unfair by Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which gave him a note F (the lowest).

In other states controlled by the Democrats, such as New York, California, Colorado and Washington, the redistribution of districts is carried out by non -partisan independent commissions instead of the state legislative assemblies.

Republicans currently occupy 25 of the 38 seats of the House of Representatives that correspond to Texas.

They expect the new maps to increase that number to 30, all in constituencies that Trump won last November for at least 10 points.

Waiting for the national half -mandate elections next year, the redistribution of districts in Texas could contribute to strengthening the meager republican majority in the House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress.

Trump's party currently has 219 of the 435 seats of the camera, while the Democrats have 212.

The new map would include a redistribution of the Valle del Río Grande and combine two districts of Austin, the state capital, currently in Democratic hands.

In northern Texas, the map would expand a district currently occupied by Democratic congresswoman Julie Johnson to include Republican rural bastions.

It would also redraw four seats from the Houston area, including one occupied by the Democratic congressman to Green.

The state legislator Texan Todd Hunter, a Republican who promotes the measure of redrawing the map, described it as a “good plan for Texas.”

It is the third time in recent years that the Democrats flee from Texas to deny the quorum to the Republicans.

The legislators of the party left for Washington DC in 2021 in an attempt – finally unsuccessful – to block the approval of new electoral standards.

They also left Oklahoma in 2003 in an attempt to stop a redistribution of districts that Republicans ended up approving.

The states in the US are usually redistribution of districts every 10 years, when electoral maps are redrawed to take into account the population changes that reflect the censuses.

The most recent census was performed in 2020, and redesign the demarcations of the districts in the middle of a decade is unusual.

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