Texas: Why Democratic MPs from the state “flee”

A sensational dispute between Republicans and Democrats in the parliament of the US state of Texas with potentially national importance is pussy. A meeting in the capital Austin started on Monday afternoon (local time) without most democratic MPs: They had left the state the day before to boycott a vote on new cuts for some constituencies in the elections to the US representative house in Washington.

Republicans under US President Donald Trump want to expand their majority in the national parliamentary chamber with additional mandates from Texas in the congress elections in November 2026.

The Texas Democrats therefore “fled” into the democratically ruled states of Illinois and New York to prevent the necessary quorum for the vote. They also succeeded for the time being, like the Republican Chairman of the Texas House of Representatives, Dustin Burrows, defendant at the opening of the meeting in Austin. “Instead of facing the real problems of people, some of our colleagues (…) escape their responsibility,” said Burrows.

The Democrat Gene WU, on the other hand, spoke of a “corrupt process”. It is by no means a matter of “playing political games”. He is one of the MPs who left Texas in the direction of Illinois. “We didn’t make it easy for this decision, but we made them with absolute moral clarity,” said Wu.

The Texas Governor Greg Abbott – also a Republican – had previously threatened to exclude the absent Democrats from the parliament of the state and possibly even be subject to criminal law. Such a step is likely to be challenged. The Texan Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote on the platform X that those affected should “be tracked down, arrested and immediately brought back to the capitol (according to Texas). How things will go on is unclear.

The Texas Democrats also face a fine of $ 500 (around 432 euros) for every day. In addition, the Republican agreed to apply for an arrest warrant against the departed Democrats. However, this only applies in Texas.

Most democratic MPs went in the state ruled by Democrats, whose governor JB Pritzker had declared at a press conference that he would “protect them”.

Meanwhile, Pritzker and New York’s governor Kathy Hochul are considering reacting to developments in Texas with a counter -offensive in their states and also revising their constituencies in favor of their own party. “You have to fight fire with fire,” commented the situation.

The boycott of the Texas Democrats is not a new, but a rare form of protest in the parliaments of individual states. With particularly controversial topics, there have been similar actions in the past.

The background to the political power struggle is the balance of power in the US Congress, the National Parliament of the United States. The congress consists of two chambers: House of Representatives and the Senate. The Republicans currently have a short majority in both chambers. In Texas, the Republicans are now striving to re -cut several constituencies. This could shift the balance of power at the national level. The Republicans hope to lift the Democrat up to five more seats through the new constituency boundaries.

As every two years, the congress elections take place in November 2026. Then there are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and around a third of the 100 Senate seats. Texas is currently presenting 25 Republican and 12 Democratic MPs in the US House of Representatives. Another seat in a democratically dominated constituency is vacant due to a death and is already filled this November. The ruling party usually suffers significant losses in the so -called midterms; The Democrats therefore hope to be able to recapture the House of Representatives in autumn 2026.

Each of the 435 MPs in the US House of Representatives represents their own constituency (Congressional District). According to legislation, the circles should have almost the same number of residents. The basis for this is actually the census that takes place every ten years, which serves as the basis for determining the constituencies. This should be neutral, but this is often not the case.

US President Donald Trump had called for a new part of the constituencies in Texas, who could secure five additional seats in the House of Representatives in Washington in the coming year in the coming year.

In mid-July, the US Justice Ministry had turned to the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, and called for four constituencies. The argument: The previous version enables constituencies in which several minorities form a majority – according to the ministry, the too strict division according to ethnic groups is unconstitutional. Another group of interests had already sued and argued against the Texas constituency division in 2021, systematically this disadvantageous black and Latin American voters.

The shift of the limits of constituencies in the individual states in favor of one or the other party is a political trick with a long tradition in the USA. The targeted pulling of constituency boundaries against which the Democrats protest is called “gerrymanening” in the USA. Both parties use this tactic to systematically gain advantages in elections; Recently, however, Republican -run states played a central role.