Texas Gov. Greg Abbott doubled down on his promise to expel Texas Democrats from the Legislature if they do not return to the state for its ongoing special session, where Republicans are working to push through a new congressional map that gives the GOP five more favorable seats ahead of the midterms.
“These Democrats have absconded from their responsibility,” the Republican governor said Monday morning on Fox News. “I believe they have forfeited their seats in the state Legislature because they are not doing the job they were elected to do.”
The call for removing the Democrats from office furthers what he said in a letter Sunday night in which he cited a 2021 nonbinding advisory opinion from GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton as justification for the effort.
On Sunday afternoon, Democrats left the state to travel to blue havens like Illinois, New York and Massachusetts to protest Republicans’ proposed congressional map.
