Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is warning the 51 Democratic lawmakers who fled the state over the weekend that he may try to remove them from office and replace them with someone of his choosing. The Democrats’ absence left the Texas House of Representatives without the quorum needed to conduct official business.
The Democrats went to Illinois, New York and Boston to prevent the Republican-controlled legislature from approving a new gerrymandered congressional map that could give the GOP up to five new seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2026 midterms. Abbot called the legislature into special session after President Donald Trump asked Texas Republicans to redraw the map to ensure a continuing Republican majority in Congress.
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Abbott, a Republican, cited an opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, also a Republican, which was issued in response to the Democrats’ breaking quorum to stop an elections bill in 2021.
The opinion stated that if a legislator is believed to have abandoned their office, the attorney general or a district attorney in the lawmaker’s county may sue in district court. If the court determines the officer forfeited their office, the court, “shall enter judgment removing the person from the office.”
“A district court may determine that a legislator has forfeited his or her office due to abandonment and can remove the legislator from office, thereby creating a vacancy,” the attorney general wrote.
Once a court issues a ruling, Abbott said, the state Constitution would allow him to fill the vacancy.
Paxton’s opinion was advisory and does not carry the weight of law.
‘A species of resignation’
Paxton relied heavily on the Texas Supreme Court’s 1873 decision Honey v. Graham.
“Abandonment is a species of resignation,” that decision says. “Resignation and abandonment are voluntary acts. The former is a formal relinquishment; the latter a relinquishment through nonuser.”
The court, however, made an important distinction. Simply failing to perform the duties of an office is not itself a form of abandonment – the officeholder must also have the intent to abandon.
“The failure to perform the duties pertaining to the office must be with actual or imputed intention on the part of the officer to abandon and relinquish the office,” the court wrote.
Removal on a case-by-case basis
Whether or not a lawmaker intended to abandon his or her office will be determined in court on a case-by-case basis.
To remove the 51 Democrats, the Texas attorney general or a local district attorney would have to prevail in 51 separate lawsuits, convincing multiple courts that when the lawmakers fled to deny a quorum, they did it with the intent to “abandon or relinquish the office.”
The Texas House of Representatives consists of 150 members: 62 Democrats and 88 Republicans. Texas law requires the presence of 100 members, or two-thirds, to have a quorum.
Since 51 Democrats departed, Abbott and Republicans only need one to return or be replaced to re-establish a quorum and proceed with legislative matters.
