A Texas Democratic lawmaker slept at the state Capitol overnight rather than submit to Republican demands that she agree to allow a state police guard ensure her return to vote on a controversial redistricting plan ordered by President Trump.
State Rep. Nicole Collier (D-Fort Worth) crashed on chairs pushed together on the floor of the state House chamber in Austin because she wouldn’t sign a GOP “permission slip” guaranteeing her return to a planned vote Wednesday on the plan to gerrymander the state’s congressional districts to flip up to five Democratic seats.
“I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts,” Collier said. “I know these maps will harm my constituents. I won’t just go along quietly with their intimidation or their discrimination.”
State Rep. Vince Perez (D-El Paso) stayed with Collier overnight and Democratic minority leader Rep. Gene Wu sand others topped by to help them. It was unclear if Collier would also spend Tuesday night bunked up in the chamber.
Collier was a lone holdout who refused to accept the Republican condition that they could leave the chamber only if they accepted a round-the-clock state police escort to shadow them and make sure they came back.
Dozens of Democrats fled the state earlier in the month to deny a quorum to majority Republicans seeking to push through the new maps, which are aimed at boosting the GOP edge in the state from the 25-13 split to as much as 30-8.
They agreed to end the protest and return to Texas after Gov. Greg Abbott ended an initial two-week special session, and quickly launched a second one.
Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows promised swift action and vowed to brook no more stalling tactics from Democrats.
If things go as planned, Republicans, who hold a large edge in both chambers of the state legislature, could pass the bill before the end of the week over the united opposition of Democrats.
The unprecedented redistricting effort has now spread to other Republican states with Indiana, Missouri and Ohio all planning to eliminate Democratic seats.
Democrats are fighting back in California by moving ahead with a plan that could net up to five Democratic party seats there, although voters would have to approve the plan this November. New York might do the same thing, although any effort would have to wait till 2028.
Trump wants to shore up Republicans’ narrow House majority and avoid a wipeout in the midterms if voters rebel against his unpopular spending cuts and tariffs on imported consumer goods.
As things stand before the coming shakeups, Democrats would need to flip just five or six seats to retake control of the body and potentially stymie Trump’s controversial agenda. Adding a few new red seats could make their task much tougher.
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