This week, more than 50 Democratic members of the Texas House made a wrenching decision: They left their homes, their jobs and their families, and fled the state. Their goal is to deny (or at least delay) Republicans the quorum needed to pass a mid‑decade redistricting plan, which they believe would erode minority voting power and engineer additional GOP seats in Congress.
But what may look like a political standoff is, for many of these lawmakers, an act of personal risk, cost and principle.
“I fled the state today alongside my Democratic colleagues,” wrote Texas state Rep. Linda Garcia in a now-viral Instagram post. “I did it for democracy and I did it with my son.”
Garcia, a first-term lawmaker representing Dallas’ House District 107, isn’t alone. Many of the Democrats who left Austin are mothers, fathers, caretakers, community workers and public servants—people like Rep. Donna Howard, a former ICU nurse, or Rep. James Talarico, a former middle school teacher—who also serve their families.
“To be gone from my family, from my state, is not a happy thing for me. But why I am doing this … it’s immoral and disgusting and outrageous,” Talarico said, describing the effort as a stand, not a stunt.
Texas lawmakers earn just $7,200 a year in base salary, and most must maintain day jobs to stay afloat—whether as attorneys, nurses, educators or small business owners. For many, walking out meant leaving aging parents, missing birthdays and putting finances further on the line.
Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, described his party’s motivation as a “strong moral conviction,” saying that walking out was “the right course of action to safeguard the citizens of Texas” and Gov. Greg Abbott was acting “under the influence of Donald Trump.”
Rep. John Bucy III added: “Look, I didn’t run for office to walk out of the Capitol, but I also didn’t run for office to stand by while democracy is stolen in broad daylight. … Sometimes the only way to uphold your oath is to refuse to play along with a rigged game.”
“This is what democracy looks like. We’ve got our sleeves rolled up,” said Rep. Jessica Ramos. “Our communities, our state and our nation … are definitely worth fighting for.”
For some of the lawmakers, this isn’t their first time taking such action. In 2021, Texas state Rep. Erin Zwiener—a creative writing teacher, environmentalist and mother to a then-3-year-old daughter named Lark—fled the state with her child, telling Ms. that the moment “wasn’t comfortable,” but it was “powerful.” Four years later, history is repeating itself—with many of the same lawmakers once again putting their lives on hold to fight for what they believe is right.
The redistricting in question seeks to flip up to five additional U.S. House seats to Republicans in the lead-up to the 2026 midterms—a move critics decry as a blatant power grab, particularly in light of the catastrophic floods that devastated parts of the state and exposed Republicans’ focus on maps rather than relief efforts.
“Help your neighbors and community members understand how this is going to weaken their voice in government and, therefore, materially affect their lives. Help them understand how that’s going to make it harder to get funding for their schools, to get a grocery store in their neighborhood [and] to build good roads for our growing community,” Zwiener said at a recent town hall. “That’s the message I need all of y’all to help me get out across Texas.”
“If you have friends in other states, maybe ask them to call their governor and ask them to look at their maps,” she added. “Help us spread the word about the urgency because we need not only all of Texas, but the entire country, to understand how dire things are.”
Texas House Democrats say they’ll remain stationed in blue states through Aug. 21, 2025, when Texas’ 30‑day special session ends. They say they’ll absorb fines and pressure rather than surrender to what they see as an “attempted theft of democratic legitimacy” and a threat to fair representation, especially for Black and Latino voters.
Perhaps Rep. Garcia put it best: “I did it for our mothers. I did it for our children. I did it for our future.”
Great Job Roxanne Szal & the Team @ Ms. Magazine Source link for sharing this story.
