AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday asked the Texas Supreme Court to expel Grand Prairie’s Rep. Chris Turner and 12 other Democratic House members who left Texas to block a redistricting plan.
Turner fired back in a statement that he’s upholding his right to aggressively challenge the redistricting plan by breaking a House quorum.
“Ken Paxton is a terrible attorney general, but he is somewhat good at sending campaign press releases masquerading as court filings,” the eight-term House member asserted.
Turner elaborated to the Fort Worth Report that Paxton’s actions are laughable. “He’s running for U.S. Senate, and it’s a campaign press release,” he said.
Redrawing Texas’ congressional map, supported by President Donald Trump to bolster his Republican majority in the U.S. House, is one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s special agenda priorities this summer. State lawmakers must approve new congressional district boundaries.
More than 50 Democratic Texas House members fled the state on Sunday in a move that derailed a Monday vote on the plan. Only 13 were singled out in Paxton’s suit asking the state’s highest court to vacate their House seats because of continued “unlawful absences” standing in the way of a quorum necessary to conduct business and enact the redistricting plan.
“The rogue Democrat legislators who fled the state have abandoned their duties, leaving their seats vacant,” Paxton said in a statement. “These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process and violated the oath they swore to uphold. Their out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked, and the business of Texas must go on.”
Paxton wants the Supreme Court to declare that “the runaway members” officially vacated their offices.
“Their conduct represents a flagrant abandonment of office and a betrayal of the voters who entrusted them with the duty to represent Texans in the legislative chamber,” he said in the statement.
Two of the four other Democrats in Tarrant County’s Texas House delegation — Rep. Nicole Collier of Fort Worth and Rep. Ramon Romero of Fort Worth — joined in the quorum-busting walkout as well. Rep. Salman Bhojani, D-Euless, is out of the country on a family medical emergency but has expressed solidarity with his absentee colleagues.
Turner, a former chairman of the Texas Democratic Caucus, is among state lawmakers decamped to northern Illinois near Chicago. Others are in New York and California to meet with those governors. Another group went to the Boston area.
Arrest warrants were issued for all Texas House Democrats who fled the state to break quorum with Paxton pursuing legal action for Illinois officials to enforce the warrants in that state.
Turner said he did not know why he was named in the lawsuit when other absentee members weren’t.
In the court filing, Paxton noted each of the 13 members “released a public statement admitting that the purpose and intent of the absences is to disrupt the work of the House.”
One member was quoted as saying the departure means that “the special session is over” and that members “will do everything in their power” to prevent a quorum, according to the suit. Consequently, the attorney general alleges that the actions “aim to prevent the Legislature from exercising the legislative power conferred on it by the Texas Constitution.”
Aug. 8: This story was updated to include details from the suit.
Dave Montgomery is an Austin-based freelance reporter for the Fort Worth Report.
The Fort Worth Report’s Texas legislative coverage is supported by Kelly Hart.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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