Texas AG Ken Paxton will ask courts to vacate Democratic lawmakers’ seats

Published 2:33 pm Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Attorney General Ken Paxton will ask for a court ruling declaring vacant the seats of any lawmakers who are not back to work by Friday, he said in a press release Tuesday.

At least 50 House Democrats have left the state to prevent the chamber from having quorum — the minimum number of people necessary to undertake legislative business — in an effort to delay the passage of a new congressional map. The unusual mid-decade redistricting effort comes after President Donald Trump pushed for a new map aiming to net five additional GOP seats in the upcoming midterm elections.

Democrats left the state Sunday afternoon, ahead of a Monday vote to advance the bill. House Speaker Dustin Burrows signed arrest warrants, directing the sergeant-at-arms and the Department of Public Safety to find and bring members to the chamber. Those warrants are only enforceable within state lines.

On Tuesday, the chamber once again was six votes short of quorum, and Burrows adjourned until Friday at 1 p.m.

If members are not back by then, Paxton said that would qualify as “abandonment of office,” enabling him to file a quo warranto action seeking to have their seats vacated.

“Democrats have abandoned their offices by fleeing Texas, and a failure to respond to a call of the House constitutes a dereliction of their duty as elected officials,” Paxton said in a statement. “Starting Friday, any rogue lawmakers refusing to return to the House will be held accountable for vacating their office.”

Texas’ Constitution explicitly enables the possibility of a so-called “quorum break,” the Supreme Court of Texas ruled in 2021, although it also allows for consequences to bring members back.

Legal experts say it would be difficult to argue that engaging in a quorum break qualifies as abandonment of office.

“I am aware of absolutely no authority that says breaking quorum is the same as the intent to abandon a seat,” said Charles “Rocky” Rhodes, a constitutional law expert at the University of Missouri law school. “That would require the courts extending the premise to the breaking point. It’s inconsistent with the very text of the Texas Constitution.”

Chad Dunn, a former attorney for the Texas Democratic Party, said proving abandonment of office would require showing that the member had failed to perform the duty of their office and intended to relinquish the seat, both of which he argues are not evident in a quorum break.

“It is not just an option, but one of the features of elected office to decide whether to appear and help establish quorum,” Dunn said. “Each member as part of their duty of office must make that decision.”

Paxton himself has acknowledged that this would likely be a lengthy and complicated process, telling conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that they’d have to bring individual lawsuits in each district.

“We’d have to go through a court process, and we’d have to file that maybe in districts that are not friendly to Republicans,” Paxton said on Monday. “So it’s a challenge because every district would be different.”

If a judge were to find that the seats were vacant, they would be filled through a special election.

— This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune, a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.