Greg Abbott Has New Threat For Democrats Who Fled Texas

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) threatened to push for even more GOP-leaning congressional seats in Texas if Democrats continue to block a mid-decade redistricting effort sought by President Donald Trump to give his party an edge in the 2026 midterm election.

“The Democrats always come back,” Abbott said. “It could be tomorrow, it could be next week. It could be next month. They’re going to come back or we’ll be able to track them down. One way or the other, they’re coming back, and it’s going to end with these maps being passed.”

“If they don’t start showing up, I may start expanding it. We may make it six or seven or eight new seats we’re going to be adding on the Republican side,” he continued.

Dozens of Democrats have fled Texas, leaving the state GOP unable to establish the quorum of lawmakers needed to establish business and vote to approve the congressional map that would give Republicans five more GOP-leaning congressional seats in the Lone Star State ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Subsequently, the GOP-controlled Texas House of Representatives issued civil arrest warrants for Democratic lawmakers who left the state, and Abbott called on state troopers to help find them and arrest them. Abbott has also filed a lawsuit to remove the chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Thursday said FBI Director Kash Patel approved his request to have FBI agents help locate the Democratic lawmakers who fled the state.

While Abbott declined to say whether the FBI should have a role in ending the impasse, he told NBC News on Thursday evening that Republicans will “use every tool that we can to make sure that these runaway Democrats are going to be held accountable.”

“A lot of people who voted Republican, who voted for Donald Trump, were trapped into Democrat districts,” Abbott told NBC. “When you look at the facts, when you look at the law, there is every reason to go ahead and draw the lines so that we can assure that every voter is going to have the opportunity to vote for their candidate of choice.”

Republicans are looking to expand their redistricting push beyond Texas. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday visited Indiana, where he met with Gov. Mike Braun (R) and other local officials as part of a White House effort to pressure conservative states to redraw their maps. Meanwhile, the Republican speaker of the Florida House of Representatives created a redistricting committee.