It comes after at least 50 Texas House Democrats left the state on Sunday in an effort to break quorum and prevent a vote on new congressional maps.
AUSTIN, Texas — In an escalation in the battle over redistricting in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to remove State Rep. Gene Wu, the Democratic Caucus Chair, from office.
It comes after at least 50 Texas House Democrats left the state on Sunday in an effort to break quorum and prevent a vote on new congressional maps. Those Republican-drawn maps could give the GOP five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and have sparked debates over gerrymandering and drawing districts along racial lines.
In an emergency petition to the Texas Supreme Court, Abbott argued Wu’s departure from the state constitutes an abandonment of his office, justifying his removal.
“I made clear in a formal statement on Sunday, Aug. 3, that if the Texas House Democrats were not in attendance when the House reconvened at 3 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 4, then action would be taken to seek their removal,” Abbott said on Tuesday. “They have not returned and have not met the quorum requirements. Rep. Wu and the other Texas House Democrats have shown a willful refusal to return, and their absence for an indefinite period of time deprives the House of the quorum needed to meet and conduct business on behalf of Texans. Texas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans, and there must be consequences.”
Abbott’s lawsuit also alleges that by taking PAC money to help fund the quorum break, Wu and other lawmakers engaged in “bribery.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has made a similar argument this week as a justification to remove lawmakers from office. But legal experts say it would be difficult to argue breaking quorum qualifies as an abandonment of office. The Supreme Court of Texas ruled in 2021 that the Texas Constitution allows for the possibility of a quorum break, according to The Texas Tribune.
On Tuesday, Paxton followed Abbott’s petition by filing a brief to the Texas Supreme Court saying that only the attorney general, county attorney or district attorney can file a quo warranto proceeding, which orders a member’s removal from office.
Paxton said he will take action if the House still has no quorum on Friday, which is the deadline House Speaker Dustin Burrows set.
“As a result, the Court should not dismiss the Governor’s petition until the Speaker’s Friday deadline passes and the Attorney General can be heard on these weighty issues,” Paxton said.
Wu’s office responded to the filing in a statement on Tuesday that read in part:
“This office does not belong to Greg Abbott, and it does not belong to me. It belongs to the people of House District 137, who elected me. I took an oath to the constitution, not a politician’s agenda, and I will not be the one to break that oath.
“Let me be unequivocal about my actions and my duty. When a governor conspires with a disgraced president to ram through a racist gerrymandered map, my constitutional duty is to not be a willing participant. When that governor holds disaster relief for 137 dead Texans and their families hostage, my moral duty is to sound the alarm — by any means necessary.
“Denying the governor a quorum was not an abandonment of my office; it was a fulfillment of my oath. Unable to defend his corrupt agenda on its merits, Greg Abbott now desperately seeks to silence my dissent by removing a duly-elected official from office.”
Abbott has already ordered DPS troopers to locate, arrest and return the members who left for Illinois, New York and Massachusetts.
Breaking quorum has been a legislative tactic in Texas stretching back to 1870, including quorum breaks in 2021, 2003 and 1979.