Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn on Thursday said the FBI will hunt down the Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled the Lone Star State to prevent Republicans from passing an undemocratic gerrymander of Texas’ congressional districts.
“I am proud to announce that Director Kash Patel has approved my request for the F.B.I. to assist state and local law enforcement in locating runaway Texas House Democrats,” Cornyn said in a statement, referring to a letter he sent to Patel on Tuesday asking for the FBI to get involved in returning the Democratic lawmakers. “I thank President Trump and Director Patel for supporting and swiftly acting on my call for the federal government to hold these supposed lawmakers accountable.”
Of course, Texas Democratic lawmakers are not committing a federal crime by leaving the state to deny Republicans a quorum, which effectively blocks the GOP’s attempt to rig the state’s congressional districts to give Republicans an additional five seats at Dear Leader Donald Trump’s behest.
“The key question here is on what grounds would the FBI be doing this. What is the crime they are investigating? The FBI can’t just use its vast surveillance powers to locate random citizens. In fact, that’s what conservatives have long been so concerned about re [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] authorities,” MSNBC justice correspondent Ken Dilanian wrote in a post on X.
Indeed, Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker—who has vowed to protect the Democratic lawmakers who fled to his state—said the same at a Wednesday news conference.
“There literally is no federal law applicable to this situation, none they can say that they’re sending F.B.I.,” Pritzker said, adding that Republicans are “grandstanding.”
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Yet that hasn’t stopped Cornyn and other Republicans from trying to threaten the Democratic lawmakers with everything from arrest to expulsion from office.
Cornyn clearly has ulterior motives here. He is facing an existential threat to his political future in next year’s U.S. Senate primary, with polls showing him currently in a close battle with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Paxton is running against Cornyn by saying he is not sufficiently conservative or loyal to Trump, with Paxton stalking Trump to try and get a failed endorsement. So Cornyn getting the FBI involved to try to get Trump the outcome he wants out of Texas’ congressional maps is likely his way of trying to beat back those allegations. That makes Cornyn’s request to sic the FBI on Democratic lawmakers even more abhorrent, as he is weaponizing federal law enforcement for his own political gain.
Democrats lambasted the weaponization of the FBI.
“This isn’t about ‘locating’ anyone—they’re not hiding. It’s about silencing dissent and weaponizing law enforcement,” former Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX), who is running for Senate in 2026, wrote in a post on X. “Cornyn is deputizing the FBI and Paxton is trying to expel lawmakers because they’re both too weak and corrupt to stand up to Washington. Enough is enough—Texans deserve better.”
“One big problem here—what is the crime? If leaving Texas is a crime, like Cornyn implies, the FBI needs to go get Cancun Cruz first,” Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) wrote in a post on X, referring to Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, who was bestowed the nickname after he fled Texas amid deadly winter power outages in 2021.
This isn’t the only time Trump and the GOP have reverted to fascist tactics. In June, Trump sent in the military to police protesters demonstrating against the fascist Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
Ultimately, Democrats said they are undeterred by the latest undemocratic actions of Trump and the GOP.
“Shouldn’t the F.B.I. be tracking down terrorists, drug traffickers and child predators?” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a post on X. “The Trump administration continues to weaponize law enforcement to target political adversaries. These extremists don’t give a damn about public safety. We will not be intimidated.”