On Sunday, Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to expel Democratic lawmakers from the state legislature and replace them with Republican yes-men who will rubber stamp his plan to rig the 2026 midterms by re-gerrymandering Texas’ congressional map.

Abbott made the threat after most of the state’s 62 Democratic lawmakers left Texas to deny Republicans a quorum—a move that would block GOP lawmakers from passing a new gerrymandered congressional map that will steal as many as five U.S. House seats. Abbott called a special session to get the Republican-controlled legislature to redraw congressional districts at the demand of Dear Leader Donald Trump, who is so terrified of losing the midterm elections that he’s trying to cheat and rig them instead.

“My Democratic colleagues and I just left the state of Texas to break quorum and stop Trump’s redistricting power grab,” Texas Democratic state Rep. James Talarico said in a post on social media on Sunday. “Trump is trying to rig the midterm elections right before our eyes. But first he’ll have to come through us. It’s time to fight back.”

State Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said the move is a difficult one for Democrats—who now face a $500 per day fine. But he said it was the right thing to do.

“Republicans are counting on us to quietly accept Trump’s demands, but we refuse to put Abbott’s political ambitions before the needs of our communities,” Wu said. “By breaking quorum, we’re putting an end to this corrupt special session. Texans deserve leaders who fight for them, not politicians chasing power.”

The ingenious move has enraged Abbott, who without a quorum cannot carry out the will of Dear Leader. 

“Democrats hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber’s business. That amounts to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office,” Abbott wrote in a statement.

He went on to cite a BS memo from corrupt and morally bankrupt state Attorney General Ken Paxton, which claims that “through a quo warranto action, a district court may determine that a legislator has forfeited his or her office due to abandonment and can remove the legislator from office, thereby creating a vacancy.”

“That empowers me to swiftly fill vacancies under Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution,” Abbott wrote.

Of course, none of that is actually true. 

An opinion from the state attorney general is not a legally binding doctrine. And Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution does NOT state that Abbott can fill a vacancy in the legislature without an election. The Constitution says Abbott would have to issue “writs of election to fill such vacancies.”

But Abbott went further than lying about his ability to expel lawmakers and replace them himself. Abbott also threatened to charge the Democratic lawmakers with felonies, accusing them of “soliciting funds to evade the fines they will incur under House rules.”

“Any Democrat who ‘solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept’ such funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have violated bribery laws,” Abbott wrote.

The Democratic lawmakers who fled Texas are now in Illinois, where Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said he will “do everything we can to protect every single one of them.”

“We know they’re doing the right thing,” Pritzker said. “We know they’re following the law. It’s Ken Paxton who doesn’t follow the law. It’s the leaders of Texas who aren’t following the law.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is also standing by the Texas Democratic lawmakers.

“House Democrats stand in solidarity with every single lawmaker who has taken the difficult step to deny a quorum to stop the rigged map,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement. “Republicans should also know that the fight to preserve our democracy is one that Democrats across the country are ready for. The DCCC will not stand aside while Donald Trump and House Republicans try to steal the 2026 election. With public opinion turning against the Republican record of broken promises, we will fight across the country to take back the majority, restoring the will of the people back to the People’s House.”

Meanwhile, the Democratic lawmakers who fled Texas had a succinct message for the Republicans trying to scare them into returning to the state.

“Come and take it,” they wrote in a statement.