Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is making good on his promise to hold state democrat lawmakers accountable for abandoning their seats, and their state.
The “out-of-state rebellion”, as he coined it, will now come with a potentially high price.
It may literally cost them their seats in the Texas legislature.
AG Paxton announced his big move via his X account, calling the state Democrats who fled the state to obstruct normal business in the state Capitol “cowards”:
BREAKING: I've filed a historic lawsuit against Democrat runaways in SCOTX to secure an order declaring their seats vacant.
These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process. Their out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked, and the business of Texas must go on. pic.twitter.com/FDVVEjQDIx
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) August 8, 2025
Paxton emphasized in his announcement that his petition before the Texas Supreme Court singled out 13 specific individuals.
As opposed to the nearly 50 state democrats who refused to show up for work and do their job as elected officials.
He argued that these 13 made “incriminating public statements” about their actions, making the case for legal action against them far more sure to succeed.
Thus, he intends to set precedent and potentially avoid having to go after the entire group, while effectively achieving the same outcome.
Here’s the full text of the announcement he shared from the Texas AG homepage:
Attorney General Ken Paxton Files Historic Lawsuit Against Democrat Runaways in SCOTX to Secure Order Declaring Their Seats Vacant
Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Texas to formally pursue judicial declarations that 13 Texas House seats have been vacated due to continued unlawful absences by Democrat legislators who failed to meet the return deadline set by Speaker Dustin Burrows.“The rogue Democrat legislators who fled the state have abandoned their duties, leaving their seats vacant,” said Attorney General Paxton. “These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process and violated the oath they swore to uphold. Their out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked, and the business of Texas must go on. I have asked the Texas Supreme Court to declare what has been clear from the beginning: that the runaway members have officially vacated their offices in the Texas House.”
House Democrats remain willfully absent from the State of Texas, choosing instead to engage in politically motivated grandstanding from out-of-state locations. Their conduct represents a flagrant abandonment of office and a betrayal of the voters who entrusted them with the duty to represent Texans in the legislative chamber.
This initial lawsuit concentrates on 13 Democrat members who made incriminating public statements regarding their refusal to return, essentially confirming in their own words the very grounds for this legal action. Texas law provides the Attorney General with explicit authority to represent the State in quo warranto actions and to appear before the Texas Supreme Court in matters where the State has a direct interest.
ADVERTISEMENTThe petition states: “The Texas Constitution, statutes, and rules provide a broad range of tools for members of a legislative minority to be heard. But those tools do not include concerted effort by members of the minority to disrupt the functioning of the Legislature by abdicating their duties, including spurning the constitutional authority of the remaining members to compel their attendance. When members of the Legislature disregard arrest warrants, refuse to perform their duties, and announce that they intend to prevent the Legislature from exercising its constitutional responsibilities, they have, through words and conduct, demonstrated an intent to relinquish and abandon their offices.”
In addition to filing this petition, Attorney General Paxton and Speaker Dustin Burrows moved to enforce arrest warrants in other states. Attorney General Paxton also launched an investigation into Powered by People and Texas Majority PAC for potentially operating an illegal financial influence scheme to bribe Democrats into breaking quorum.
Today’s deadline came and passed without an response from the runaway democrats.
Paxton is relying in part on a 2021 ruling that allowed for “consequences” for quorum breakers, as reported by the local Fox News affiliate out of Austin:
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking the state’s highest court to vacate the seats of more than a dozen Texas House Democrats that left the state to break quorum in an attempt to prevent a vote on redrawn congressional maps.
The move comes after the House again failed to reach a quorum on Friday. Paxton said earlier this week that he would seek the removal of Democrats who left the state if they did not return by 1 p.m. Friday.
“The rogue Democrat legislators who fled the state have abandoned their duties, leaving their seats vacant,” Paxton said. “These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process and violated the oath they swore to uphold. Their out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked, and the business of Texas must go on.”
In 2021, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the Texas Constitution allows for quorum breaks, but also allows for consequences to bring members back.
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Those 13 democrats targeted by Paxton in the petition filed with the Texas Supreme Court includes Rep. Gene Wu, the ranking member of the group.
Here’s the list of those targeted for removal as they appear in Paxton’s filing:
And here’s that full list, along with their represented Texas districts, in case that’s hard to read:
- Ron Reynolds (District 27)
- Vikki Goodwin (District 47)
- Gina Hinojosa (District 49)
- James Talarico (District 50)
- Lulu Flores (District 51)
- Mihaela Plesa (District 70)
- Suleman Lalani (District 76)
- Chris Turner (District 101)
- Ana-Maria Ramos (District 102)
- Jessica Gonzalez (District 104)
- John Bucy III (District 136)
- Gene Wu (District 137)
- Christina Morales (District 145)
As expected, several of the 13 democrats in danger of having their seats declared “vacant” responded on social media with less than amicable good faith.
Rep. James Talarico essentially dared Paxton to make good on his threat, co-opting a very Texan phrase to make the point:
Ken Paxton just filed a lawsuit to remove me from office.
But this seat doesn’t belong to him or me — it belongs to the people.
My message to @KenPaxtonTX:
Come and take it. pic.twitter.com/MRsHnej8d9
— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) August 8, 2025
Likewise, Rep. John Bucy III hit back saying he wouldn’t be budging from his position:
The Attorney General just filed a lawsuit to vacate my seat and remove me from office.
I broke quorum to protect the voice of millions of Texans.
This seat belongs to the people of Texas House District 136 — not Ken Paxton.
I’m not backing down. pic.twitter.com/Qq7p9QOc4I
— Rep. John Bucy III (@BucyForTexas) August 8, 2025
Nevertheless, Paxton has already made good on his promise.
He basically “came to take it” — IT being their legislative SEATS in the Texas House — and now the only question is…
Will the Texas Supreme Court agree that:
- The Texas Supreme Court has the jurisdictional power to declare the seats “vacant”.
- The democrat lawmakers have truly abandoned their seats to that end.
AG Paxton has himself described this tactic as a “historic” lawsuit, just a few days ago highlighting that it could be a more lengthy process — even if the courts find that the democrats have truly abandoned their seats.
Paxton said that stripping their legislative seats might require filing individual lawsuits in each member’s district, as reported by the Texas Tribune:
Paxton argued that these representatives effectively abandoned their offices by leaving the state Sunday to stop the House from passing a new congressional map that would redraw district lines with the aim of netting five seats for Republicans.
“Respondents’ conduct amounts to an intentional, concerted effort to stop all legislative activity by refusing to show up — let alone hear testimony, debate, or vote on legislation,” Paxton wrote in the filing. “By any metric that constitutes abandonment of office.”
When Democrats left the state in 2021, the courts ruled that the Texas Constitution specifically enables “quorum-breaking,” but also allows for “quorum-forcing,” in which the chambers find ways to lure members back. Since then, the House passed new rules fining members $500 for every day they are gone.
Citing that case, Paxton said allowing members to participate in a quorum break would “upset the ‘careful balance’ of powers that this Court recognized … leaving the Texas Legislature unable to force a quorum and the people of Texas without a body capable of exercising legislative power.”
Earlier in the week, Paxton himself seemed to indicate the case might need to go through the district courts, rather than starting at the Texas Supreme Court, telling conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that his office might have to undergo a lengthy and complicated legal battle that could involve filing in each member’s 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. “So it’s a challenge because every district would be different.”
But in Friday’s filing, he argued that the Texas Supreme Court has the right to rule directly on this case, especially when there is a need to swiftly resolve the matter.
If the court were to find that the seats were vacant, they would be filled through a special election. But in the meantime, the vacancies would reduce the number of members required to meet the quorum threshold.
Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Abbot is still fully prepared to arrest ALL of those democrats who broke quorum by not showing up the Capitol.
He made clear his intention to see those arrests take place whether lawmakers had fled the state, or simply went into hiding somewhere in Texas.
He has also said he will call special session after special session if that’s what it takes to move forward on the legislative agenda, which includes redrawing the Texas election districts.
Here’s Abbott’s statement on his readiness to arrest the disappearing democrats made to an NBC News affiliate in Houston just a few hours ago:
One thing is certain — neither side seems ready to back down.
The arrest warrants have already been signed, and the Texas Supreme Court is now poised to possibly bring a quick end to this issue.
Paxton emphasized one specific possibility, as referenced in that article from the Texas Tribune, as a possible outcome concerning these 13 he has targeted for remove from office that keeps sticking in my mind.
If that attempt does succeed with the Texas Supreme Court, the number of seats needed to form a quorum would drastically change.
And the business of debating and voting on legislation in the Texas Capitol could go forward… possibly even without the need to appoint replacements for those “vacant” seats.
There are several ways this could go, but the democrats would have to stay hidden — with some remaining out of state for several YEARS — in order to keep this charade up.
One way or another, the business of the state will go forward; with or without the democrats who were elected to conduct that business for their constituents.
The only question I can see at this point that needs to be answered is whether it ends in arrests, vacant democrat seats, or BOTH before all is said and done.
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