Texas Sen. John Cornyn sent a letter to the FBI Tuesday asking for the bureau’s help in tracking down Democratic lawmakers who fled the state Sunday as part of a last-ditch attempt to deny Republicans in the state Legislature a quorum to carry out a partisan, mid-decade redistricting plan.
The letter also lays out the stakes for Texas Republicans: Nothing can get done in those chambers in Democrats’ absence, meaning they can’t rubber-stamp a congressional map redrawn to placate the White House’s wishes to pad Republican margins in the U.S. House in the next Congress.
“This is a time-sensitive matter,” Cornyn wrote to Director Kash Patel, adding the state’s special session only has two weeks remaining. “The absence of a quorum prevents key votes on important areas of concern for Texans,” pointing to the state’s deadly Kerr County floods as an example.
The FBI declined to comment when reached by NOTUS.
Cornyn also pointed to the blue-state allies who have thumbed their nose at Texas Republicans as one reason the FBI should intervene in the matter. Democratic governors, including Kathy Hochul in New York and JB Pritzker in Illinois, have pledged their support to the fleeing lawmakers.
“Out-of-state actors have made public comments about protecting the Texas legislators who are currently hiding out of state from any accountability for their actions,” Cornyn wrote. “The FBI has tools to aid state law enforcement when parties cross state lines, including to avoid testifying or fleeing a scene of a crime.”
Cornyn’s letter follows Gov. Greg Abbott’s repeated threats to arrest the “delinquent” Democrats.
Cornyn specifically echoed Abbott’s claims about bribery. For every day the Democrats remain absent from the Legislature, they incur a $500 fine, something donors have pledged to offset by giving to various funds that purport to support the Texas lawmakers.
But Abbott and Cornyn pointed to the same law to accuse the state’s Democrats of soliciting funds “to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote,” claiming that accepting such funds would amount to a criminal offense.
Democratic Texas Rep. Mihaela Plesa, however, told Politico earlier this week that the legislators would pay the fines out of their own pockets.
Cornyn’s letter comes as he fights a bitter primary battle against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who posted Tuesday afternoon he was asking the courts to try to get Democratic state officials’ seats vacated.
Meanwhile, Texas’ Democrats made it clear from their out-of-state podiums that they’re not going to return to the state Legislature on anyone else’s accord.
Texas Rep. James Talarico responded directly to Cornyn’s letter in a Tuesday afternoon call organized by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. He dismissed it as political theater from Texas’ senator, who he said “is trying to be relevant because he’s about to lose the primary to Ken Paxton.”
“Greg Abbott and Sen. Cornyn are threatening to arrest and remove democratically elected representatives from their office,” Talarico said. “That is just a literal version of what they’re doing with this map: It is a page out of an authoritarian playbook that we must all reject.”
Sitting alongside Hochul on Monday at a news conference in New York, another Texas Democrat rejected that Republicans’ threats of arrest would amount to anything. Instead, Texas Rep. Jolanda Jones said Abbott was putting up “smoke and mirrors” to distract from the openly partisan gerrymandering attempt.
“There is no felony in the Texas penal code for what he says. So, respectfully, he’s making up some shit,” Jones, an attorney, told reporters Monday. “He’s trying to get sound bites, and he has no legal mechanism. And if he did — subpoenas from Texas don’t work in New York, so he’s gonna come get us how?”