Insult to Injury: Texas Dems Who Fled State in Failed Attempt to Thwart Redistricting Ordered to Pay Up

Insult has turned into a costly bill for more than 50 Texas House Democrats who abandoned the state in an attempt to stop passage of a new congressional redistricting map. On Thursday night, those lawmakers received official notices of fines, totaling thousands of dollars for their stunt.

After weeks of delay tactics, the Texas House of Representatives finally reconvened Monday with the quorum needed once Democrats returned to Austin. By Wednesday, Republican legislators had successfully advanced legislation redrawing the congressional districts. The measure passed in an 88–52 party-line vote.

The new map could deliver Republicans as many as five additional congressional seats in the 2026 midterms. Right now, the GOP controls 25 of Texas’ 38 districts. If the map holds, Republicans could secure 30 of 38—cementing Texas as a cornerstone of the Republican majority in Washington under President Donald J. Trump’s leadership.

Governor Greg Abbott had already called a second special session after Democrats stalled out the first, which was meant to handle not only redistricting but also issues like flood relief. Republicans, unwilling to tolerate further obstruction, responded by authorizing $500-per-day fines for absent lawmakers and even approving arrest warrants to compel their attendance.

NBC News noted that Texas lawmakers earn just $600 a month in salary for their part-time positions, making the fines especially steep. According to Brad Johnson, editor of The Texan News, a letter sent to the Democrats outlines that each owes $9,354.25—including $7,000 for skipping 14 legislative days and $2,354.25 as their share of the $124,943 cost incurred by the House during the second special session.

“Ouch,” Johnson wrote, posting the letter online. Scott Braddock of the Quorum Report confirmed that the notices went out Thursday night.

Meanwhile, the Texas Tribune reported that the GOP-controlled Senate began debating the new map Friday. Passage there is all but guaranteed before the measure heads to Governor Abbott’s desk for final approval.

Democrats have long cried foul over gerrymandering, but the record shows they are hardly innocent. In Illinois, for example, President Trump won 44 percent of the statewide popular vote, yet Republicans carried just three of 17 congressional seats. In New York, Democrats rammed through a new congressional map after Republicans gained ground in the 2022 midterms. That redistricting cut the GOP delegation from 11 to just seven of 26 seats—even though Trump also won 44 percent of the vote in the Empire State.

It was precisely that mid-decade power grab in New York that contributed to the GOP holding only a slim 220–215 House majority last November, despite Trump’s decisive national win.

What Texas Republicans did is not gerrymandering—it is a correction. Democrats have been manipulating district lines for years. Now, in Texas, they’re being held accountable for running from the job voters elected them to do.