Texas House Dems to Return Home

The Texas House Democrats who abandoned their state in protest of the Republican-led redistricting effort will return home after Gov. Greg Abbott (R) took “emergency action” to begin removing the absent legislators as they refused to show up for work.

Multiple sources revealed the news to ABC13 on Tuesday, though the exact date the Democrats will return to the state capitol in Austin was not confirmed.

The state House had only 95 members present for the second day in a row on Tuesday, with Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) predicting that the session will end and a new one will start assuming there is no quorum on Friday, the outlet noted.

Senate Democrats did not break quorum, though they did storm out of the chamber in protest as their Republican counterparts passed the new redistricting map:

The House Democrats returning would follow intense legal actions taken by Abbott, Burrows, and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who have all pushed for the arrest and replacement of the dozens of rogue lawmakers who fled the state in order to prevent redistricting.

The deadline for them to go back to Austin was last Friday afternoon, prompting Abbott to file a suit with the Texas Supreme Court this week to quickly “make clear the authority I have” to remove the legislators from their offices, Breitbart News reported.

“Today I took emergency action to begin the removal from office of derelict Democrat Texas House members who refuse to show up for the special session,” the governor said in a statement.

Abbott said last week that he ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to “arrest and return” every runaway Democrat:

“This order will remain in effect until all missing Democrats are accounted for,” he said at the time.