CHICAGO — On their first full day in Illinois and other northern states, Texas House Democrats who fled their home state to block a Republican-led midterm congressional redistricting plan on Monday encouraged leaders in Democratic states to actively look at redrawing their own boundaries and abandon the national party’s long-standing support for politically fair maps to counter partisan gerrymandering.

State Rep. Gene Wu of Houston, the leader of the Democratic minority in the Texas House, also dismissed Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s threats against the House Democrats, which include the governor saying he’d seek their removal from office or the filing of felony bribery charges for leaving the state on Sunday to prevent Republicans from advancing their new map.

“Frankly, Democrats say, ‘Come and take it,’ Wu said, directing his comments to Abbott and the majority Republicans, while appearing on CNN from Chicago. The historic Texas fighting phrase comes from the 1835 launch of the Texas Revolution against Mexico. “It’s all bluster, sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

The call to action by Texas Democrats for Democratic-led states to redraw their boundaries follows the currently stymied effort by Abbott and Texas Republicans who offered a map that could flip five districts to the GOP in 2026 in an effort to sustain what is a narrow Republican U.S. House majority in Washington, D.C., to assist Trump in the final two years of his second presidential term.

The Texas House met at 3 p.m. Monday with Republicans planning to vote on the new boundaries in a special session. But due to a lack of a quorum caused by the Democrats’ absence, the chamber adjourned until 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said he would sign civil warrants for each of the legislators, giving the House sergeant-at-arms and state troopers the power to arrest the missing Democrats and bring them to the Capitol. Abbott followed suit, instructing his Department of Public Safety to make arrests.

But since the warrants apply only within Texas state limits, the moves were largely symbolic since the missing Democrats have relocated to the Chicago suburbs, New York and Boston. Legal experts have questioned Abbott’s ability to engage law enforcement in activities outside of Texas.

“To run to states like New York and Illinois to protest redistricting is kind of like running to Wisconsin to protest cheese. It’s just kind of outrageous,” Abbott told Fox News. “Those are New York and Illinois, two hallmark states. They’ve already done redistricting to Republicans.”

Kendall Scudder, the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, told CNN Democrats have long been on board with efforts to push independent, nonpartisan redistricting efforts. But in light of the Republicans’ efforts in Texas to redraw congressional boundaries mid-decade, he said it was time for Democrats to act.

“I hope that blue states across the country see this as a signal flare and start carving up their own seats because Democrats have to stop trying to be the only adults in the room,” Scutter told CNN.

“When Republicans are not willing to play fair, and Republicans are not willing to make sure that everyone gets a seat at the table and is able to be heard, then we need to stand up and fight back with gusto,” Scutter said. “And I hope that blue states around the country are taking notice, and that they’re going to step forward and start carving up their states as well.”

Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law in 2021 a congressional map approved by the Democratic-led General Assembly that gives the party a 14-3 majority over Republicans in the state’s U.S. House delegation.

But Pritzker may be leaving the door open to a potential congressional redistricting in Illinois, despite myriad questions — most notably that candidates for the state’s March 17th Democratic primary can begin gathering petition signatures on Tuesday.

Pritzker’s office retweeted a YouTube podcast from July 29 in which progressive podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen asked the governor if he is considering “calling a legislative session to do exactly what they’re doing in Texas and what (Democratic Gov.) Gavin Newsom has said that he’d be willing to do in California?”

“Yeah, like I said, everything’s on the table. It’s why I’ve spoken up about it,” Pritzker told the podcaster.

“Historically, midstream redistricting was not something that we Democrats would do, but if they force us, we’ve got to put everything on the table. We’ve got to make decisions that maybe we wouldn’t have made before,” Pritzker said, which was prior to the Texas lawmakers’ walkout.

“I think that governors across the country that have the ability, maybe it’s the ones that where we’ve got trifecta, we’ve got to do everything we can to stand up to what Donald Trump and Greg Abbott are trying to do,” he said. A “trifecta” is what exists in Illinois, where Democrats control the governor’s office and both houses of the legislature.

But Jon Maxson, a spokesman for Democratic House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, said, “there have been no discussions on a new congressional map” for Illinois. Political experts also question whether Democrats have the ability to wring out an additional Democratic seat at the expense of Republicans from the current map lines.

While most Illinois Democrats applauded Pritzker’s support for the Texas Democrats, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson — who has a cool relationship with Pritzker — appeared to take a shot at Pritzker for focusing on another state’s issues instead of his own.

“As much as I appreciate Illinois helping out people from Texas, the South Side and the West Side could use that same level of energy,” Johnson said Monday while announcing an expansion of Sustainable Community Schools, a model in which Chicago Public Schools partners with the Chicago Teachers Union. The mayor and governor have frequently been at loggerheads over Johnson’s stalled Springfield agenda, which includes a demand for more funding for CPS as well as new taxes.

In New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who met with some of the Texas House Democrats on Monday, vowed to look into redoing that state’s map.

“All’s fair in love and war. That’s why I am exploring with our leaders every option to redraw our state congressional lines as soon as possible,” Hochul said. “This is a war. We are at war. And that’s why the gloves are off and I say, ‘Bring it on.’”

To move forward with such a plan in New York, Democrats would have to abolish their independent redistricting commission, a process that is complicated to unwind and could involve amending the state’s constitution.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley of Chicago has been a sponsor of federal legislation that would ban midterm redistricting. But he told CNN that for Democrats, “You have to fight fire with fire.”

“We see the results here, the mess that we’re in. It shouldn’t be this (way) on either side, but they’re forcing the issue now, and we have to react,” he said of Republicans.

The Texas Democrats face the prospect of $500 per day fines, and Abbott has threatened to go to court to seek their removal from office, contending their absence means their seats are vacant and he can appoint their successors.

But Ken Paxton, the GOP Texas attorney general, acknowledged the opinion he offered that Abbott relied upon to threaten lawmakers’ removal from office was never tested in court. Additionally, Paxton, in a Fox News interview, cast doubt on another threat levied by Abbott — that lawmakers could face felony bribery charges if they solicited or received funds during their absence.’

Wu said the House Democrats aren’t concerned about Abbott’s and Paxton’s threats.

“We have committed to sacrificing our lives to protect the people of (the) state of Texas, and that is exactly what we do. The $500, whatever they’re going to fine us, that is nothing compared to the pain the American people have felt, and the people of Texas have felt,” he said.

“We know that the governor has no power to reach into other states and, legally by law, by federal law or state law, the president has no ability, no authority, to legally come get us,” he said.

Ron Safer, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice, said the Texas governor and attorney general do not have any authority “within reason” to use law enforcement to compel Democratic lawmakers to return to Austin.

“This is a political issue. It has no place in the criminal justice system,” Safer said, adding that “there’s no federal crime that I can think of that comes close to addressing this.”

If Paxton wanted to pursue allegations that Democratic lawmakers had misused campaign funds, he has the authority to open an investigation, Safer said, “but that’s not going to yield a quick arrest warrant, which is what he’s looking for.”

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