Texas AG Paxton Vows To 'Hunt Down' Democrats Who Fled The State To Avoid Redistricting Vote

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has vowed to "hunt down" Democrats who have fled the state to prevent a redistricting vote from taking place, and Governor Greg Abbott is promising to escalate even further.

Dozens of Texas Democrats made their way to Chicago over the weekend, fighting back as state Republicans seek to redraw congressional districts in a way that would allow them to take five seats.

Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said on Sunday he believed 57 Democrats have left the state, most of them staying in Illinois for the foreseeable future. Others have gone to Boston and Albany, in New York.

"Gov. Abbott is doing this in submission to Donald Trump so that Donald Trump can steal these communities' power and voice," Wu said on Sunday. "We will not be complicit in the destruction of our own communities. We're not here to play political games, we're here to demand an end to this corrupt process."

Wu went on to say there is a real possibility that lawmakers will be arrested for defying the special session call. "This is a topic of serious concern. We know the governor has no authority to send state troopers over here but we don't know what Donald Trump's going to do." He added that while there is no legal basis for arrests, officials could make them "because they feel like it, and consequences be damned."

Governor Greg Abbott, on his end, said that if Democrats don't return to the state by 3 p.m. CT Monday, he would invoke an opinion by the Texas AG that will allow him to remove them from the House.

"I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons," Abbott said in a statement. Democrats, in turn, gave a terse answer: "Come and take it."

Prominent Democrats New York and California governors Kathy Hochul and Gavin Newsom have also warned that they will retaliate in their own states if Texas moves forward. "I won't sit by while Donald Trump and Texas Republicans try to steal our nation's future," Hochul said in a social media publication last week. Newsom, on his end, said the state "won't sit back and watch this happen."