“Texas Republicans have never been more desperate,” Texas state Rep. John Bucy III said in a statement. “First they put warrants out for our arrest, then they told their supporters to ‘hunt us down,’ and now they’re trying to remove me from elected office.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked the state Supreme Court to order the removal of at least 13 lawmakers from office.
According to The Hill, Paxton’s lawsuit was filed on Friday, shortly after a group of Democratic lawmakers fled the state to avoid an impending vote on revised House districts.
The changes proposed by the conservative-dominated legislature, Democrats claim, heavily favor conservative candidates and were intentionally and specifically designed to ensure that Republicans retain their stranglehold on state-level politics.
The 13 legislators named as defendants in the lawsuit include Democratic state Reps. Ron Reynolds, Vikki Goodwin, Gina Hinojosa, James Talarico, Lulu Flores, Mihaela Plesa, Suleman Lalani, Chris Turner, Ana-Maria Ramos, Jessica Gonzalez, John Bucy III, Gene Wu, and Christina Morales.
“When members of the Legislature disregard arrest warrants, refuse to perform their duties, and announce that they intend to prevent the Legislature from exercising its constitutional responsibilities, they have, through words and conduct, demonstrated an intent to relinquish and abandon their offices,” Paxton’s office alleges. “The alternative would empower a minority faction to disrupt the operation of the chamber.”
Paxton also lambasted the Democratic refugees as “cowards” on social media, saying that they had “deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, filed a similar lawsuit seeking Wu’s removal.
Some of the defendants have since characterized the round of filings as indicative of desperation.
“Texas Republicans have never been more desperate,” Bucy said in a statement. “First they put warrants out for our arrest, then they told their supporters to ‘hunt us down,’ and now they’re trying to remove me from elected office.”
“This is what it looks like when a President, a Governor, and an entire political party work together to cheat in an attempt to steal an election,” Bucy added. “They are doing everything they possibly can to cling to power and subvert the will of millions of Americans.”
The Hill notes that Talarico took a more aggressive approach, openly taunting his conservative rivals on social media—and tell Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to “come and take it.”
“Ken Paxton just filed a lawsuit to remove me from office,” Talarico wrote. “But this seat doesn’t belong to him or me—it belongs to the people.”
In a separate statement, Rep. Wu, a defendant in both lawsuits, said that the Texas Supreme Court should know better, even if Abbott and Paxton don’t.
“The Court should put to rest the notion that the judiciary can expel a member of the House of Representatives,” Wu said, adding that, under state law, only a two-thirds vote by the House carries the necessary legal authority to unseat elected representatives.
Sources
Ken Paxton asks Texas Supreme Court to expel 13 House Democrats over redistricting standoff
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