Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) ramped up his party’s fight with Texas Democrats on Tuesday by asking the FBI to help Gov. Greg Abbott (R) track down and arrest lawmakers who left the state to block a controversial redistricting vote.
In a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, Cornyn asked if the bureau could help find or arrest the Democrats serving in the state’s House who denied Republicans a quorum on Monday by leaving Texas and called them “potential lawbreakers.”
“In a representative democracy, we resolve our differences by debating and voting, not by running away,” Cornyn charged.
“These legislators have committed potential criminal acts in their rush to avoid their constitutional responsibilities and must be fully investigated and held accountable,” he continued.
Though Texas’ Republican-dominated House issued civil arrest warrants for the absent Democrats, state troopers Abbott deployed cannot pursue them outside the state of Texas.
Cornyn’s request is an attempt to circumnavigate that roadblock.
“The FBI has tools to aid state law enforcement when parties cross state lines, including to avoid testifying or fleeing a scene of a crime,” he wrote.
Cornyn also claimed that “legislators who solicited or accepted funds to aid in their efforts to avoid their legislative duties may be guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses” ― an apparent reference to Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker offering the Texas Democrats his support.
The FBI declined to comment on Cornyn’s request, but Trump expressed support when asked if the FBI should get involved.
“Well, they may have to,” Trump said at a press conference on Tuesday. “A lot of people are demanding they come back. You can’t just sit it out.”
The dozens of Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas this week did so in a coordinated effort to prevent Republicans from voting on a redrawn congressional map desired by Trump ahead of the 2026 midterms. If Trump gets his way, there will be five more GOP-leaning congressional seats in Texas.
The president has been blunt about this pursuit.
“We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas,” Trump said on CNBC Tuesday. “I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats.”
This isn’t the first time Texas lawmakers have left the state in protest. In 2021, Texas House Democrats left the state for 38 days over new voting restrictions.