Democratic Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier slept on House floor in protest after refusing demand for law enforcement escort
Democratic Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier is spending the night on the Texas House floor in protest after refusing a Republican demand to be placed under the watch of the state Department of Public Safety.
When Texas House Democrats returned to the Capitol in Austin on Monday, after having fled the state earlier this month in order to prevent a vote on a controversial Republican redistricting plan, House Speaker Dustin Burrows put constraints on their movements.
Burrows announced that the Democrats could only leave the House floor if they received written permission and agreed to be under law enforcement escort until the chamber reconvenes on Wednesday morning.
The Democrats who skipped out on previous attempts to meet quorum for a special session to approve the redrawn congressional maps will have an around-the-clock DPS escort to ensure their presence when the House convenes Wednesday, a legislative aide told CNN.
Democrats had fled to blue states - including Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts - as they faced civil arrest warrants pushed by GOP officials in Texas to force them back into the House chamber.
The majority of the Democrats complied with the law enforcement escort, showing reporters what they called "permission slips" they received to leave the House floor and pointing to the officers escorting them around the Capitol.
But Collier refused to enter into that agreement and has been confined to the House floor since returning. She can only leave the floor to return to her office under the watch of a law enforcement officer, an aide said, and cannot leave the state Capitol unless she agrees to outside supervision.
State Reps. Gene Wu and Vince Perez plan to stay on the House floor with her overnight, the aide said. Wu posted a photo on X detailing some of their snacks for the long stretch ahead - dried peaches, freeze-dried grapes, popcorn, and ramen.
"My constituents sent me to Austin to protect their voices and rights," said Collier. "I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts. My community is majority-minority, and they expect me to stand up for their representation. When I press that button to vote, I know these maps will harm my constituents - I won't just go along quietly with their intimidation or their discrimination."
Texas Democrat Beto O'Rourke celebrated Collier's protest on Monday, writing on social media, "A true hero, refusing to submit, fighting these fascists by herself if she has to. We are with you, Nicole!"
The Texas House established a quorum Monday afternoon, for the first time since most members of the Democratic minority fled the state 15 days earlier to prevent it from having the two-thirds quorum necessary to advance new congressional maps aimed at creating five more Republican-leaning seats ahead of next year's midterm elections.
Early in their boycott, Burrows had signed civil arrest warrants for those Democrats. But DPS officers could not carry out those warrants because the Democrats were out of state.
At President Donald Trump's urging, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Republicans who control the state House and Senate launched the effort to redraw the state's congressional districts mid-decade - a break from most states' typical practice of redistricting once a decade, after the completion of the US Census.
It's part of the party's effort to hold onto its narrow House majority in next year's midterm elections - one that also includes lobbying GOP officials in Indiana and Missouri to change their maps to turn Democratic-held seats into favorable ground for Republicans, and could see the party add more GOP-leaning seats in Ohio, which is required by state law to redistrict.
The Texas effort has set off a nationwide gerrymandering arms race. In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has vowed retribution, proposing a measure that would trigger new maps that could help Democrats pick up five more seats in the state - but only if Texas moves forward with its redistricting plan.
