Democratic Texas State Rep. Nicole Collier brings the night on the Texas House floor in protest after refusing a Republican requirement 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 he had fled the state earlier this month to prevent a vote on a controversial republican redistribution plan, house speaker Dustin Burrows set restrictions on their movements.
Burrows announced that the Democrats could only leave the floor of the house if they received written permission and agreed to be under the law of the law until the room will meet again on Wednesday morning.
The Democrats who have skipped earlier attempts to meet Quorum for a special session to approve the again drawn congress cards have a around the clock in DPS escort to guarantee their presence when the house meets on Wednesday, a legislative assistant told CNN.
Democrats had fled to Blue States – including Illinois, New York and Massachusetts – when they were confronted with civil arrest trips pushed by Gop officials in Texas to force them back to the living room.
The majority of the Democrats kept full of law enforcement and showed reporters what they called 'permission briefs' they received to leave the floor of the house and to point out the officers who guide them around the capitol.
But Collier refused to enter into that agreement and has been limited to the house floor since the return. She can only leave the floor to return to her office under the watch of a law enforcement officer, said an assistant, and cannot leave the State Capitool unless she agrees with external supervision.
State representatives Gene Wu and Vince Perez are planning to stay on the house floor with her at night, the assistant said. Wu posted a photo on X with details about some of their snacks for the long piece for us – dried peaches, freeze -dried grapes, popcorn and windows.
“My voters sent me to Austin to protect their voices and rights,” Collier said. “I refuse to sign my dignity away as a thoroughly chosen representative, so that republicans can control my movements and check me with police escorts. My community is a majority line and they expect that I am getting up for their representation. When I will vote on that button, I know that these cards will not be damaged with their intimidation.”
State Rep. Nicole Collier talks on the phone from the floor of the House, where she has chosen to remain until Wednesday, after Democratic lawmakers who had left the state to prevent Republicans from redrawing Texas's 38 congressional districts returned to the Capitol in Austin, Texas, on August 18, 2025. – Gene Wu/Handout/Reuters
Texas Democrat Beto O
The Texas House founded a quorum on Monday afternoon, for the first time, because most members of the Democratic minority fled the state 15 days earlier to prevent it from having the two-thirds quorum needed to promote new congress cards aimed at creating five republic-leaning seats prior to the interim elections of next year.
Early in their boycott, Burrows had signed civil arrest trips for those Democrats. But DPS officers could not perform those warrants because the Democrats were from the state.
At the insistence of President Donald Trump, the government of Texas Greg Abbott and Republicans who checked the State House and the Senate launched the attempt to sign the Congress districts of the State Halfway through the decade-a break of the typical practice of most states once ten years, after the uss.
It is part of the efforts of the party to hold the majority of the narrow house in the interim elections of next year-one that also includes lobbying Gop officials in Indiana and Missouri to change their cards to change the democratic seats a favorable land for the republicans, and that the party for the party, that the party is for the lead, that the party is for the party for the party for the party for the party for the party for the party, and that the party is for the lead-by-leidingeurs, that the party is for the fores of the party, and that the party is for the fores of the party, and that the party is for the fores of the party, and that the party is for the fores of the party, and that the party is for the lead. Redistricts is needed.
Texas' effort has set up a national gerremweering -weapon race. In California, the Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom sworn the retribution and a measure proposed that would activate new cards that could help Democrats to pick up five more seats in the state – but only if Texas continues with his redistribution plan.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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