Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is officially trying to have the state’s fugitive Democrat lawmakers kicked out of office.
Paxton’s office reports that he has filed a lawsuit in the state Supreme Court to officially declare their seats “vacated.”
“The rogue Democrat legislators who fled the state have abandoned their duties, leaving their seats vacant,” Paxton said in a statement.
The filing relates to 13 House Democrats who left the Capitol, and the state, in an effort to prevent a quorum, the minimum number of members required for the House to do business. Their absence has brought House business to a halt, including the effort by the Republican majority to redraw the state’s congressional districts.
On Friday afternoon, House speaker Dustin Burrows acknowledged that the House had again officially failed to reach a quorum.
“These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process and violated the oath they swore to uphold,” Paxton’s statement said. “Their out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked, and the business of Texas must go on. I have asked the Texas Supreme Court to declare what has been clear from the beginning: that the runaway members have officially vacated their offices in the Texas House.”
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