Texas governor threatens to remove Democrats who left state over Trump-backed redistricting
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I am Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with the news that Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott has said he will begin trying to remove Democratic lawmakers from office on Monday if they don’t return after dozens of them left the state in a last-resort attempt to block redrawn US House maps that president Donald Trump wants before the 2026 midterm elections.
The revolt by the state House Democrats, many of whom went to Illinois or New York on Sunday, and Abbott giving them less than 24 hours to come home ratcheted up a widening fight over congressional maps, Associated Press reported.
The planned vote on Monday could see five new Republican-leaning seats created in the House of Representatives. The move by the Democrats threatens to thwart Republican efforts by denying them a quorum, or the minimum number of members to validate the vote’s proceedings.
In a statement, Texas Democrats accused their counterparts, the Texas Republicans, of a “cowardly” surrender to Trump’s call for a redrawing of the congressional map to “continue pushing his disastrous policies”.
“Texas Democratic lawmakers are halting Trump’s plan by denying his bootlickers a quorum,” the statement read.
The scheme to flee the state is reported to have been put together by the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, who met with the Texas Democratic caucus late last month and has directed staff to provide logistical support for their stay.
The Texas group has accused governor Abbott of withholding aid to victims of Guadalupe River flooding last month in a bid to force the redistricting vote through.
“We’re leaving Texas to fight for Texans,” Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic caucus chair, said in a statement. “We will not allow disaster relief to be held hostage to a Trump gerrymander.”
“We’re not walking out on our responsibilities; we’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent,” Wu added. “As of today, this corrupt special session is over.”
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In other developments:
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US trade representative Jamieson Greer has defended the firing of labor statistics chief Erika McEntarfer. “The president is the president. He can choose who works in the executive branch,” he said on Face the Nation. Greer was among a host of Trump administration officials who were deployed to defend Trump after a week of bruising economic numbers.
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The US Senate left Washington DC on Saturday night for its month-long August recess without a deal to advance dozens of Donald Trump’s nominees, calling it quits after days of contentious bipartisan negotiations and the president taking to social media to tell Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to “GO TO HELL!”
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In a new court filing, attorneys for the Trump administration denied the existence of a daily quota for immigration arrests, despite reports and prior statements from White House officials about pursuing a goal of at least 3,000 deportations or deportation arrests per day. Lawyers representing the US justice department said that the Department of Homeland Security had confirmed that “neither Ice leadership nor its field offices have been directed to meet any numerical quota or target for arrests, detentions, removals, field encounters, or any other operational activities that Ice or its components undertake in the course of enforcing federal immigration law.”
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The US Senate has confirmed Jeanine Pirro – a former Fox News host and staunch Donald Trump ally who boosted lies that he lost the 2020 presidential race because of electoral fraudsters – as the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital. Pirro – a former New York state district attorney and county judge who joined Fox News in 2011 – was confirmed on Saturday in a 50-45 vote along party lines.
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The Smithsonian says it will restore Trump impeachment exhibits in “coming weeks”.
Key events
Trump promises increased India tariffs
The president has said that India will be subject to a tariff hike for not only “buying massive amounts of Russian oil” but “selling it on the open market for big profits”. He announced his decision on Truth Social, saying that India does not care “how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine”. It’s unclear what the levy increase will be.
Trump already hit India with a 25% tariff last week, citing the country’s substantial purchasing of Russian oil as part of the penalty.
Nancy Mace launches Governor bid
South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace has officially entered governor’s race for the Palmetto state.
In a video announcement posted on social media, Mace, 47, positions herself as a conservative “firebrand” and a “fighter”. She also cites her credentials as the first woman to graduate from South Carolina’s “The Citadel”– one of the country’s oldest military colleges.
In her first two terms in office, Mace was a vocal Trump adversary. In 2021, she was one of seven House Republicans who signed a letter that said Congress did not have the authority to overturn the 2020 election results. She also heavily criticised the president’s role in the Capitol attacks on 6 January 2021. Notably, Mace did not vote to impeach him for inciting an insurrection.
Throughout her third term in Congress, Mace has now become a key Trump ally. She’s waged some of the president’s key battles in the culture war – including a resolution prohibiting trans women using bathrooms that align with their gender identity at the US Capitol. Mace confirmed this was to target incoming freshman Representative Sarah McBride of Delaware.
Mace is entering an already crowded primary for gubernatorial race in South Carolina. While the incumbent, Henry McMaster, is unable to seek a third term, Mace will be facing off against Alan Wilson, the state’s attorney general.
In a lengthy floor speech earlier this year, Mace called out Wilson for failing to prosecute four men, including her ex-fiancé, who she accuses of rape and sex-trafficking.
Governor Hochul confirms that she hasn’t and won’t spend any money housing the Texas lawmakers in New York City.
She added that the Democrats who did flee will probably face exorbitant legal fees, as well as highlighting the daily fine of $500 for not appearing during the legislative session without permission.
The delegation of Texas lawmakers present today did not confirm where they would be travelling to next, but did say they “won’t be going back to Texas”.
‘This doesn’t stop with Texas’ says Democratic state lawmaker
Representative Mihaela Plesa, vice-chair of the House Democratic caucus, says that the redistricting battle in Texas goes beyonds the state’s borders:
If Trump and Abbott succeed, it will give them five seats. But then where else do they go? Ohio, Missouri, any other Republican legislature with Democratic Congress people. They’re on the chopping block too.
Governor Hochul calls the Texas Democrats who left the state to trigger a quorum break “profiles in courage”.
She adds that they’re “on the right side of history” and this redistricting fight is a “war”.
Texas Democrats who fled the state are now holding a press conference with New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
Hochul kicks off her remarks:
Americans don’t want a system that’s stacked against them. They believe in fairness, it’s fundamental. I’ll tell you this. They’re done with the chaos, they’re done with the cruelty. And I would say they’re ready to vote Republicans out of power in Washington, certainly in the upcoming 2026 elections.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has made an unannounced visit to Israel, per the minister of defense’s post on X.
Johnson was joined by a delegation of House Republicans. Axios reports that this was a trip organised by a pro-Israel advocacy group, and that Johnson made a stop at a settlement on the occupied West Bank.
This comes after Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, travelled to Gaza on Friday to assess the food and aid situation after several reports of worsening starvation in the region.
On Sunday, the president addressed reporters’ questions about Witkoff’s visit. “We’re putting up money to get people fed,” he said. “We don’t want people to starve.”
Trump doubles down on ‘rigged’ jobs numbers claims
Just a short while ago, the president took to Truth Social to repeat his claim that last week’s jobs report was “rigged” and the overall conduct of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is “in favor of the Radical Left Democrats”.
He added that “the FAKE political numbers that were CONCOCTED in order to make a great Republican Success look less stellar!!!”
The administration has provided no evidence that McEntarfer’s conduct was in any way political, or that the recent jobs numbers were manipulated.
In an interview with CNN’s Audie Cornish, the Texas Democratic party chair Kendall Scudder urged Democrats to “stop trying to be the only adults in the room”.
He added that the GOP’s new congressional map should be a “signal flare” for blue states to “start carving up their own seats”.
Scudder said that this weekend’s action by Texas Democrats is part of an effort to hold state Republicans “accountable for their actions”:
The reality is, no Democrat is sitting around itching and waiting for a quorum break. But this is what has to be done to make sure we’re preserving democracy.
‘Come and take it,’ say Texas Democrats
In response to Governor Greg Abbott threatening to arrest and expel any Texas legislators who refuse to return to the state capitol by 3pm local time on Monday, the Texas House Democratic Caucus issued a short and simple statement: “Come and take it.”
Governor Abbott however, has also said that Texas Democrats “may have committed felonies” by asking for donations to help pay for fines that they incur by fleeing the state. House rules in Texas state that lawmakers rack up a $500-a-day fine for each day they are absent without permission during a legislative session.
