Texas House Democrats were evacuated from their Illinois hotel Wednesday due to a bomb threat.
In a statement, Texas House Democrats said they are safe and “undeterred.” A group of Democratic state lawmakers has been staying in Illinois after leaving Texas to deny Texas House Republicans a quorum to vote on new congressional maps that would even more so favor the GOP than the current maps.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) said he was aware of the threats made. In statements, Texas state Reps. Ann Johnson and John Bucy pointed to Republican leadership’s rhetoric in Texas for the threat.
“I’ve had my life threatened before as a chief human trafficking prosecutor. I never expected those threats would come from the Governor or my colleagues in the Legislature,” Johnson said.
“Extremism is dangerous. Continuing to go further and further down the path of incitement and intimidation is dangerous. And this is the perfect example,” she continued.
“This is what happens when Republican leaders, like our corrupt Attorney General, call on their supporters to ‘hunt us down,’” Bucy wrote.“We’ve been threatened by the governor, the attorney general, and our colleagues in the House. This is harmful discourse that emboldens bad actors and encourages violence.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in a social media post that lawmakers who left the state should be arrested and brought back to the state capitol.
“Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately,” he wrote. “We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.”
Texas House Republicans voted to arrest Democratic members who did not show up for the vote Monday.
Gov. Gregg Abbott (R-TX) said he “ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans.”
TEXAS’S NEW REDISTRICTING MAP POISED FOR LONG-TERM LEGAL SHOWDOWN, EXPERTS SAY
Most Democratic lawmakers left the state Sunday and have been staying in Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) was slated to speak at a press conference with Texas Democrats in St. Charles, Illinois, on Wednesday, but the event has been canceled.
