Democratic Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier on Wednesday interrupted a Zoom call promoting Democratic redistricting fights to say she was being threatened with a felony before abruptly leaving the bathroom where she had been speaking.
Collier made headlines for sleeping at the state Capitol rather than agreeing to police surveillance imposed by Republicans following a Democratic walkout and ahead of a vote on partisan redistricting efforts.
“They said it’s a felony for me to do this,” Collier said on the Democratic National Committee-hosted call with reporters. “Apparently, I can’t be on the floor or in the bathroom.”
Collier left after a brief exchange with someone who wasn’t visible on camera. It is unclear what she did that would constitute a felony.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who was also on the call, seized the moment and reacted sharply to the bizarre turn of events.
“That is outrageous!” Booker said. “Representative Collier, in the bathroom, has more dignity than [President] Donald Trump in the Oval Office. That is outrageous. What they are trying to do right there is silence an American leader, silence a black woman, and that is outrageous, and I hope everyone took note of that. The fact that she can’t even let her voice be heard is freaking outrageous, and this is what we are fighting for here.”
Collier was among dozens of Texas Democrats who left the state to delay the Republican-controlled state legislature’s new map, drawn at the behest of Trump in an effort to gain five new GOP House seats ahead of the midterm elections. When the Democrats returned on Monday, Republicans said they should have police escorts and surveillance so they wouldn’t try to leave the state a second time. Collier refused to sign what Democrats called a “permission slip” needed to leave the House chamber and spent the past two nights on the House floor.
DNC Chairman Ken Martin called for Wednesday’s Zoom call to show party unity in the fight against Trump and Republicans. He introduced Collier, Booker, and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) as “fighters” before the bathroom drama unfolded.
Newsom, a rumored front-runner for the 2028 presidential election, has been rising within the ranks of possible Democratic candidates with his take-no-prisoners response to Trump.
“Nothing about this is normal, and so we’re not going to act as if anything is normal any longer,” Newsom said. “Yes, we’ll fight fire with fire. Yes, we will push back. It’s not about whether we play hardball anymore. It’s about how we play hardball.”
Newsom also told Collier that California had her back and pitched the redistricting fight as one between the “rule of Don and the rule of law.”
Texas Republicans are expected to approve a new partisan congressional map on Wednesday that will give them a five-seat boost in the House.
The redrawing of Texas’s map is the first battle in a coast-to-coast war over redistricting between GOP-led states and those controlled by Democrats. Trump and his allies are also eying redrawing districts in Indiana, Missouri, and Florida.
Newsom and California Democrats have vowed to push back against the GOP effort and are poised to approve their map on Thursday that would net them five additional House seats and declare a Nov. 4 special election. Newsom said California would “undo” what Texas did.
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Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday said he supported Newsom’s plan.
“I have tremendous respect for how Governor Newsom has approached this. Because what he has said is, I would prefer not to do it. If we were to redraw our maps, we could obviously gain more Democratic seats. That is not my preference, but we cannot unilaterally allow one of the two major parties to rig the game,” Obama said. “And California is one of the states that has the capacity to offset a large state like Texas.”
