Texas governor seeks court order to fire top Democrat who fled in row over voting map.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said he is taking legal action to remove from office dozens of Democrats who have fled the state to block a plan to redraw electoral boundaries.
He filed a lawsuit with the Texas Supreme Court seeking to fire Democratic legislator, Gene Wu, whom he called the "ringleader" of a plot to "hijack" state government.
While the filing focuses on Wu, Abbott said in a statement that the departure of more than 50 Democrats would "constitute abandonment of their office, justifying their removal".
The redrawn congressional map would create five more Republican-leaning seats in the US House of Representatives in Washington DC, where Republicans hold a slim majority.
Gerrymandering – redrawing electoral boundaries to favour a political party – has been a practice of both Democrats and Republicans nationwide over the years.
But typically, states undergo redistricting every 10 years, when voting maps are redrawn to account for population changes noted in the US census. Texas last re-drew its congressional lines in 2021, just after the 2020 census, and wouldn't typically change those lines again until the next population count in five years.
"Texas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans, and there must be consequences," the governor said in a statement.
At least two-thirds of the 150-member state legislative body in Texas must be present to proceed with the vote. The quorum became unreachable after the Democratic lawmakers fled the state at the weekend.
