Rep. Gene Wu, of Houston, and other House Democrats reported a threat to their safety, and the Illinois governor said state police are investigating.
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Democrats who fled to Chicago to block a vote on the GOP-backed redrawn congressional districts said they received a threat to their safety on Wednesday morning.
Police confirmed a bomb threat at the hotel where Democrats are staying. The St. Charles Police Department said first responders arrived at the hotel around 7:15 a.m. and searched the hotel but found nothing.
“In response to the threat, 400 people were immediately evacuated and the area was secured as bomb squad units conducted their investigation,” the department said in a statement. “Following clearance from authorities, all guests and staff have safely returned to the premises.”
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu, Mexican American Legislative Chair Rep. Ramón Ramiro and Black Caucus Chair Rep. Barbara Gervin Hawkins released the following statement on Wednesday morning.
“This morning, a threat was made against the safety of the members of the Texas House Democratic Caucus. We are safe, we are secure, and we are undeterred. We are grateful for Governor Pritzker, local, and state law enforcement for their quick action to ensure our safety.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker confirmed that the Illinois State Police are investigating the threat.
“I am aware of reports that threats were made against Texas elected officials in our state. Threats of violence will be investigated and those responsible will be held accountable,” Pritzker posted on X. “I have instructed @ILStatePolice to ensure we maintain public safety.”
Governor asks Texas Supreme Court to remove Wu from office
On Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called Wu, who represents Houston, the “ringleader of the derelict Democrats” who also fled to Boston and Albany in the battle over redistricting.
More than 50 House Democrats fled to Chicago, Boston, and Albany on Sunday to break quorum.
Abbott filed an emergency petition with the Republican-majority Texas Supreme Court to remove Wu from office.
“I made clear in a formal statement on Sunday, August 3, that if the Texas House Democrats were not in attendance when the House reconvened at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, then action would be taken to seek their removal,” Abbott said. “They have not returned and have not met the quorum requirements. Representative Wu and the other Texas House Democrats have shown a willful refusal to return, and their absence for an indefinite period of time deprives the House of the quorum needed to meet and conduct business on behalf of Texans. Texas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans, and there must be consequences.”
Wu quickly responded with the following statement.
“This office does not belong to Greg Abbott, and it does not belong to me. It belongs to the people of House District 137, who elected me. I took an oath to the constitution, not a politician’s agenda, and I will not be the one to break that oath.
“Let me be unequivocal about my actions and my duty. When a governor conspires with a disgraced president to ram through a racist gerrymandered map, my constitutional duty is to not be a willing participant. When that governor holds disaster relief for 137 dead Texans and their families hostage, my moral duty is to sound the alarm — by any means necessary.
“Denying the governor a quorum was not an abandonment of my office; it was a fulfillment of my oath. Unable to defend his corrupt agenda on its merits, Greg Abbott now desperately seeks to silence my dissent by removing a duly-elected official from office.
“History will judge this moment. It will show a Governor who used the law as a weapon to silence his people, and it will show those of us who stood for a higher principle.
“To Governor Abbott: You have failed the people of Texas, and you are using the courts to punish those who refused to fail with you. My purpose has been clear from the start: to serve my constituents and fight for what’s right, no matter the cost. You will find that my commitment to the people of Texas is unbreakable.”
Below is Gov. Abbott’s filing to the Texas Supreme Court.
Why dozens of Democrats left Texas and how Republicans are trying to punish them
By The Associated Press | Published 8/5/25
A walkout by Texas House Democrats is stalling redrawn political maps that President Donald Trump wants before the 2026 elections to bolster Republican chances of keeping its U.S. House majority.
Since leaving the state on Aug. 3 to block a vote in the Texas Capitol, dozens of Democrats have scattered to Chicago, New York and Boston and faced escalating threats from Republicans who have signed civil arrest warrants and mobilized state troopers.
Trump said Tuesday the FBI “may have to” help to bring back Texas Democrats, who have not said how long they are prepared to hold out. But they’ve signaled no intention of quickly returning home.
Here are some things to know:
Trump wants to redraw the Texas congressional map in hopes of adding five more GOP seats in Texas in the midterm elections to boost his party’s chance of preserving its slim U.S. House majority. Republicans currently hold 25 of the state’s 38 seats.
As the minority party in the state House and Senate, Democrats simply do not have the votes to stop the plan under normal legislative procedures. The maps were passed by a committee last week and swiftly scheduled for a floor vote.
Sizing up their limited power and options, Democrats chose to deny the quorum as their only chance to put the brakes on Trump’s plan and to rally national support.
Many went to Illinois and New York.
Pritzker welcomed Democrats in Chicago. Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender who has been one of Trump’s most outspoken critics during the president’s second term, had been in quiet talks with Texas Democrats for weeks about offering support if they chose to leave the state.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has hosted Texas Democrats in Albany, said the fight over congressional lines in Texas has implications nationally.
Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has said his state would move forward with partisan redistricting if Texas proceeds. California Democrats are considering redrawing the state’s congressional map to carve out five districts and give the party 48 out of its 52 seats.
The governor said he would do this by calling a November special election to get approval from voters to circumvent the state’s independent commission responsible for redistricting.
Abbott has asked the state Supreme Court, which is entirely controlled by GOP justices, to remove the Democratic House leader from office through an untested legal argument that the absent legislators have effectively forfeited their seats. Democrats blasted the lawsuit and the court has not ruled.
A lawmaker refusing to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules, and they can be fined $500 for every day they aren’t at the Capitol. In 2021, the Texas Supreme Court held that House leaders had the authority to “physically compel the attendance” of missing members but no Democrats were forcibly brought back to the state after warrants were served that year in a similar quorum break.
Texas Democrats have fled the state before in attempts to thwart the Republican majority.
They twice denied the GOP a quorum in 2003 to stop Republican efforts to redraw voting maps, at one point leaving for Oklahoma and later for New Mexico. In 2021, Democrats left the state in the final days of the session over an elections bill and new voting restrictions. They stayed away for 38 days.
Both efforts only delayed the Republican-led measures that were ultimately passed once Democrats eventually returned to Austin.
And while the current special session ends Aug. 20, Abbott has the authority to keep calling lawmakers back to the Capitol for 30-day special sessions to pass the redistricting bill and any other item he believes should be addressed.
The current special session agenda includes help for communities devastated by the July Fourth floods that killed at least 136 people. As part of their walkout, Texas Democrats have accused Republicans of prioritizing the politics of redistricting over flood victims.
Abbott has defended the redistricting plan as an effort to redraw lines to better reflect voters who supported Trump in the 2024 election, when he easily won Texas. He said there was nothing illegal about drawing lines on the basis of political makeup.
“All of these districts that are being added are districts that were won by Trump,” he said in an interview with Fox News.
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