Texas lawmaker in redistricting fight spends night in Capitol to avoid police monitor

By Gerardo Gomez

Aug 19 (Reuters) - Democratic state Representative Nicole Collier spent the night in the Texas Capitol building rather than agree to a police monitor amid a contentious partisan struggle over redistricting that is part of President Donald Trump's campaign to keep the national House of Representatives in Republican hands.

Democrats had abandoned the state legislature for two weeks to deny a quorum in the Texas House, delaying a redistricting plan drawn up at Trump's behest.

After they returned to the statehouse on Monday, the Republican leadership assigned state law enforcement officers to monitor the Democrats to prevent further delays to their plan to redraw U.S. congressional voting districts to favor Republicans ahead of the 2026 election.

Collier, in her seventh two-year term representing Fort Worth, refused to agree to the police monitor, remaining in the Capitol building in protest.

Collier posted a picture of herself on X on Tuesday sleeping on a chair with a blanket and the caption, "This was my night, bonnet and all, in the #txlege."

CNN reported that Texas State Representatives Gene Wu and Vince Perez, also Democrats, joined her in solidarity overnight, bringing snacks of dried fruit, ramen and popcorn.

"What matters to me is making sure that I resist and fight back against and push back," Collier told Reuters from the Capitol in an interview on Monday.

Republican lawmakers in Texas did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

More than 50 Texas House Democrats had left the state, aiming to deny Republicans enough lawmakers in attendance to hold a vote. They returned to the statehouse on Monday, saying the delay had enabled their party to counter with a plan by California Governor Gavin Newsom to set in motion a redistricting plan in that largely Democratic state designed to offset any Republican gains in Texas.

The rhetoric has been charged. At one point Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said any lawmaker who solicited funds to pay a $500-per-day fine Texas House rules impose on absent legislators could violate bribery laws and called them "potential out-of-state felons." Newsom has called his effort the “Election Rigging Response Act.”

Speaker of the Texas House Dustin Burrows, a Republican, said on Monday that the Democrats who had left the state but returned would only be allowed to leave the House chambers if they agreed to be released into the custody of an agent from the Texas Department of Public Safety, who would ensure they are present at House sessions going forward. He then scheduled the next session for Wednesday.

Several Democrats bristled at the escorts but agreed to them.

“Rep. Collier’s choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules. I am choosing to spend my time focused on moving the important legislation on the call to overhaul camp safety, provide property tax reform and eliminate the STAAR test — the results Texans care about,” Burrows said in a statement.

After Monday's session ended, Collier stood alone in the center of the chamber in the state capital of Austin, making phone calls and doing interviews while surrounded by a sea of empty seats.

"You know that high road that people talk about, you know, talking when they go low, we go high? That road has crumbled. We're now on the dirt road and we're going to meet them there on the dirt road right where they are and be ready to fight," Collier said.

"So they've closed the gallery, They've locked the doors, they've turned off the cameras in here. And I hear people yelling, 'Let her out,' because they are tired too," Collier said on Monday night.

"They're trying to silence us. And we cannot. If we allow them to do that, what we know as being free is gone. If we continue to allow them to trample over us. ... I don't know what is left for America."

Wu, the minority leader and chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, has said that the current congressional districts in Texas already dilute the voting power of racial minorities in the state, and the new redistricting plan represented "turbocharged racism."

Abbott in an appearance on Fox News called Wu's accusation "bogus," saying redistricting would create more Hispanic-majority districts. He argued that it was also necessary to give Trump voters in Democrat-majority districts the ability to elect Republicans.

Collier, a former chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, said in a statement on Monday, "My community is majority-minority, and they expect me to stand up for their representation."