August 8, 2025: Texas AG sues to remove Democratic lawmakers who remain absent from legislature

Our live coverage of the redistricting battle has concluded for the day. Please scroll through the posts below to learn about today’s developments.

Former gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke speaks to attendees during a rally in Austin, Texas on October 2, 2024.

A district judge in Texas granted a temporary restraining order today that will prohibit former gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke’s political group from fundraising to cover the costs of the Democratic lawmakers who have fled the state to block Republicans’ redistricting efforts.

The swift decision comes just hours after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a the lawsuit against O’Rourke and his PAC, Powered By People, alleging in a news release that the group “intentionally misled donors to fund runaway Democrats’ personal expenses.”

The Friday evening ruling bars the group for 14 days from using, raising or offering funds for out-of-state travel, hotel and dining costs incurred by the lawmakers.

The judge argued in her ruling that the group’s fundraising efforts are “unlawful and harms Texas consumers” and thus, a temporary block “is in the public interest.”

CNN has reached out to Powered By People for comment.

O’Rourke said in a post on X that Paxton’s lawsuit against his organization is an effort “to try to take us out of the fight.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference with members of the Texas Democratic legislators, at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento, California, on Friday.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to get his redistricting effort on the ballot for a November special election, emphasizing that the state’s redistricting efforts were “emergency measures.”

“We will raise an unprecedented amount of attention, and we will garner an unprecedented amount of support, because people understand what’s at stake,” Newsom said in a press conference.

Newsom emphasized that he did not seek to get rid of the independent California Citizens Redistricting Commission and said the new lines would be temporary.

“We are talking about emergency measures to respond to what’s happening in Texas, and we will nullify what happens in Texas,” the California governor said. “We will pick up five seats with the consent of the people, and that’s the difference between the approach we’re taking and the approach they’re taking. We’re doing it a temporary basis.

“We’re doing it in a fully transparent way, and we’re doing it by asking the people of the state of California for their consent and support. Mark that stark contrast to what’s happening in Texas and other states.”

Speaker of the California Assembly Robert Rivas said Democrats will soon release their plans for redistricting in response to Texas.

“The maps, we anticipate, will be available next week,” Rivas said at a press conference Friday with state Democratic lawmakers, Gov. Gavin Newsom, and several Texas Democrats who have left their state to try to stall the GOP redistricting push there.

California voters would have to approve moving forward with the partisan redistricting effort in their state, which is currently governed by an independent committee. A referendum is expected to be held this November to change the maps in time for next year’s midterms.

“Once these maps are released, voters will have the opportunity to digest these maps, review them for weeks and months leading to this election,” Rivas said.

“We are going above and beyond to ensure that, one, we are protecting the Voting Rights Act, and that we are sending the voices of our most vulnerable to Washington, DC,” he added.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks at a press conference with members of the Texas Democratic legislators and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento, California, on Friday.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today that the California effort to redraw their US House maps is “self-defense” to the redistricting push in Texas.

“They have come at our national democracy, and we are here to defend it,” Pelosi said at a press conference featuring several Texas Democratic lawmakers who have left the state to try to stall the GOP effort, in addition to a host of California Democrats and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Pelosi said that California Democrats were “unified” around a plan to embark on a redistricting push of their own in an attempt to neutralize the impact of the Texas GOP effort, which could eliminate up to five US House seats currently held by Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterms.

“The president has paved over the Rose Garden. He’s paved over freedom of speech. He’s paved over freedom of education, the list goes on and on,” Pelosi said. “But we will not let him pave over free and fair elections in our country, starting with what he’s trying to do in Texas – countering that.

Pelosi also sought to rebut criticism for Democrats who have advocated for electoral reforms, including anti-gerrymandering measures, in the past. “This isn’t two wrongs,” she said. “It’s not a wrong in what we’re doing.”

US Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California said Democrats have the backing of every member of the state’s congressional delegation for their proposed map that could eliminate five Republican districts in retaliation for a Texas effort to redraw five Democratic-held districts.

“I’m happy to report that every single member of the California delegation is willing to support a plan to do that,” Lofgren said. “We cannot stand here and just shrug as Trump and the Republicans try and rig the rules so they can avoid responsibility for the damage that they have done to this country.”

Speaking at a press conference with Gov. Gavin Newsom, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and some of the Texas House Democrats who left the state, Lofgren laid out some of the Democrats’ thinking.

“The Democrats in California are happy with all our districts, just as they are, but when we saw that Texas was going to create the most segregated map in Texas since the ‘60s, to eliminate all of the minority districts that they could, so that they could create five Republican districts, we said, could we create a map that eliminated five Republican districts but that was true to the Voting Rights Act, and we found that we could.”

Texas state Rep. Gene Wu speaks during a live spin room, following a press conference with California Gov. Newsom and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.

Texas Rep. Gene Wu asserted that Democrats will stay strong as they face lawsuits from state officials after the Texas House failed again to reach quorum.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced he is filing a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court to remove some of the lawmakers who have broken quorum.

Texas Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu said he has filed a response to Gov. Greg Abbott’s “unconstitutional, illegal, and just ill-advised motion in the Texas Supreme Court.”

He said a lot of lawyers laughed at the motion.

“Because the black letter of the law says that Gov. Abbott does not have that power. And the Supreme Court is the wrong place to file this,” said Wu, the minority leader of the Texas House.

Earlier this week, Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to remove Wu from office — one of more than 50 quorum-breaking Democratic House members who fled the state to forestall a vote on new congressional maps.

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said a GOP leader in the state has asked the sergeant at arms in the Illinois House of Representatives for help in returning Texas Democrats who are in Illinois back to Austin.

But the Illinois speaker’s office told CNN today that it was not something that falls under its purview.

After the Texas House failed to reach a quorum again today, Burrows said that Rep. Charlie Geren, who chairs the Committee on House Administration, was in touch with the sergeant at arms of the Illinois House of Representatives.

Some context: Texas Republicans are waging a pressure campaign on the Democrats who remain in other states. Burrows signed civil arrest warrants for the Democrats earlier this week. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also asked an Illinois court to make those arrest warrants from Texas enforceable in Illinois. As of Friday, no hearing has been scheduled to consider the matter, and it’s unclear when a judge might weigh in.

Beto O'Rourke speaks during a rally to protest against redistricting hearings at the Texas Capitol in Austin on July 24.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced today that he was suing Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke over his fundraising on behalf of quorum-breaking state lawmakers, continuing his escalation of the GOP pressure campaign as Democrats try to block the Republican redistricting push.

Paxton’s office said it was requesting a “a temporary restraining order and an injunction” preventing O’Rourke and his PAC, Powered By People, from continuing to raise funds for the Texas Democrats who have left the state in an attempt to stall the aggressive GOP redistricting push in the state legislature.

The move follows Paxton’s earlier announcement that he was suing to remove from office 13 of the Democratic lawmakers who left the state, arguing they had forfeited their seats. It’s part of an intensifying effort by state Republicans to return the absent Democrats, including the deployment of law enforcement, legal threats and fines.

O’Rourke, a prominent Texas Democrat and former presidential candidate, has been raising funds for the state lawmakers, who facing growing travel costs and legal expenses.

“We’ve got to have their backs,” O’Rourke said in an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room” on Wednesday, praising “tens of thousands” of donors for contributing toward “their food, their flights,” and “the defense that they’re going to need.”