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It was unclear how the agency would respond. Democratic lawmakers left the state to stop Republicans from redrawing district maps to their advantage.
Aug. 5, 2025Updated 3:02 p.m. ET
Senator John Cornyn of Texas asked the F.B.I. on Tuesday to help locate and arrest dozens of Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas to block the State Legislature from voting on a Republican plan that could help the party keep control of Congress after the 2026 elections.
The potential use of federal agents to round up the Texas lawmakers, who have sought refuge in New York, Illinois and Massachusetts, would be a significant step, and could set up a clash between the governors of those Democratic states and the Trump administration.
Hours later, the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, said that if the absent Democrats did not return by Friday he would seek a court order declaring their seats vacant.
The lawmakers left Texas on Sunday as the state House of Representatives was racing to adopt a redrawn congressional district map, which had been demanded by President Trump.
The proposed map would remake five districts now represented by Democrats to give Republican candidates a significant advantage. “We are entitled to five more seats,” Mr. Trump said in an CNBC interview on Tuesday, giving the justification that he had won the state decisively in last year’s presidential election.
In a letter to the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, Mr. Cornyn, a Republican, said that “federal resources are necessary to locate the out-of-state Texas legislators who are potentially acting in violation of the law.”
