Alan Zendell, August 4, 2025

Texas law empowers the Governor, Greg Abbott, to remove legislators from office if it can be proved that they willfully abandoned their office, thus forfeiting carrying out their responsibilities. In 2021, when the Republican dominated legislature tried to amend the Texas’s election laws to make it more difficult for Democratic-leaning groups to vote, the Democrats in the legislature staged a walkout. The intent was to assure that there would not be a quorum when the Republicans attempted to force the changes through.

At the time, the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton wrote an opinion addressing how much power the Governor actually had in such cases. “While Paxton said it was beyond the scope of his office to say whether any one lawmaker’s quorum break constituted abandonment of office, he underscored that courts have a right to make that determination and remove public officials.” When Abbott threatened the Democrats with everything from being removed from office to being arrested and tried as felons, his only legal justification was Paxton’s 2021 opinion. As Paxton suggested, if the Democrats and Abbott both stay on their present course the result will be an extended court battle.

It’s unclear which way the Supreme Court would rule, but what is more predictable, is that by tying the issue up in court, the Democrats might achieve what Trump did in 2024. More than ninety felony convictions against Trump disappeared, simply because his delaying tactics caused time to run out. The Republicans knew that if Trump won the election, he would never have to face the consequences of those convictions.

There’s also a clock ticking on the Texas legislature’s attempts to redistrict the state to take five seats away from Democrats. Legislative sessions don’t last forever, and even in Texas, the legislature is bound by laws and rules. What I take from all this is that finally, the Democrats found an issue worth going all out to fight over, and it certainly is that. If states are permitted to change their voting maps at the behest of a power-crazed president, there will be no hope of preserving our Constitution and democracy.

What happened that resulted in the Democrats showing some real backbone? Who was behind it? It almost sounded like someone grabbed the reins of leadership and took control, a concept many of us doubted would ever come to fruition.

On April 28 at the annual gathering of Democrats in New Hampshire, Governor J. B. Pritzker of Illinois gave a rousing speech rallying Democrats to fight back against Trump before it was too late. Pritzker was powerful and eloquent. He sounded like exactly the leader Democrats needed, and I applauded him here, under the rather optimistic title, “Democrats Finally Have the Leader They Desparately Need.” But Pritzker stayed under the radar after that, and I assumed, incorrectly, I hope, that it was because he was Jewish. With Trump stirring up every racist, bigot, White Supremacist, and just haters in general, I didn’t think having a Jew leading the party would work. Sometimes, it’s good to be wrong.

Pritzker has been quietly working behind the scenes, doing the one thing that was essential to oppose Trump. He was strategizing, organizing, and putting all of his energy into crating a formidable opposition. Pritzker is a billionaire who profits from Trump’s autocratic policies as much as Trump’s billionaire friends and sycophants. But Pritzker clearly cares more about the future of the United States and the values it was built on than enriching himself further. That’s enough for me. I’m all in on J. B. Pritzker, now that it’s clear that he provided the impetus and security needed to enable Texas Democrats to fight back.

Pritzker brought a planeload of them to Illinois, where he pledged to do everything in his power to protect them. Along with California Governor Gavin Newsom, Pritzker said everything is on the table for this fight. When you’re under constant siege, it’s essential to pick your battles and preserve your resources. Newsom called the redistricting issue existential, meaning it’s a red line Democrats must not permit Republicans to cross.

The walkout by Democratic Texas legislators happened as part of an effort by several Democratic Governors, led by Pritzker and Newsom. The good news in all this is that the walkout was not a one-off desperate last stand. It was organized by prominent Democrats from all over the country, and that should give all of us hope, and when we add New York and New Jersey, the Democrats have state legislatures of their own capapble of yielding far more political benefit than Texas. The only question is whether the blue states should follow Texas down the rabbit hole of extreme gerrymandering.

If you take one thing away from this, it should be that the Democrats are not leaderless. They’re just quiet about it. And I permanently withdraw any objection to J. B. Pritzker grabbing the reins and guiding his party and the nation into 2026 and 2028.