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Tag: Texas Legislature

  • Texas appeals to U.S. Supreme Court after federal judges block newly drawn congressional map for next year’s midterm elections

    Hours after federal judges blocked Texas from using its newly drawn congressional map, state leaders filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. 

    The redrawn map sparked a nationwide redistricting battle and is part of President Trump’s efforts to preserve a Republican majority in the House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections. 

    The Tuesday ruling came in a 2-1 vote by a three-judge panel. It dealt a blow to Republicans while Democrats celebrated it.

    That’s because under the newly drawn map approved by Republicans, who stood to gain five congressional seats in Texas, the Democrats were facing a game of political musical chairs — some were set to retire or primary each other. Now, that may not have to happen.  

    “Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map,” which is illegal, the two federal judges who voted to block the map said in the ruling.

    They also cited a U.S. Department of Justice letter to Gov. Greg Abbott from July about four coalition districts made up of Blacks and Latinos that include the 33rd Congressional District in North Texas, represented by Democrat Marc Veasey. 

    “DOJ threatened legal action if Texas didn’t immediately dismantle and redraw these districts, a threat based on their racial makeup. Notably, the DOJ letter targeted only majority non-white districts,” the judges’ ruling said. “Any mention of majority white districts, which DOJ presumably would have also targeted if its aims were partisan rather than racial, was conspicuously absent.”

    There was no initial word on what the third judge on the panel said in dissenting.  

    Abbott slams judge’s “erroneous” decision

    In a statement Tuesday, Abbott slammed the judges’ decision, calling it “clearly erroneous” and saying it “undermines the authority the U.S. Constitution assigns to the Texas Legislature by imposing a different map by judicial edict. The State of Texas will swiftly appeal to the United States Supreme Court.” 

    The state filed its appeal to the highest court late Tuesday afternoon. 

    CBS News Texas spoke with Democratic members of Congress from North Texas who praised the ruling. 

    “I totally agree with the court,” said Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Farmers Branch. “You know, what the Republicans and Greg Abbott did in Texas, to seeking to disenfranchise voters of color was egregious, and the court clearly agreed with that. This opinion is sharp, and it is clear, and it is concise.” 

    Veasey, whose district covers Fort Worth, said, “I feel like we’re on good legal grounds here. So, I feel confident, but, you know, I’m going to be again cautiously optimistic in watching what the Supreme Court says.” 

    “I’ve always made it clear that this was racial, and I know that some people want to run away from the race element, but the law protects it. We know that our Constitution recognizes and protects it,” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas.

    Texas Republicans criticize judges’ decision

    CBS News Texas also spoke with Republicans Tuesday night who called the judges’ decision wrong and said they are putting their faith in the U.S. Supreme Court. 

    Aaron Reitz, a GOP candidate for Texas attorney general, said, “My view is similar to Gov. Abbott’s and Attorney General Paxton, who have criticized the decision because, in fact, race was not used to draw these lines. Only politics was used, which is the appropriate standard.” 

    Another candidate for attorney general, State Senator Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, said it was a partisan map. 

    “Quite simply, this is a partisan map that draws more Republican seats and that’s why we’re going to win,” said Middleton. “That is why we’re going to be victorious in this appeal before the Supreme Court.” 

    As a result of the ruling, Rep. Johnson and Rep. Veasey said they will run for re-election in the districts they represent now. 

    Crockett she said she still hasn’t decided whether to run for re-election in her district in Dallas or if she is going to run statewide for U.S. Senate. She said she is waiting for polling to come back and that she hopes to make a decision by Thanksgiving. 

    The key, Crockett said, is if the polling shows she can beat a Republican candidate in the general election next November. 

    “At the end of the day, if the numbers are strong that I am our best shot, then it’s bigger than my district, it’s bigger than the state of Texas,” said Crockett. “This is about the country because we know if we can change the Senate map in this country, then that’s where we start to get wins.” 

    Crockett said the only way she or another Democrat can win is if they attract new voters, people who haven’t gone to the polls before, and not simply by attracting Republicans who cross the political aisle.

    Watch Eye On Politics at 7:30 Sunday morning on CBS News Texas on air and streaming

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  • How Half Price Books is Staying Vigilant in the Fight Against Censorship

    Though book bans aren’t new, many researchers and insiders in the book business agree that censorship efforts seem to be increasing. We at the Observer know this, too, which is why this year’s Best of Dallas issue is themed around banned books…

    Rhema Joy Bell

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  • Hemp Hemp Hooray! Texas THC Experts Call Abbott’s Executive Order a Win.

    On Wednesday morning, Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order placing limitations on the distribution of hemp-derived THC products in Texas. The order comes after the closure of a second special session, where an attempt to completely ban THC products failed for the third consecutive time…

    Alyssa Fields

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  • THC Ban is Probably Dead as Texas Legislature Nears End of Second Special Session

    The Texas Legislature passed a slew of bills in record time, knocking out high-priority GOP legislation on redistricting, the STAAR test, abortion, and bathroom safety, and nonpartisan laws to strengthen youth camp regulations and disaster preparedness. But THC reform — once designated the sole reason a special session was called — has stalled in the House of Representatives.

    The Legislature’s second 30-day special session began on August 15, following a two-week quorum break in which more than 50 House Democrats fled the state to avoid voting on a congressional redistricting map that they claim is racially discriminatory. Republicans have been working feverishly to make up for lost time, and they’ve also signaled that they’re ready to go home now.

    University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus said it looks like lawmakers are close to the finish line and will not call a third special session. That means THC reform is likely dead in the water, the professor said.

    “Regulating something this broad and financially impactful was going to be a challenge regardless of when it happened,” Rottinghaus said. “For them to put it last means it’s probably not going to happen. It’s a politically very dicey issue where many of the other things that passed were easier for Republicans to present on a unified front. [Legislators] are ready to go back to their real lives, and I think THC reform is going to be one of the casualties.”

    While the Democrats were away, the lawmakers who stayed in Austin teed up their priority bills, which were sure to pass in the majority-GOP House and Senate once a quorum was restored, Rottinghaus said.

    “Republicans were coiled up and ready to pounce,” he said. “Once the Democrats came back, the floodgates were open and the Republicans were foot on the gas, straight ahead, no brakes, with their legislative agenda.”

    But it appears that THC and the powerful multibillion-dollar hemp lobby proved too challenging to tackle in just 30 days, the professor added.

    “THC is a little harder because it cuts across the ideological spectrum,” he said. “It’s a much more challenging political issue to deal with. As a policy matter, the regulatory approach is going to be something that they want to take a more careful look at. A 30-day session is not going to be enough to do everything they need to do to put these regulations in place.”

    “Regulation of something this important and financially impactful, on the fly, would be a potentially serious problem for the state,” he added. “They have to get it right, and I think as a result they wanted to just take a knee and wait until they can have more time to study the issue.”

    Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick once lauded the THC ban as one of the most important pieces of legislation facing the state government, calling it a life-or-death issue. A previous iteration of what is now Senate Bill 6 was approved by both chambers in the regular session that ended in June but vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott.

    The governor, at the time, was facing pushback from the hemp industry and said he wanted to make revisions before signing it into law. Patrick’s ban would prohibit the sale of products containing any detectable amount of cannabinoid other than CBD and CBG, non-intoxicating components of cannabis.

    Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, proposed alternative bills that push for regulation and decriminalization. Neither has gotten a hearing. If no action is taken on the ban, political experts say hemp-derived THC will remain legal in Texas but manufacturers and distributors should expect more enforcement of the laws already on the books.

    Under current law, products like smokable vapes, gummies, candy, and drinks may not contain more than 0.3 percent concentration, or intoxicating levels, of THC. There has been little enforcement in the past, according to the Texas Tribune, because of the burden it places on the criminal justice system to test the products and cite retailers who have mislabeled packages.

    The House convened on Tuesday at noon. Calendar items included HB 18, which would ban lawmakers from raising money while breaking quorum, and SB 54, which aims to remove bureaucratic voter registration hurdles for residents who move within the same county and don’t have a current address on their voter ID card. The THC bill hasn’t yet been scheduled for a House committee hearing.

    Rottinghaus said that even if nothing else happens before the Legislature gavels out, the accomplishments of the second special session have been impressive.

    “The number of bills and the scope of bills have been pretty successful in advancing the governor’s agenda,” he said. “A lot of these things were pent up and had already been vetted before the Democrats broke quorum and so now this is just executing some of the discussion that was either public or had already been talked about in legislative chambers. This is the culmination of a lot of demand.”

    Redistricting
    The most contentious item on Governor Abbott’s massive special session agenda was congressional redistricting. Republicans acknowledged publicly that it was an effort to secure five GOP seats in the U.S. House; Democrats labeled it a power grab from President Trump.

    After Democrats returned from the quorum break, the map swiftly passed the House on August 20 and the Senate on August 23. Abbott signed it into law a few days later. Amid accusations that the map exhibits racial gerrymandering and violates the Voting Rights Act, a federal court hearing is set for October.

    Flood Bills
    Nonpartisan legislation to improve emergency response and impose safety standards for youth camps was filed soon after 137 people died in the July 4 Hill Country floods.

    The bills stalled during the quorum break, with Democrats accusing the GOP of putting redistricting before the flood victims and Republicans saying they could have passed the laws sooner if the Dems hadn’t fled the state.

    The Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act passed on August 22 and disaster preparedness legislation, including civil warning sirens to alert residents of severe flooding, was also approved.

    STAAR Test
    After years of debate over how to better administer standardized testing in public schools, both chambers voted last week to eliminate the STAAR test and replace it with three shorter exams staggered throughout the year.

    Rottinghaus said the Democrat walkout actually unified Republicans on the STAAR test when previously they hadn’t been able to reach a compromise.

    “They were pretty far apart in the regular session with some pretty significant differences,” he said. “With enough time and some incentive from Democrats to unify, Republicans were able to find a path forward on STAAR testing.”

    Lt. Gov. Patrick said in a statement that the new system, which will be implemented in 2027, is a victory for Texas parents, educators, and students.

    “For far too long, Texas students and teachers have been burdened by the STAAR test, a cumbersome one-size-fits-all assessment that fails to actually measure student educational achievement,” he said. “The Texas Senate passed HB 8 to phase out the STAAR test once and for all, replacing it with a system to assess student growth and improve educational outcomes.”

    Republican Priorities
    Following the contentious, nationally publicized quorum break, Republicans used their leverage to pass a “bathroom bill” and stricter abortion laws.

    “Now it’s become a process issue where Republicans are not willing to play nicely and pursue a standard legislative process,” Rottinghaus said. “They want to push things as fast as they can because they want to get out of town. My guess is that, regardless, we would have seen a lot of these bills pass, but it was the way in which they passed that definitely illustrated a lot of hard feelings between Republicans and Democrats.”

    The widely criticized abortion bill passed on August 28, after Republican lawmakers rejected “every single Democratic amendment designed to protect Texas women from preventable deaths,” according to Texas House Democrats and the Texas Women’s Health Caucus.

    Texas already has one of the most restrictive “near total” abortion bans in the country, meaning women can’t get a legal abortion but they could order medication online from another state. Attorney General Ken Paxton has pursued prison time for midwives allegedly offering care or resources to women who are seeking to terminate a pregnancy.

    The new law allows private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, mails, prescribes or provides abortion medication for a minimum of $100,000 and “creates a slush fund system where bounty hunters can direct nearly all their winnings to extremist organizations,” according to those who oppose it.

    “This law will kill Texas women, and Republicans know it,” said Texas House Minority Leader Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston. “This extremist legislation puts Texas politicians in charge of women’s medicine cabinets while creating a surveillance state where your neighbors can profit from reporting your medical decisions.”

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    A sign at Gibsons hardware store in Weatherford designates that only those who are assigned women at birth are permitted in a women’s restroom.

    Photo by April Towery

    The bathroom bill, Senate Bill 8, was approved last week after hours of testimony that went late into the night. Some opponents refer to it as “legalized bathroom stalking” and say it is designed to create “bathroom witch hunts for political profit against Texans across the state.”

    Rep. Jessica González, Texas House LGBTQ Caucus chair, said in a statement that the bill is a “hateful and disrespectful attack on transgender Texans [that] puts millions of innocent, vulnerable lives, including those of children, at risk by encouraging vigilantism in public spaces, all to score political points for Republicans.”

    There’s confusion about how the law prohibiting those whose birth gender is female from using male restrooms and vice versa will be enforced. Some speakers during the floor debate questioned whether women with short hair who favor slacks over dresses will have to carry their birth certificates with them when they use the restroom. A $25,000 fine can be assessed against government facilities that don’t comply with the law. Individuals will not be fined.

    Wu said, “The bathroom witch hunt bill is nothing but another cruel political stunt from Republicans who continue to target vulnerable Texans instead of addressing the real challenges facing our state.”

    The Independent Women’s Law Center and the nonprofit Texas Values praised the Texas Legislature for being one of 17 states to legally define “man” and “woman.”

    “It is long overdue that we put protections in place for women and girls in their private spaces in Texas,” said Mary Elizabeth Castle, director of government relations for Texas Values. “No woman or girl in the gym locker room should have to constantly look over her shoulder to see if a man is there watching her shower or undress. Our Texas legislature has made the message loud and clear: You don’t mess with Texas women and their dignity.”

    Another GOP-backed bill, which will allow Texans to purchase ivermectin over the counter from a pharmacy, was widely debated on the House floor and passed 88 to 51 on August 27.

    What’s Left
    Rottinghaus said that of the remaining items that haven’t been addressed, more attention could be given to property taxes, taxpayer-funded lobbying, and punishment for quorum breakers, but there’s nothing that has to happen.

    “We haven’t seen a lot of overt pressure from the governor,” Rottinghaus said. “That’s not his style exactly, especially when it comes to a broad agenda. He’ll identify specific things and then push those, but in general, he’s not telling the legislature to do everything on his list. That would be impractical. We haven’t seen much pressure from him, but I think [Speaker of the House Dustin] Burrows feels the pressure.”

    The professor emphasized that this is a part-time legislature and it’s reasonable to expect that they may return soon to their families and professional obligations.

    “It’s probably to [Abbott’s] benefit to take a victory lap, take credit for what’s been done and let the legislators go home,” he said.

    April Towery

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  • House Votes to Oust STAAR Test And Replace It With Smaller Benchmark Exams in 2027

    Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, along with many educators and students, have tried for years to get rid of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness but some remain skeptical of a proposal to replace the exam with three smaller tests staggered throughout the year, a measure that passed the state House on Tuesday.

    Proposals from Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, and Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, aim to eliminate the STAAR test and instead require students to take less intense “support” exams at the beginning, middle and end of the school year. Results would be available within 48 hours, providing teachers with “timely data to adjust their instruction,” according to the bill authors.

    The new law, if signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, would become effective for the 2027-28 school year. The Legislature attempted to eliminate the STAAR test earlier this year but lawmakers in the House and Senate couldn’t agree on a final version of the bill. The matter was placed on a special session agenda among dozens of other items.

    Buckley’s bill passed the House on Tuesday, 78 to 58. The Senate passed the bill earlier this month but will have to do so again under the second special session that began August 15.

    One point of contention is whether the Texas Education Agency will have a role in administering and crafting the new tests, which will be based on a rigid set of criteria known as Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. Some state representatives brought this up during a floor debate Tuesday.

    Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, proposed that the tests be written by a third party and balked at the power given to TEA. Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, who serves as the vice chair of the Public Education Committee, asked that a decision be delayed, arguing that Buckley’s latest iteration with amendments was confusing and many lawmakers hadn’t had time to read it.

    “It’s too big; it’s too complicated; and it’s too important,” Bernal said. “Let’s not pass this bill now. Let’s create a commission made up of House members, Senate members, and governor appointees to work together and emerge from that process with something that we can all support and agree on.” 

    Hinojosa has said it will cost taxpayers $50 million for TEA to redesign the program. Buckley explained that the long implementation period is needed to ensure that the state, not the individual school districts, absorb additional costs.

    “This bill replaces the STAAR test and it reforms our Texas assessment program and strengthens the state’s accountability system while creating greater transparency, oversight, and ultimately, predictability for our public schools,” Buckley said.

    “Members, our system is in need of reform,” Buckley added. “We’re in a position where districts see our school accountability ratings as broken and they have resorted to suing the state over these issues. House Bill 8 is our opportunity to change this and solve this problem. If we fail to act and pass meaningful reforms, we will remain in the same place where we’ve been for the past 13 years.”

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    Texas Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, held a press conference Monday asking voters to oppose legislation that would replace the STAAR test with three shorter exams staggered throughout the school year.

    Screenshot

    Hinojosa held a press conference Monday with Austin ISD students outlining why Buckley’s House Bill 8 isn’t a good solution and asking voters to contact their state reps to try to kill the bill.

    “[The bill] creates more testing at a time when we hear constantly from parents and teachers in our neighborhood public schools that we need less testing,” said the state representative, a former Austin ISD school board member.

    Austin ISD student Conner Praba said the STAAR test is broken and it doesn’t make sense to triple the stress, anxiety and amount of time devoted to preparing for it.

    “For what? So the TEA can shut down our neighborhood schools?” he said. “So the TEA can dictate what we learn, when we learn, and how we learn it? What HB 8 does is a whole lot of nothing good. It perpetuates a broken system of testing.”

    Hinojosa also pointed out that the bill would typically be the kind of legislation that would keep lawmakers at the Capitol late into the night, hearing public testimony. Because of the timing, as kids were returning back to school, there was very little input from advocacy groups and almost no input from public school parents, the representative said.

    “I think we could guarantee a better bill written by these students to evaluate their performance than we have currently with House Bill 8,” she said at the press conference. “I’ve told the story of my own son who tried to run away in second grade because of the stress of preparation for a third-grade STAAR. We’ve heard that reinforced here today. Our kids do not want more testing. Parents do not want more testing for our kids.”

    “Our message to Governor Abbott and [TEA Commissioner] Mike Morath is to leave our kids alone,” she added.

    Those in favor of the bill, including the advocacy group Texas Freedom Alliance, say Buckley’s House Bill 8 “marks a historic shift for Texas education,” ending the high-stakes one-size-fits-all STAAR testing and replacing it with instructionally supportive assessments that “measure real learning and return accountability to local school districts.”

    Mary Lynn Pruneda, director of education and workforce policy at Texas 2036, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and advocacy organization, said House Bill 8 is geared toward readying students for success in the classroom and for life after graduation.

    “By providing parents with accurate, regular and timely updates on their children’s academic performance, this legislation would give them the information they can count on to make good decisions to support learning outside the classroom,” she said.

    Buckley said the bill addresses “every single point” that districts raised in lawsuits against the state. “House Bill 8 increases legislative oversight of the accountability system and updates the accountability rules in the form of reports due to the legislature,” he said.

    April Towery

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  • Texas redistricting maps are racially biased, civil rights advocates claim in lawsuit

    Civil rights advocates on Tuesday filed a lawsuit to overturn a redistricting map expected to favor Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections, saying it weakens the electoral influence of Black voters.

    The NAACP and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed the lawsuit in Texas.

    They accuse Texas legislative leaders of engaging in gerrymandering to prevent Black voters from electing candidates of their choice.

    “The state of Texas is only 40% white, but white voters control over 73% of the state’s congressional seats,” Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement. “It’s quite obvious that Texas’s effort to redistrict mid-decade, before next year’s midterm elections, is racially motivated. The state’s intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional.”

    Since the Voting Rights Act was adopted, the state of Texas has been found to have discriminated against Black and/or Brown citizens after every cycle of redistricting, according to the NAACP.

    Accusations of racism dominate Texas debate over redistricting

    Democrats and Republicans accused each other of racism during their debate last week in the Texas House over the new congressional maps.

    Last Monday, the Texas House established a quorum for the first time in two weeks after Democrats left the state to block the new maps. That set the stage for the bill to come to the House floor. Democrats accused Republicans of violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. 

    The Justice Department says on its website that section two of the Voting Rights Act prohibits “discrimination in voting applies nationwide to any voting standard, practice, or procedure that results in the denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group.” Republicans insisted they followed this law. 

    “Once again, Republicans continue to make power grabs on the back of Black and brown communities,” said Rep. Venton Jones, D-Dallas. “We fought for one of the most important issues we have as Texans, and that’s our right to vote. We’re going to still continue to fight. We’re going to take this to the courts.”

    Rep. Katrina Pierson, R-Rockwall, who is Black and represents a majority white district, rejected Democrats’ accusations during an interview with CBS News Texas. 

    “It’s victimization all day, every day,” said Pierson. “There’s no account for values, and that’s what’s most important. People of Texas have spoken in the last several cycles. Minority voters are turning Republican, and that is how this map is drawn. It’s perfectly legal. Of course, they are going to take us to court, but we will win.”

    After eight hours of debate last Wednesday, the House approved the new maps by an 88-52 margin along party lines. 

    Representative Ann Johnson, D-Houston, scolded Republicans. 

    “This is about racism, and if you can’t hear it from them, then hear it from me as a white woman and a daughter of a man of privilege. To stand here as a 50-year-old woman and know that we’re going back in time. So, let’s talk about cowardice and cheats,” she said.  

    Pierson fired back at Democrats. 

    “The racist rhetoric is old. It is seriously stale and long overplayed. News flash: Democrats do not own minorities in Texas. Republicans are the majority, so it’s not the people of Texas who are racist. It is you,” said Pierson. 

    Texas redistricting map approved amid political tensions

    Texas lawmakers approved the map Saturday, creating five new districts favoring Republicans. The move came after President Donald Trump requested it.  

    “The five new Republican majority-leaning seats we believe for all the right reasons, legal reasons, and the right reasons politically that our state deserves those additional five seats because this state has changed dramatically,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick recently said to CBS News Texas. 

    The effort by President Trump and Texas’ Republican-majority Legislature that prompted state Democrats to hold a two-week walkout also kicked off a redistricting effort in California, with other Democrat-led states hinting that they may follow suit. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democratic state lawmakers are moving forward with a November special election to put a new congressional map before the voters that could help Democrats gain five seats. California Republican lawmakers say they are suing to stop that from happening. 

    Republican Sen. Phil King, the Texas measure’s sponsor, previously denied accusations alleging that the redrawn districts violate the Voting Rights Act by diluting voters’ influence based on race.

    “I had two goals in mind: That all maps would be legal and would be better for Republican congressional candidates in Texas,” he said.

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has not yet signed the map into law, has predicted it will survive any court challenges. Abbott also has predicted other Republican-led states will make similar moves seeking new seats for the GOP in Congress.

    Texas Democrats have said that once Abbott signs the bill into law, they will file a lawsuit against the state.

    S.E. Jenkins

    S.E. Jenkins is a digital content producer for CBS Texas. She has also been a Digital Content Producer in Tallahassee and Myrtle Beach. S.E. graduated with journalism degrees from Texas State University, Aarhus Universitet and City, University of London.

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  • Approved Flood Bills Designed to Address “A Preventable Failure” at Hill Country Youth Camps

    Houston businessman Matthew Childress should have spent last week moving his 18-year-old daughter Chloe into her first college dorm at the University of Texas.

    Instead, Childress was at the Texas Capitol, pleading with lawmakers — alongside dozens of other parents whose daughters died at Camp Mystic — for safety measures including evacuation routes and emergency management plans. Within 24 hours of his testimony, the Texas Legislature would pass a package of youth camp safety laws, promising they wouldn’t let such a senseless tragedy happen again on their watch.

    Chloe Childress died because, according to her father, she followed instructions outlined in a vague and flimsy training manual: Camp staff were told that, in case of a flood, they and the campers were to stay in their cabins. So that’s what they did when heavy rains hit the Christian girls’ camp on the Guadalupe River.

    Twenty-five campers and two counselors, Kinkaid School graduate Chloe Childress and Memorial High School graduate Katherine Ferruzzo, died at Camp Mystic, among at least 137 total who were swept away in the July 4 Hill Country floods.

    The daughters of Camp Mystic were deemed “Heaven’s 27,” the namesake of a series of laws passed Friday mandating that youth camps have disaster plans in place or lose their licenses to operate.

    No evacuation route or instructions for seeking higher ground were posted inside the Bubble Inn cabin, where Chloe and Katherine were assigned. Parents of survivors in other cabins told stories last week of children leading each other in song and prayer in what would be some of their final moments.

    “We tried our best not to think about the horror, the terror, and the fear that happened in that cabin that night,” Matthew Childress said. “Fourteen girls scrambling for their lives because they did what they were told to do. Chloe and Katherine both died as heroes trying to save all those sweet little girls.”

    Lawmakers on Gov. Greg Abbott’s Select Committee on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding heard testimony on August 21 from 16 parents who lost their children in the flood. The following day, state representatives passed an amended hybrid of House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1, known as the Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act, which aims to better prepare campgrounds for natural disasters. It’s now awaiting Abbott’s signature.

    Ben Landry spoke of his daughter Lainey, a 9-year-old student at St. Michael’s Catholic School in Houston, who also died at Camp Mystic. Landry said the tragedy was preventable and caused by years of neglect, ego and complacency.

    “These children were put to sleep in a floodplain with no plan for a flood,” he said.

    click to enlarge

    CeCe Williams-Steward, center, testified that her 8-year-old daughter Cile is still missing.

    Screenshot

    One grieving mother, CeCe Williams-Steward, said her 8-year-old daughter Cile is still missing. “For Cile, camp meant adventure, memories, friendships, and lessons to carry for a lifetime,” Williams-Steward said. “For me, it meant watching my child grow and learn but always under the assurance that she would be safe. Joy and growth cannot exist without safety.”

    “Obvious common-sense safety measures were absent,” she added. “Protocols that should have been in place were ignored. As a result, my daughter was stolen from us. Cile’s life ended not because of an unavoidable act of nature but because of preventable failures. Our Cile was swept away along with other bright, beautiful girls. She was stolen from her family, from her future, from the world she lit up with her independence and spunk.”

    Requirements under the Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act include installing emergency rooftop egress ladders on cabins in the floodplain, developing an emergency management plan, streamlining notification procedures when a child is injured or missing, increasing training requirements, and maintaining operable weather alert radios in each cabin. Under the new law, the Department of State Health Services will not license camps that don’t meet the requirements.

    Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, said camps that opt to “amend themselves out of a floodplain at the federal level” will not be exempt from the state requirements. “The federal government can grant a waiver, but it will not impact these reforms,” he said. “No more waivers. You’re going to [meet the requirements] or you’re going to close down.”

    “Had the requirements of [Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act] been in place the night of July 4, I have no doubt that some lives, if not all lives, would have been saved on the camp front,” Perry said.

    The new rules will be in place by April 1 or before the next summer camp season begins. Camp Mystic offered its support for the legislation in a social media post but has not publicly released its plans for rebuilding ahead of next summer’s camping season. The most recent public statement on the organization’s website is from July 12.

    The camp safety act passed unanimously in the Senate. Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, cast the lone vote against the measure in the House, citing concerns about rigorous amendments proposed by Democratic legislators that he believed would “shut down Christian camps.”

    Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, carried the bill in the House and said his granddaughters were picked up from Camp Mystic the weekend before the floods, something he’s thought about every night since July 4.

    “Make no mistake, House Bill 1 is fundamentally a bill about failure,” Darby said. “The camp failed these girls. The county failed them. The river authority failed them, and, in a larger sense, their government failed them. In some ways, I know I have failed them. I take this personally. In 10 sessions and now, I think, 16 special sessions, I’ve never filed a bill on campground safety. I could have, but I didn’t.”

    Officials from the Department of State Health Services, Camp Longhorn, Camp La Junta, and Texas Association of Campground Owners testified in support of the bill and a DSHS associate deputy commissioner agreed to immediately provide an inventory of resources needed to ensure the new provisions are implemented before the next camping season. An amendment introduced prior to the bill’s passage provides funding for more state inspectors.

    Camp Mystic passed an inspection two days prior to the July 4 flood, and legislators said they wanted to understand how that happened. Prior to the passage of the law, camps were required to meet 15 standards and 86 inspection criteria in the state health and safety code. A DSHS spokesman said the agency verifies that camps have an emergency plan to be used in case of a disaster, serious accident, epidemic, or fatality. They also verify a ratio of one supervisor per 10 campers.

    “I think we had a lot of complacency and box checking that becomes routine over time,” Perry said.

    Testimony from Camp Mystic parents was heart-wrenching, prompting legislators to dab their eyes, apologize for the lack of oversight that’s gone on for years, and promise that such a tragedy would not happen again.

    “I can’t relieve you of the guilt and the grief that you feel, but I want you to let us relieve some of the responsibility that you feel,” Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, told the parents. “We can take that on and we can make sure this doesn’t happen again. This bill is going to pass. These camps are going to be safe, and that’s our commitment to you.”

    click to enlarge

    Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, offered condolences to the “Heaven’s 27” families during an August 21 hearing.

    Screenshot

    Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, appeared to react emotionally to the words of one parent, Lars Hollis of Bellville, who questioned why the camps didn’t appear to subscribe to a simple mantra he’d learned as a child in Boy Scouts: “Be prepared.”

    “I just want you to know you’re being heard,” Kolkhorst said. “You’re impacting lives. This tragedy is going to impact future lives. These lives of these precious children … we will never unhear the stories and we will make changes.”

    The parents who testified said they are united in ensuring youth camp safety, noting that they spoke on behalf of many more who were unable to attend the hearing or just couldn’t bear the pain of reliving the loss again.

    “My daughter should still be here,” said Clarke Baker of Beaumont, father to 8-year-old Mary Grace. “Her death was 100 percent preventable. Complacency, among other things, led to the deaths of 27 amazing, innocent, beautiful girls. We can’t let complacency claim the life of another child.”

    click to enlarge

    Blake and Caitlin Bonner testified at an August 21 committee hearing in support of the Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act.

    Screenshot

    Caitlin and Blake Bonner told stories of their 9-year-old daughter Lila, who they described as a rule follower who would have done what she was told. “I sent her to Camp Mystic to grow closer to God, make lifelong friends, try new activities, encourage independence, to spend time outside away from a screen surrounded by like-minded girls that I knew she would cross paths with for life,” Caitlin Bonner said.

    “I naively assumed she was safer at camp than anywhere else. When I think about the trauma and fear that our girls endured, it makes me physically ill. This loss is one that no parent should have to endure.”

    Lila’s father Blake Bonner added that what happened at Camp Mystic wasn’t an act of God; it was an act of complacency.

    “A common tragic theme you will find among the 27 angels we lost is that they were dutiful. They were perfect children who followed the rules,” he said. “They did exactly what they were told to do that morning: stay in their cabins. Our daughters paid the ultimate price for their obedience to a plan that was destined to fail.”

    click to enlarge

    Brandt Dillon echoed the concerns of other Camp Mystic parents that the tragedy was preventable and an act of complacency.

    Screenshot

    Brandt Dillon, father of 8-year-old Lucy, a straight-A student at Houston’s Spring Branch ISD, said his family’s “world was shattered by a tragedy that was 100 percent preventable.”

    “She was my best friend, my greatest contribution to society,” Dillon said. “Today I sit before you, a broken man. When Lucy left for camp, it was the very first time she had ever slept away from us. We entrusted her care to the camp operators and never for a moment did we believe she would be returned to us in a casket. I will never forget that emotionless call that she was simply unaccounted for.”

    Matthew Childress lauded the unity of the parents who lost children at Camp Mystic and their efforts to get the bills passed.

    “I’m honored to be the father of a hero,” he said. “These are the realities that we will live with for the rest of our lives. As you said, Senator Kolkhorst, don’t unhear them. We need you to remember them. We need you to be tortured by them, as we are every single day.”

    “We have to see this through,” Childress added. “There is nothing we can do to bring our daughters back but we can honor them by ensuring their deaths lead to meaningful change. For now, the time is to act and support SB 1 for my hero Chole Madeline Childress, the rest of Heaven’s 27, and for the millions of campers and parents in the future so this does not happen again.”

    April Towery

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  • Texas senate gives final approval to redrawn congressional map that heavily favours Republicans

    The Texas senate has given final approval to a redrawn congressional map that gives Republicans a chance to pick up as many as five congressional seats, fulfilling a brazen political request from Donald Trump to shore up the GOP’s standing before next year’s midterm elections.

    It will now be sent to governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, who is expected to quickly sign it into law, however Democrats have vowed to challenge it in court. The Texas house of representatives approved the map on Wednesday on an 88-52 party-line vote, before the senate approved it early on Saturday.

    Related: Obama calls California’s redistricting plan ‘a responsible approach’

    The effort by Trump and Texas’ Republican-majority Legislature prompted state Democrats to hold a two-week walkout and kicked off a wave of redistricting efforts across the country.

    Democrats had prepared for a final show of resistance, with plans to push the senate vote into the early morning hours in a last-ditch attempt to delay passage.

    Senator Carol Alvarado revealed her filibuster plans to delay its final passage, in a post on social media. “Republicans think they can walk all over us. Today I’m going to kick back,” Alvarado’s post read. “I’ve submitted my intention to filibuster the new congressional maps. Going to be a long night.”

    But the planned filibuster was thwarted by a procedural motion by Republicans. It now heads to the governor for final approval.

    Alvarado’s delay tactics were the latest chapter in a weeks-long showdown that has roiled the Texas Legislature, marked by a Democratic walkout and threats of arrest from Republicans.

    Democrats had already delayed the bill’s passage during hours of debate, pressing senator Phil King, the measure’s sponsor, on the proposal’s legality, with many alleging that the redrawn districts violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting voters’ influence based on race – an accusation King vehemently denied.

    “I had two goals in mind: that all maps would be legal and would be better for Republican congressional candidates in Texas,” said King, a Republican.

    “There is extreme risk the Republican majority will be lost” in the US House if the map does not pass, King said.

    The vote comes after California Democrats set a special election for November in which they will ask voters to approve a new congressional map in their state. That map would add up to five seats for Democrats, a move designed to offset the new map in Texas. California governor Gavin Newsom launched that effort after Texas began its push to redraw its maps.

    Republicans currently hold 25 of Texas’s 38 congressional districts. Under the redrawn map, they would be favored in 30 districts. Abbott called a special session last month to draw new maps after Trump requested that he do so.

    The new map eliminates Democratic-held districts in Austin, Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and replaces them with Republican ones. It also tweaks the lines of two districts currently held by Democrats in south Texas to make them more friendly to Republicans. Swift lawsuits are expected challenging the new districts under the Voting Rights Act amid allegations the new lines make it harder for voters of color to elect their preferred candidates.

    Lawmakers passed the maps after Democrats in the Texas house of representatives left the state for two weeks, denying Republicans the necessary quorum to conduct legislative business. The Democrats returned to the state on Monday after California Democrats began moving ahead with a plan to redraw their state’s congressional map.

    Even after Democrats returned to Austin, protests continued at the state capitol this week as Republicans pushed the new map through. The efforts were galvanized by Nicole Collier, a Democratic state representative from Fort Worth who refused to sign a “permission slip” necessary to leave the house floor. Collier refused and remained confined to the house floor and her office until Wednesday.

    The Texas push set off an unusual mid-decade redistricting battle before next year’s midterm elections, in which Republicans are expected to lose seats in the US House. Republicans currently have a three-seat majority and the president’s party typically performs poorly in a midterm election. Republicans are also expected to redraw the maps in Florida, Ohio, Missouri and potentially Indiana.

    With the Associated Press

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  • ‘CD 32 is a 175-Mile Fajita Strip’: North Texans React to Redistricting House Approval

    In the end, the hubbub and national attention that Texas House Democrats drew earlier this month by fleeing Texas and busting the chamber’s quorum did little to stop the inevitable. Whoever could’ve seen that one coming?…

    Emma Ruby

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  • Texas House Approves Redistricting Map Amid Fierce Democratic Opposition

    The Texas House on Wednesday approved a new redistricting map designed to pick up five additional GOP Congressional seats over vocal opposition and last-minute stall tactics from the minority Democratic party, representing a significant hurdle before Gov. Greg Abbott signs it into law.

    The measure passed 88-52. Texas Democrats say the effort is unnecessary, illegal, and racist. After a two-week quorum break where more than 50 lawmakers fled the state to avoid voting on the redistricting bill, they returned to the Capitol on Monday, prepared to vote against the map and vowing to challenge it in court.

    Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, who authored House Bill 4, said the districts were drawn “primarily on the basis of political performance.”

    “This plan includes political considerations, public testimony, recognition of population growth, and recent changes in voter trends,” Hunter said. “Thirty-seven of the 38 congressional districts have changed to some degree. The primary changes are focused on only five districts for partisan purposes.”

    “Four of the five new districts are majority-minority Hispanic,” he added. “Each of these newly-drawn districts now trend Republican in political performance. While there’s no guarantee in electorate success, Republicans will now have an opportunity to potentially win these districts.”

    click to enlarge

    The Texas House of Representatives approved new congressional districts on Wednesday, with Democrats vowing to challenge the map in court.

    Texas Legislative Council

    More than two dozen Democrats spoke against the map during a lengthy floor debate that began at 10 a.m. and ended around 5:30 p.m., saying they wanted to establish a record that could be used in a legal challenge. Some encouraged their Republican colleagues to save their emails and text messages because the courts would be coming for them.

    “We should have been debating a bill to restore flood relief to many Texans who lost their lives in the Kerr County historic flooding, but instead the first bill that we’re taking up is a racially gerrymandered House Bill 4, mid-decade redistricting that is totally unnecessary,” said Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City.

    The legislator was one of many who alleged that the redistricting effort involves “packing and cracking,” or widening the GOP advantage by unconstitutionally compressing people of color into some districts while spreading them throughout others to reduce their ability to elect who they want to represent them.

    Congressional districts that were approved in 2021 based on new Census data, with population growth largely driven by Black and Hispanic voters, were hailed by those who voted for them, including Republicans, as “race blind.” The state’s current congressional districts are currently being challenged in federal court.

    “I challenge you, when you look in the mirror, where were you?” Reynolds said. “Were you on the right side of history, in favor of voting rights for all, or were you on the wrong side of history, upholding discrimination with this racially gerrymandered map?”

    click to enlarge

    Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, accused Republicans pushing the redistricting effort of racism.

    Screenshot

    Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, said the effort is clearly racist.

    “Let’s talk about cowardice and cheats,” she said. “If you knew you could win this next election, you wouldn’t be taking this effort to try to steal five seats from elected officials that people of color elected to represent them in Washington, D.C. You shield your racism with your party. You think that people will give you grace on ignorance and arrogance around the party because you can’t admit that the root of all of this is about racism and power.”

    The Texas Legislature’s second special session began on August 15 after the conclusion of a 25-day first session in which very little was accomplished because of the quorum break. At least 69 bills were read into the record and referred to committees when the Democrats returned earlier this week, most dealing with emergency management and disaster response related to the July 4 Hill Country floods.

    And yet the only item before the House for a vote on Wednesday was redistricting, a point made by many who oppose it.

    The second special session has had its share of theatrics. Those who fled the state were assigned DPS surveillance officers to monitor their movement and ensure they returned to the Capitol for floor sessions such as the one held Wednesday. Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, declined to sign a permission slip and spent two nights locked in the Texas House.

    click to enlarge

    Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, questions HB 4 author Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, on Wednesday.

    Screenshot

    Collier, a seven-term state representative and attorney, was later joined by other Democrats who ripped up their permission slips as a sign of solidarity. The state rep filed a petition earlier this week alleging that restraining her in the House is illegal. Republican lawmakers have criticized Collier’s actions as a “sit-in protest” and publicity stunt that had no effect on the outcome of redistricting maps.

    Several Democratic lawmakers wore green on Wednesday in support of Collier, who has been wearing a green blazer since she got locked in the House on Monday morning.

    The Texas Legislature’s redistricting fight has drawn national attention and prompted California Gov. Gavin Newsom to propose new maps in his state that would add Democratic seats, countering the effort in Texas to preserve President Donald Trump’s narrow GOP majority in the U.S. Congress.

    Several amendments were introduced on Wednesday in attempts to establish an independent redistricting commission, get a federal court opinion on the legality of the map, and ensure that the new Congressional districts would not become effective until after the May 2026 elections.

    Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, chair of the Democratic Caucus, asked to delay the vote until the Epstein files were released. He was denied and told that his amendment was “not even remotely related” to congressional redistricting.

    Democrats also attempted to table redistricting altogether and instead discuss flood bills. They brought up the matter of disaster response by making “parliamentary inquiries” so their statements would be included in the record.

    “Why was House Bill 1, the flood relief bill that is the House’s answer to the deadly July 4 flooding that killed over 135 people, not the first order of business of this special session for the Texas House?” asked Rep. Gina Hinojosa, R-Austin. Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows declined to answer, saying that it wasn’t a proper parliamentary inquiry.

    Rep. Jon Rosenthal, D-Houston, said an unfair process was employed to “ram this gerrymandered piece of work down the throats of the people of our state.”

    “The whole process for this has been a sham from the beginning,” he said. “Any member in here, any leader in this state, who tries to tell you that there were public hearings on this map, that is simply a lie. That is not true.”

    “What we have before us today is a committee substitute that was voted out in a formal meeting. They did not hold hearings on this bill. They did not hold hearings on this map.”

    click to enlarge

    Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, urged Democrats and officials from other states to stay vigilant in the redistricting fight.

    Screenshot

    Wu urged Texas Democrats and officials in other states to remain vigilant.

    “My fellow Americans, if you want to take your country back, if you want to go back to a nation where education actually provided a pathway to success, where hard work and following the rules actually meant something, where just because you were rich and powerful does not mean you get to evade justice, then start fighting,” he said. “Start here.”

    “Texas will have to go to the courts, but California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, and many other states, look at what’s happening here,” he added. “Look carefully. This is the future, right here, if you do not act now.”

    April Towery

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  • Texas House reconvenes, poised to advance controversial Republican redistricting plan

    The Texas House of Representatives gaveled back into session Wednesday morning with the controversial proposal to redraw congressional maps up for a vote.

    Currently House Bill 4, the redistricting legislation, is the only item on the lawmakers’ agenda. 

    The Republican majority has worked quickly to push the measure through the House, after Democrats broke quorum and left the state for two weeks, stalling all action in the house and killing the first special session.

    Gov. Greg Abbott called a second special session hours after the first one was adjourned on Friday, and the Democrats who left the state returned to the House chamber at noon on Monday. That evening, HB 4 cleared the House committee on redistricting by a vote of 12-8, along party lines.

    The bill needs to pass two more votes from the entire House before advancing; the final vote could happen on Wednesday as well.

    The redistricting bill has also passed from the Texas Senate’s committee on redistricting, and is on the agenda for the full Senate on Thursday.

    Texas Democrats protest police escorts

    When the House reconvened, most Democratic members were free of police escorts that have been with them since Monday afternoon. 

    In an attempt to ensure that Democrats do not try to break quorum again, Republican House leaders would only allow the members who left the state to exit the House chamber if they agreed to a DPS escort.

    While most Democrats agreed, state Rep. Nicole Collier of Fort Worth refused. She was locked in the House chamber for a time and eventually also allowed to go to her Capitol office. On Monday, Collier asked a state court to allow her to leave, alleging she’s facing “illegal restraint by the government.” The court has not yet acted on the filing.

    Some other Democrats joined Collier on Tuesday, ripping up their signed agreements for the DPS escort and staying the night.

    It is not yet clear whether Speaker Dustin Burrows will impose DPS escorts on Democrats at the end of Wednesday’s session.

    What else is on the Texas House special session agenda

    Republican state leaders are moving fast on the special session, aiming to pass all of Abbott’s priority items and adjourn before the Labor Day weekend.

    That leaves only 10 days to pass redistricting and a slew of other bills, including funding for disaster relief in the wake of last month’s deadly Hill Country floods, property tax relief and further restrictions on abortion.

    Those measures are all expected to pass due to overwhelming Republican support. Some items will be bipartisan.

    One item on Abbott’s list could run into some difficulty: Regulating cannabis products derived from hemp. During the regular session, the Legislature passed a total ban on any products containing THC. 

    Opponents argued that if the bill became law, it would force thousands of people out of their jobs and cause billions of dollars in economic losses for the state from what has become a booming industry. They also argue it would harm veterans and others who use THC instead of opioids to treat chronic pain, forcing them to buy from drug dealers to get the same relief. 

    Abbott vetoed the total ban, calling for stricter regulation instead.

    The Senate has already passed another version of their total ban of THC. The House version, HB 6, only prohibits the sale of any consumable hemp-derived products to people under 21. HB 6 has not yet been through committee.

    Steven Rosenbaum

    Steven Rosenbaum is a digital producer for CBS Texas. A versatile journalist, Steven writes, edits and produces content for the CBS Texas digital platforms.

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  • Federal judge blocks Texas law requiring Ten Commandments displayed in public school classrooms

    A federal district court in Texas temporarily blocked a new state law on Wednesday that would have required public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.

    U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery issued a preliminary injunction in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, ruling that Texas Senate Bill 10, set to take effect Sept. 1, likely violates both the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.

    The lawsuit was originally filed in late June by several families after Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 10 into law. Parents argued the measure intruded on their rights to guide their children’s religious education and forced religious mandates in public classrooms.

    The ruling halts school districts from implementing the measure, which mandated a 16-by-20-inch poster or framed copy of a specific English version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom.

    Federal judge in Texas cites First Amendment concerns

    In his decision, Biery wrote that requiring the displays could amount to unconstitutional religious coercion, pressuring students into religious observance and suppressing their own beliefs.

    “[T]he displays are likely to pressure the child-Plaintiffs into religious observance, meditation on, veneration, and adoption of the State’s favored religious scripture, and into suppressing expression of their own religious or nonreligious background and beliefs while at school,” Biery stated.

    Plaintiffs and ACLU advocates welcome decision

    The plaintiffs included Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist and nonreligious families with children in Texas public schools. They were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and pro bono counsel from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

    Plaintiff Rabbi Mara Nathan called the decision a win for parents’ rights: “Children’s religious beliefs should be instilled by parents and faith communities, not politicians and public schools.”

    Heather L. Weaver, senior counsel for the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said the ruling protects inclusivity in schools. “Public schools are not Sunday schools,” Weaver said.

    Sergio Candido

    Sergio Candido is a managing editor for the South at cbsnews.com, coordinating multiplatform news coverage for CBS Miami and CBS Texas. He previously worked for outlets including Telemundo and The Miami Herald.

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  • Texas Legislature begins new special session, GOP resumes redistricting push as Democrats return

    The Texas State House of Representatives could vote as early as this week on the state’s controversial congressional redistricting plan after Gov. Greg Abbott called a second special legislative session with Democrats ending their boycott and returning to the state. CBS News correspondent Nidia Cavazos has more.

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  • Texas House Democrats return to Austin as Republicans resume redistricting effort

    The Texas House of Representatives gaveled in at noon Monday with Democratic members present, marking an official end to the quorum break that froze the Legislature for two weeks.

    Most of the House Democratic Caucus left the state earlier this month, denying the Republican majority the required attendance to conduct business. House rules require 100 members to be present; Republicans hold 88 seats.

    The Democratic quorum break was triggered by a Republican push to redraw the state’s U.S. House district maps that would net the GOP up to five more seats in the 2026 midterm elections. Last week, the absent lawmakers had signaled they were ready to return to Austin after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ended a first special session and Democrats in California moved forward with a plan to respond.

    “Our return allows us to build the legal record necessary to defeat this racist map in court, take our message to communities across the state and country, and inspire legislators across the country how to fight these undemocratic redistricting schemes in their own statehouses,” state Rep. Gene Wu, the Democratic leader, said in a statement issued Monday morning.

    As the House returned to business, the redistricting proposal and dozens of other bills were referred to their respective committees. The redistricting committee is expected to meet on Tuesday. The Senate’s redistricting committee passed the proposed maps along party lines on Sunday evening. 

    Redistricting fight spreads

    Abbott put redistricting on the agenda at the urging of President Donald Trump, who wants to shore up Republicans’ narrow U.S. House majority to avoid losing control of the chamber, and with it, prospects for Trump’s conservative agenda in the later part of his term.

    It is unusual for redistricting to take place in the middle of the decade and typically occurs once at the beginning of each decade to coincide with the census.

    In response to the efforts in Texas, California Democrats are also moving ahead with their own reshaping of congressional districts to counteract Texas, putting in motion a potentially widening and unusually timed redistricting battle nationwide.

    Many states, including Texas, give legislators the power to draw maps. California is among those that empower independent commissions with the task.

    The nation’s two most populous states have been at the forefront of the resulting battle, which has reached into multiple courtrooms and statehouses controlled by both parties.

    Impact on midterm elections

    On a national level, the partisan makeup of existing district lines puts Democrats within three seats of a majority. Of the 435 total House seats, only several dozen districts are competitive. So even slight changes in a few states could affect which party wins control.

    Texas’ maps would aim to give the GOP five more winnable seats.

    California Democrats, who hold supermajorities in both chambers — enough to act without any Republican votes — on Friday unveiled a proposal that could give Democrats there an additional five U.S. House seats. But any changes would first need the approval of state lawmakers and voters. Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom has said that his state will hold a Nov. 4 special referendum on the redrawn districts.

    Steven Rosenbaum

    Steven Rosenbaum is a digital producer for CBS Texas. A versatile journalist, Steven writes, edits and produces content for the CBS Texas digital platforms.

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  • Special Session No. 2 is Underway As Democrats Make Their Way Back to Texas

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the House Republicans are hoping to make up for lost time in a second special session that began Friday and includes all 18 items on the previous agenda, including redistricting, plus a new proposal for legislation to improve youth camp safety.

    Abbott’s first special session adjourned last week without signing any new bills into law, due to the absence of a quorum prompted by House Democrats who left the state to avoid voting on new U.S. Congressional boundary lines. The rare mid-decade redistricting initiative was ordered by President Donald Trump to pick up five Republican seats in U.S. Congress ahead of the 2026 primaries.

    The Democrats announced that they would return to Texas if the Legislature adjourned and if California introduced a redistricting plan that “would neutralize the Trump-Abbott voter suppression effort.” Both of those demands were met, and a quorum of lawmakers was expected to be in Austin by Monday, August 18.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom said his state will call a special election to seek voter approval for a new congressional map that would pick up more blue seats, countering the effort in Texas.

    The Democrats still think the proposed Texas redistricting maps are racist and illegal. Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, refiled House Bill 4 on Friday. Democrats say they’re preparing for a legal battle in court.

    “Under the advice of legal counsel, Democrats must return to Texas to build a strong public legislative record for the upcoming legal battle against a map that violates both the current Voting Rights Act and the Constitution,” officials with the Texas House Democratic Caucus said in a press release on August 14.

    click to enlarge

    At least 50 Texas Democrats have been absent from the Capitol for about two weeks.

    Screenshot

    Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, announced the adjournment of the first special session on Friday morning and told lawmakers not to stray far from the Capitol, as he expected the governor would call a second special session “very, very soon.” A second special session began two hours later, and a quorum was still not present.

    “I want to point out that today’s outcome may be a win for Texans and for the rest of the governor’s call,” Burrows said. “If our absent colleagues had shown up this morning, they could have used a few remaining days to stall, or possibly even block, the passage of critical legislation: property tax relief, protections for the unborn, safeguarding women’s private spaces, and reining in runaway local taxes.”

    “By following Governor Newsom’s lead, instead of the will of Texans, they have allowed us to reset the clock,” he said, adding that he hopes to accomplish every item on the agenda and adjourn the second special session before Labor Day weekend.

    A quorum of at least 100 state representatives and 21 senators — two-thirds of each elected body — is needed not just to pass redistricting legislation but to vote on disaster response, elimination of the STAAR test, THC reform and numerous other measures on Abbott’s special session call.

    Scott Braddock, editor of the nonpartisan Texas political newsletter Quorum Report, said on social media last week that the Democrats are “about to come home to lose here while rallying their party to maybe win nationally.”

    The Republican-majority Legislature has accused the Democrats of being cowardly and ducking their duties at the expense of important disaster response bills that would help families in the Texas Hill Country who are still recovering from deadly July 4 floods.

    The Democrats have said they wanted to consider flood legislation but Abbott pulled a fast one and instead made redistricting the top priority.

    “We do not believe stealing five seats to attempt to determine the outcome of the next election is the right thing to bring us back for,” said Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, in a Zoom livestream from Chicago last week. “Yes, we are in the position of breaking quorum, which is an extraordinary and exceptional act but it is the only tool that we have in our toolbox, as the minority, to try and defeat [redistricting].”

    The Dems would ultimately like Abbott to set aside redistricting, which technically doesn’t have to be taken up until the 2030 Census. Several have pushed for an independent redistricting commission to redraw the lines.

    “I’ll offer it again and if Governor Abbott wants to accept that bill and put it up for a hearing, we can find out if both sides are really willing to do this,” Johnson said. “I would love it if the solution to all of this is that the people rise up and say, ‘Hey, politicians, stop drawing your lines. We’re going to draw them for you.’ To me, that’s the ultimate win.”

    Rep. Jon Rosenthal, D-Houston, is also on board with an independent redistricting commission.

    “From my perspective, we should be doing what the people want us to do,” Rosenthal said, noting that about 99 percent of those who spoke at public hearings before the quorum break were against mid-decade redistricting. “I would love to see federal law enact a nonpartisan redistricting commission process.”

    The redistricting conversation isn’t just about Texas, the lawmakers said.

    “One of our big pushes, one of our big priorities, is for this to become a national conversation,” Rosenthal said. “Redistricting in Texas in the midterm just for the purpose of rigging an election will affect the entire country.”

    Representatives from both parties have indicated they’re not backing down.

    “Trump thought he could easily get his way in Texas with compliant Republicans, but Democrats fought back ferociously and took the fight to Trump across America,” Texas Dems said in a statement. “We will return to the House floor and to the courthouse with a clear message: the fight to protect voting rights has only just begun.”

    April Towery

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  • Robert Roberson Does Not Appear Before House Committee on Monday

    Robert Roberson Does Not Appear Before House Committee on Monday

    At the start of Monday’s House committee on criminal jurisprudence hearing, state Rep. Joe Moody of El Paso said there was an “impressive” list of witnesses that would speak before the committee, but that Robert Roberson would not be one of them. Moody and Plano Rep. Jeff Leach issued the subpoena that many have called “unprecedented” shortly before Roberson was scheduled to be executed in Huntsville on Thursday night…

    Kelly Dearmore

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  • Texas Republican Falls For The Old Filthy Fake Name Prank In Hearing

    Texas Republican Falls For The Old Filthy Fake Name Prank In Hearing

    Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach (R) has become the latest lawmaker to fall victim to the fake name prank.

    After a third-grade teacher spoke out against an anti-trans bill to the Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence on Wednesday, Leach called on other constituents whose names had been registered to comment.

    “Is there a Connie Lingus here?” he asked, as people giggled around the room.

    “What about Anita Dickenmee? Or Holden, Holden Middick?” he added.

    “OK. Are any three of those people here?” Leach asked, appearing to know full well that they most definitely weren’t in attendance.

    “All right,” he added. “You got your moment. I hope you enjoy it.”

    Leach took the gag in good spirits, telling Mediaite he looked forward “to meeting Connie, Holden and Anita one day soon.”

    As did members of a Virginia school board in 2021, when Phil McCracken, Eileen Dover, Wayne Kuhr, Suk Mahdik, Ophelia McCaulk and Don Kedick all featured.

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  • Another Republican Lawmaker Trying To Ban Drag Shows Apparently Once Dressed In Drag

    Another Republican Lawmaker Trying To Ban Drag Shows Apparently Once Dressed In Drag

    Trying to outlaw drag shows is turning out to be a real drag for yet another Republican politician.

    Nate Schatzline, a pastor and Texas state representative, has authored legislation that would restrict drag performances, according to NBC News.

    However, a video surfaced this week apparently showing Schatzline as a teenager wearing a mini-dress for a school project.

    The 90-second video shows Schatzline in a black sequined dress and red mask skipping, running and dancing in a park with three other young men also dressed in drag to the tune of “Sexy Lady” by Javi Mula.

    All four characters have nicknames, and Schatzline’s is “The Virgin.”

    Some people checked in with Schatzline to see if it really was him in the video, and his initial response, though negative, suggested it was him.

    Other people claimed Schatzline was just joking…

    But the person who posted the video pointed out the words in Schatzline’s own bill could be interpreted to suggest that his behavior in the video could be criminal if his bill were to pass.

    NBC News noted that although Schatzline’s performance in the video “would meet most dictionary definitions of ‘drag,’ it is unclear whether it would be prohibited under the legislation Schatzline introduced in January.”

    Schatzline’s bill, HB 1266, seeks to redefine a venue that hosts a “drag performance” and “authorizes on-premises consumption of alcoholic beverages” as a “sexually oriented business.”

    It also defines a drag performance as “a performance in which a performer exhibits a gender identity that is different than the performer’s gender assigned at birth using clothing, makeup, or other physical markers and sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs before an audience for entertainment.”

    Schatzline eventually commented on the video, claiming that “wearing a dress as a joke back in school for a theatre project” is not “a sexually explicit drag show.”

    He also posted this video response.

    The resurfaced video comes just days after a 1977 photo of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee in drag resurfaced just as the Republican planned to sign legislation to make it illegal for “male or female impersonators” to perform in public.

    In addition, Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) admitted last month that he dressed in drag in Brazil but claimed he was not a “drag queen.”

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