A group of Texas Democrats who fled the state to prevent Republicans from gerrymandering ahead of next year’s midterm elections were forced to evacuate their hotel in Chicago on Wednesday due to a bomb threat they blamed on rhetoric from Texas Republicans and President Donald Trump.
“This morning there was a bomb threat at our hotel. We were evacuated and everyone is safe,” Texas state Rep. John Bucey III wrote in a post online. “This is what happens when Republican state leaders publicly call for us to be ‘hunted down.’ Texas Democrats won’t be intimidated.”
“As a former human trafficking prosecutor, I’ve faced threats before, but never from the Governor or President Trump,” added Texas state Rep. Ann Johnson. [Texas Attorney General Ken] Paxton told his supporters to ‘hunt us down’—but we won’t be silenced.”
Texas Republicans, at the urging of Trump, are planning to secure five more seats in Congress through an off-schedule redrawing of the electoral map in the Lone Star State. The controversial move would help the GOP retain control of the House next year amid worries in the party about their unpopular electoral agenda of slashing Medicaid and tax cuts for the wealthy.
Democratic members of the Texas legislature refused to show up for the special session, however, denying Republicans the required quorum to push through the new maps. The Democrats traveled to the blue state of Illinois this week instead, meeting with state officials who are pondering similar redistricting efforts to offset the likely GOP gains in Texas.
