Police escort Texas Democrats to prevent new redistricting walkout as California moves to retaliate
- On August 18 and 19, 2025, Texas Democratic Rep. Nicole Collier refused to sign a document assigning her a 24-hour police escort, staying overnight on the Texas House floor in Austin as part of a protest.
- The protest followed a two-week quorum break by Democrats who left Texas to delay a Republican-led mid-decade redistricting plan aimed at creating five new GOP congressional seats favored by President Trump.
- Speaker Dustin Burrows required returning Democrats to sign 'permission slips' agreeing to constant Department of Public Safety monitoring to ensure their presence when the House reconvenes Wednesday to vote on the redistricting plan.
- Collier emphasized the importance of defending the right to peaceful protest, described herself as a political prisoner, and criticized the redistricting process for placing political agendas above the critical needs of her constituents.
- The standoff sparked legal challenges and national attention, with Texas Democrats, including Collier, planning to remain at the Capitol and allies in other states, such as California, proposing countermeasures to protect minority voting power.
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74 Articles
Some Texas Democrats to rip up agreements to leave House floor under police escort and return to chamber in protest
Several Texas state House Democrats plan to rip up the written agreements that allowed them to leave the chamber with a police escort on Monday and return to the House floor Tuesday night, the caucus announced.
Texas Democratic state representative Nicole Collier spent the night in the plenary of the Texas House of Representatives in protest after rejecting the Republican demand to be under the supervision of the state Department of Public Security (DPS).
Texas Democrat Rep. Locks Self in House Chamber After Refusing Police Escort
Texas State Representative Nicole Collier (D-Fort Worth) slept at her desk on the floor of the State House after she refused to sign a document that required a police escort to allow her to leave the building. The Texas speaker of the House made any Democrat legislator who wanted to leave the building sign a pass agreeing to be escorted by a Department of Public Safety trooper to ensure their return to the chamber when required. | Border / Carte…

What to know as a Texas lawmaker protests police escorts and California takes up redistricting
A Democratic lawmaker is staying in the Texas Capitol rather than accept an around-the-clock police escort that Republicans imposed to keep she and her colleagues from leaving the state again. Democrats ended a two-week walkout Monday that had delayed the…
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