While there are certainly national implications to the Texas Republicans’ redistricting scheme, it is obviously a state issue. Indeed, the entire controversy involves Republicans in the Texas Legislature trying to redraw the state’s district lines, which led Democratic state lawmakers to play the only card they had left: They fled the state.
This has generated outrage from the state attorney general and the state’s governor, the latter of whom has taken steps to try to undo the results of recent state elections.
You’ll notice that the word “federal” didn’t appear in the preceding paragraphs. In fact, even as GOP leaders condemned the Democrats’ tactics, no one has credibly suggested that the lawmakers have violated any federal laws.
Nevertheless, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who seems increasingly concerned about losing his 2026 primary race, pitched an outlandish idea this week: The FBI, the Republican senator said, should assist in locating the Democratic legislators who fled the state to delay action on the radical power grab.
Cornyn didn’t just pitch this as a hypothetical: He reached out to FBI Director Kash Patel, formally requesting the bureau’s “assistance” and peddling absurd claims about the fleeing state lawmakers possibly being “guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses.”
The correspondence didn’t literally say, “Maybe 2026 primary voters will like this absurd effort that tramples on the very idea of states’ rights,” but it didn’t have to.
Complicating matters, however, is the response Cornyn apparently received. The New York Times reported:
Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said on Thursday that the F.B.I. had agreed to his request to help track down dozens of Democratic Texas state lawmakers who left the state to prevent a vote on a redistricting plan. The activation of federal agents could create a standoff between the Trump administration and state leaders in Illinois, where many of the absent Democrats have taken refuge.
“I am proud to announce that Director Kash Patel has approved my request for the FBI to assist state and local law enforcement in locating runaway Texas House Democrats,” Cornyn said in a written statement. “I thank President Trump and Director Patel for supporting and swiftly acting on my call for the federal government to hold these supposed lawmakers accountable for fleeing Texas.”
As is always the case, the details matter — and at this point, the details remain murky.
For federal law enforcement to play any role whatsoever in this state affair is highly dubious, but the extent to which the FBI might get involved will dictate the seriousness of the larger controversy. Are we talking about agents letting Texas know which hotels Democratic legislators are staying in; are we talking about the FBI temporarily detaining elected officials on behalf of Texas law enforcement; or are we talking about the FBI deliberately trying to traffic elected lawmakers across state lines against their will?
For now, we don’t know.
For his part, Gov. JB Pritzker, who has welcomed many of the Texas Democrats and offered them refuge in Chicago, appeared unamused by the effort. The Illinois Democrat told MeidasTouch: “The fact is, neither Texas nor the FBI at the federal level have the ability to arrest these Texas Democrats who are breaking quorum.” Pritzker added that FBI agents are welcome to enjoy all that Chicago has to offer, “but they won’t be taking anyone home with them.”
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
