Houston, Texas - Dozens of Democrats in the Texas legislature faced threats of legal action Monday after they fled the state to block a redrawing of districts in Republicans' favor ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

The Republican-controlled state, following a push by President Donald Trump, is seeking to shift congressional district borders such that five seats flip from Democrat control.

The contentious but legally permitted move, known as partisan gerrymandering, seeks to prevent Republicans from losing control of the US House of Representatives in next year's midterms, when the opposition party usually does more favorably.

In Texas, like in many other states across the country, state lawmakers draw and vote on legislative maps, usually every 10 years.

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Democrats are in the minority in the Texas legislature, but enough members have fled the state to deprive the body of a quorum necessary to do business.

"This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity," Gene Wu, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement.

The lawmakers left the state Sunday, and most headed to Democratic-controlled Illinois.

They face at minimum a $500 fine per day of absence. But Texas Governor Greg Abbott has raised the stakes, saying if they do not return by the beginning of Monday's legislative session at 3:00 PM (2000 GMT), he will move to have them expelled from office.

"These absences were premeditated for an illegitimate purpose," Abbott said in a statement, arguing that they amount to "an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office."

Democratic lawmakers have dismissed the threat as bluster, with state representative Ann Johnson on Monday telling CNN, "I think it shows how desperate they are."

Abbott, who ordered the special session on redistricting, has sought to pile on the political pressure by concurrently calling for votes on disaster relief related to the state's catastrophic flooding last month, which killed over 130 people.