To the people of the State of Texas, and beyond,
Like many of you, I have watched more than 50 Texas Democrats abandon their posts as Members of the Texas House. They have deserted to Illinois to prevent quorum, to prevent a vote on redistricting Texas’ seats in the U.S. House. You may think this is anti-Democratic, because it is. A quick read of The Federalist demonstrates that fact. Thankfully, our prescient founders anticipated this might happen and left remedies.
Publius warned that republican governments are vulnerable to procedural sabotage by factions seeking to subvert the people's will. Today, the Texas Democrats dislike the election results that put them in the minority. They are outvoted in the Texas House and dismayed by the broader mandate of President Trump's return. So, they fled from their duties, effectively nullifying the voters' choice by paralyzing the legislature.
The Constitution empowers the federal government to intervene and restore the machinery of republican governance. Consider the Elections Clause in Article I, Section 4: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.”
This authority extends to federal oversight of U.S. House elections, as Publius argued in Federalist No. 59. There, he contended that without federal control, states could “annihilate” the union by refusing to hold elections or manipulating them. “Nothing can be more evident, than that an exclusive power of regulating elections for the national government, in the hands of the State legislatures, would leave the existence of the Union entirely at their mercy.” In Nos. 60 and 61, Publius further defends this power to ensure uniformity and prevent state-level disruptions that threaten national representation. Redistricting U.S. House seats directly implicates this federal interest.
More fundamentally, the Constitution's Guarantee Clause in Article IV, Section 4—“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government”—obliges the federal government to safeguard against such breakdowns.
Publius, in Federalist No. 43, explains this as protection against “aristocratic or monarchical innovations” or anarchy, ensuring that states maintain republican forms where the people's representatives govern. He notes: “In a confederacy founded on republican principles, and composed of republican members, the superintending government ought clearly to possess authority to defend the system.” When lawmakers flee to deny a quorum, they erode the republican essence—majority rule filtered through elected bodies and rule of law—by trying to thwart ordinary operation of the legislature.
Governor Abbott has issued civil arrest warrants, ordering the Texas Department of Public Safety to detain the absconders, but with them across state lines, enforcement falters. Legal experts question the warrants’ reach, and Democrats decry them as overreach. Yet calls for federal involvement grow: President Trump has suggested the FBI “may have to” assist in locating and returning them, while Senator Cornyn urges the Bureau to “locate or arrest” the fugitives using interstate tools. Attorney General Paxton echoes this, labeling the flight rogue behavior.
The Constitution supports such federal action. Though Article I, Section 5 authorizes each House of Congress to “compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide,” the principle extends analogously to states under the Guarantee Clause. If a state's legislature cannot perform this federal function due to deliberate absenteeism, the President, as chief executive, has authority to deploy federal agents to restore order, ensuring republican government endures. This is not tyranny; it is a bulwark against petty anarchy disguised as protest.
It is you, the voter, whom these Texas Democrats are fighting against. These Democrats do not merely disagree; they seek to nullify elections by undermining the machinery of the system. The founders foresaw such perils and armed us with federal remedies. The President should use them to prevent factional intransigence from subverting the union Publius and our other founders so carefully wrought.
Curtis Schube is the Executive Director for Council to Modernize Governance, a think tank committed to making the administration of government more efficient, representative, and restrained. He is formerly a constitutional and administrative law attorney.
Editor’s Note: Help us continue to report the truth about corrupt politicians like the Texas Democrats who fled the state.
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