On August 3, Texas House Democrats fled the state to stop the Republicans from adopting a new congressional map giving the GOP five additional sets in the U.S. House in the upcoming 2026 elections. By breaking quorum, the 62 Democrats stopped the Texas legislature from adopting the new map during their first attempt. When the Democrats fled the state, Texas governor Greg Abbott issued a letter stating that the quorum break amounted “to an abandonment” of office. Abbott ordered the missing Democrats to return to Texas by the following day, adding that failing to be present would result in their removal from office.
El Paso News spoke to the only El Paso representative to break quorum – Vince Perez over the weekend.
Abbott’s threat to remove from office the absent Democrats was based on a Texas Attorney General opinion that has not been tested in court. Abbott also threatened the absent Democrats with felony charges if they used or accepted campaign funds to pay the fines against them for breaking quorum.
Of El Paso’s five members of the Texas House of Representatives, Mary E. González (D-75), Joe Moody (D-78) and Eddie Morales, Jr. (D-74) were present when roll was called on August 8. Morales represents part of the far-east side of El Paso.
On August 20, Claudia Ordaz (D-79) posted on her Instagram account that she was undergoing IVF treatment during the first special session when the quorum break occurred. Ordaz had previously said that she had been excused for medical reasons. Ordaz added that she stood with the Democrats “fighting Republican efforts to introduce” a new map.
Vince Perez (D-77) was the only member of the Texas House of Representative contingent that left Texas in the effort to stop the GOP from introducing the new congressional maps.
Abbott called a second special session immediately after the first ended. The quorum breakers also returned to Austin. On Saturday, the Texas Senate and House adopted new congressional maps giving the GOP the opportunity to win five additional congressional seats. It is expected that Abbott will sign the legislation for the maps this week.
Except for small section of Ft. Bliss, the original proposed map had little effect on El Paso’s voters. The redistricting effort was mostly focused on districts in Austin, Dallas and Houston. Veronica Escobar retained areas of Ft. Bliss that had been excluded in the original maps when the vote was taken on Saturday.
Perez said he broke quorum because the GOP’s maps “systematically silences the majority through increasing use of voter suppression tactics and now with racial engineered maps that were outlawed in 1965.”
The Democrats have argued that the new congressional maps are “unconstitutionally suppressing the vote of Black and Latino Texans.” In response, California governor Gavin Newsom pushed forth a redistricting effort designed to counter the five additional Texas GOP seats by redistricting seats in California favoring five additional seats for the Democrats.
Vince Perez Talks To El Paso News About Breaking Quorum
Vince Perez was in California and Chicago breaking quorum during the first special session that failed to adopt the proposed GOP maps. On August 22, Perez delivered remarks on the House floor condemning the congressional redistricting as “systematically” diluting the “Latino and Black voting strength while cementing and increasing Anglo control” of the country.
In his remarks to the legislature, Perez said that in the new maps, “white Texans receive one member of Congress for every 445,000 residents, for Hispanics, it takes 1.4 million residents, for Blacks, 2 million.” He added “that means one Hispanic Texan has one-third the political value of a white Texan, and one Black Texan one-fifth.” Perez went on to state that “it would take three Hispanics to equal the representation of one white Texan – and five Black Texans to equal the same.”
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Perez concluded that under the new congressional maps, “Texas Hispanics will be the most underrepresented population group in all 50 states.”
El Paso News spoke to Perez over the weekend about the new maps and the fines he faces as the lone El Paso Democrat who broke quorum. In a telephone and text messages on Saturday and Sunday, Perez said that the Texas GOP “is once again moving Black and Latino voters out of the way so that white voters can have the majority in 26 out of the 38 federal elections in Texas.” According to Perez, under the new maps “one white resident in Texas is now equal to 5 black voters and to 3 Latino voters.” Under the adopted maps “white Texans will be entitled to get triple the number of representatives compared to Hispanic communities like El Paso,” Perez stated.
Perez went on to state that Texas officials “are using law enforcement to intimidate the public and elected leaders they do not agree with, silence dissent, and punish those who resist.”
In an August 21, 2025 letter, Perez was assessed $9,354.25 by the Texas House of Representatives for breaking quorum. The letter states that Perez was assessed $7,000 in fines for missing the special session and a “pro rata” cost of $2,354.25 for forcing law enforcement to look for him to return him to Austin. According to the letter, the cost to force the Democrats to return to Texas was $124,943.40.
The letter demands that Perez pay the $9,354.25 assessed against him due by noon today.
Perez told us that “the fines and penalties are intended to intimidate representatives from breaking quorum as a form of protest against government abuses such as this one and to punish those who do take such action.”
Perez added that because “the fines are assessed against representatives in their personal capacity,” campaign funds cannot be used. Perez explained that the amount must be paid from personal funds, and that “for every month that we do not pay the full amount of fines and penalties, House Republicans will also deduct 30% from our government operating budgets, forcing us to layoff staff and reduce services for our constituents until the full amount is paid.”
According to letter, if Perez does not pay the fines, he may be forced to reduce office staff.
“I will continue fighting to prevent Republicans from intimidating me, my staff, and my constituents for standing up to a government that is using law enforcement against its own people and elected officials in increasingly desperate attempts to cling to power,” Perez added.
When asked about whether he would break quorum again, Perez responded that “if I could go back in time and do it all over again, I would do so without hesitation or reservation.”
Perez told us that later this morning he will be submitting a letter to the committee challenging the fees.
This is a developing story. Additional reporting will follow once new information become available.