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A Texas House Democrat was confined in the Capitol overnight after she refused a police escort that Republican leaders imposed on lawmakers who participated in a two-week walkout over a GOP mid-decade redistricting plan.

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Democratic state lawmakers line up to question Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, as the Texas House votes to pass a Republican-led, mid-decade redistricting effort that was delayed by a two-week Democratic walkout, on Aug. 20, 2025.

Texas House approves GOP congressional map after two-week delay from Democrats’ walkout

Republican lawmakers are pursuing the unusual mid-decade redistricting plan amid pressure from President Donald Trump to protect the GOP’s slim majority in the U.S. House.

Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, declined on Monday afternoon to sign a slip giving her permission from Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, to leave the House floor with a state law enforcement officer shadowing her.

“I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts,” Collier said in a statement Monday. “When I press that button to vote, I know these maps will harm my constituents — I won’t just go along quietly with their intimidation or their discrimination.”

At least four more Democratic lawmakers — Reps. Rhetta Bowers, Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, Penny Morales Shaw and Mihaela Plesa — joined the protest Tuesday, tearing up their permission slips in front of a crowd of supporters chanting, “Don’t mess with Texas women,” and, “Let them out,” as the lawmakers prepared to spend the night on the House floor with Collier. Rep. Senfronia Thompson of Houston joined the demonstration but did not appear to rip up her permission slip.

“Why would we be considered a flight risk if we walked in of our own volition?” Bowers said. “This is a blatant violation of our freedoms as Texans, as Americans and as duly elected officials.”

At around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday while Collier and others were on the House floor, the Texas Department of Public Safety evacuated the public from the Capitol after an unidentified individual posted a threat on social media, according to a DPS spokesperson. DPS said the message called on people to go to the Capitol and shoot “those who will not allow lawmakers to leave.”

The Capitol was closed to the public for the rest of the evening, according to DPS. Authorities have not yet identified the individual who posted the threat.

Collier and Rep. Gene Wu of Houston, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, later issued a statement on the situation and thanked DPS troopers for their “swift and professional response to today’s security threat.”

“Violence and threats have no place in our democratic process, and we unequivocally condemn any threats against public servants or law enforcement, regardless of political differences,” the statement read.

Just over two dozen Democratic lawmakers, including Collier, on Monday ended their walkout over a congressional redistricting plan — demanded by President Donald Trump just four years after Republicans last redrew Texas’ map — that is designed to pad the GOP’s slim U.S. House majority in next year’s midterm election.

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After the lawmakers returned to the Texas House, Burrows announced they would each be subject to an around-the-clock police escort to ensure their attendance when the chamber reconvenes on Wednesday morning to vote out the map. He added that Democratic lawmakers would be responsible for any state costs incurred in ensuring their attendance.

Most Democrats signed the permission slip required to leave the Capitol with a police officer in tow, even while objecting to the mandatory surveillance and emphasizing that they would not have returned to Austin on Monday if they planned to skip the vote on Wednesday.

Collier filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the chamber’s authority to put members under police surveillance.

State Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, talks on the phone from the floor of the nearly empty House chamber on Aug. 18, 2025. Collier is staying in the chamber because she did not want to sign the required permission slip allowing quorum-breaking lawmakers to leave the Capitol under escort by a Department of Public Safety trooper.
State Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, talks on the phone from the floor of the nearly empty House chamber on Aug. 18, 2025. Collier is staying in the chamber because she did not want to sign the required permission slip allowing quorum-breaking lawmakers to leave the Capitol under escort by a Department of Public Safety trooper. Texas House of Representatives Democratic Caucus chair Gene Wu/Handout via REUTERS

“They exercised control, and they tell us we can’t leave unless we do exactly what they say,” she said in a video Monday. “We’ve had enough. We’ve had enough of them taking all of our rights away, and so I’ve taken a stand. I’m pushing back.”

Collier slept at her desk on the House floor Monday night and remained there Tuesday, over 24 hours and counting after first arriving, though she said she’d received permission to go to her office in the Capitol. Wu and Rep. Vince Perez, D-El Paso, stayed with her overnight, with other Democratic lawmakers and staffers coming by to provide moral support, food, clothes, pillows and other necessities.

All of it was captured on a livestream the House Democratic Caucus set up on the House floor, with up to 50,000 viewers tuning in at one point. On Tuesday, Plesa said that former Vice President Kamala Harris was among those who called Collier to express support for her protest.

“Rep. Collier’s choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules,” Burrows said in a statement. “I am choosing to spend my time focused on moving the important legislation on the [governor’s special session] call to overhaul camp safety, provide property tax reform and eliminate the STAAR test — the results Texans care about.”

A handful of supporters outside the House chamber were arrested Monday night for “trespassing when the Capitol is closed.” They each received a criminal trespass warning barring them from returning to the building for a year, according to a video of the incident.

The order requiring Democratic lawmakers to keep a police escort is set to expire when the House grants final passage to the congressional map, House Bill 4, later this week.

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Ayden Runnels contributed to this report.

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Kayla Guo covers state politics and government. Before joining the Tribune, she covered Congress for The New York Times as a reporting fellow based in Washington, D.C. Kayla has also covered transportation...

Ayden Runnels is the afternoon/evening reporter. Previously, they were a breaking news reporter for the Las Vegas Sun. A graduate of the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas, Ayden...