Amid redistricting protests, Texas State Capitol cleared of visitors after reported social media threat
The Texas State Capitol was cleared of visitors Tuesday evening and closed to the public after a social media threat, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement.
The disruption came amid protests in support of Democratic State Rep. Nicole Collier, who has been confined to the House after she refused a law enforcement escort during a contentious redistricting fight that saw several Democrats leave the state earlier this month to hamper the redrawing of new maps.
In a statement, the Texas Department of Public Safety said the message was posted earlier Tuesday. "In that message, the individual calls on others to go to the Capitol building and take action by shooting and killing those who will not allow lawmakers to leave," the department said.
The department said it evacuated the public from the Capitol building around 6:30 p.m. local time "for the safety of those at the Texas State Capitol, and out of an abundance of caution."
The department said it's working to identify the person responsible for the posting. The Capitol was closed to the public for the rest of the day.
While the public was evacuated from the Capitol, some Democratic House Members remained in the building with many state troopers present.
Several hours before the building was cleared of visitors, a handful of Texas House Democrats said they planned to stay overnight in the State Capitol in solidarity with Collier -- joining her in refusing law enforcement escorts mandated for them because they had broken quorum to prevent House Republicans from changing the state's congressional maps to make five districts more GOP-friendly.
A few of them tore up their paperwork to consent to an escort during a media availability outside the House chamber Tuesday afternoon.
Democratic state Rep. Penny Morales Shaw told reporters at a news conference, "This is illegitimate, this is a wrongful use of power and I will not condone it, and I don't want to be a part of setting a very bad and low precedent for future legislators."
Shaw was joined by state Reps. Rhetta Andrews Bowers, Cassandra Hernandez and Mihaela Plesa outside the House chamber.
Rep. Rhetta Andrews Bowers told reporters, “We walked in, we are not running from anything. We have not been running from anything this entire time. So I want to be clear that this is a blatant violation of our freedoms as Texans, as Americans, and of duly elected officials.”
Saying the law enforcement escort was a waste of taxpayer dollars, Bowers added, “We are representatives of the people of Texas. Those resources belong to Texans right now, families in the Hill Country who lost everything to devastating floods need our help. Yet, instead of providing relief, those dollars are being spent on constant [Department Public Safety] patrols.”
Some Democrats returned to the statehouse on Monday and allowed the legislature to reach a quorum, but they continued to speak out against the controversial redistricting.
It is likely that the redistricting plan, which was pushed by President Donald Trump, will pass. The House is set to consider the bill containing the new maps on Wednesday, according to an updated House calendar. The bill, which was newly filed for the second special session after the first one was adjourned due to not having a quorum, passed out of committee on Monday.
Hernandez said that other colleagues are heading to the Capitol to stay overnight and plan to fight the bill when they are on the House floor tomorrow. She did not specify how many were en route or when they could show up.
"So while we're in here, doing our slumber party for democracy, you will see that we will be working on the floor, strategizing and making sure that we bring the fight tomorrow, and we will not allow them to continue to keep silencing our communities and taking away our abilities as duly elected officials to represent the people that we have been elected to represent in all of Texans," she said.
Collier and House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu posted a video on X on Tuesday chronicling how they and their colleague, state Rep. Vince Perez, slept in the chambers Monday night.
"We had two chairs that we put together. [Wu] slept in two chairs. I slept in two chairs. Our other colleague, Vince Perez, he slept in a couple of chairs," Collier said in the X video.
Wu, who did sign the waiver, said in his post that he joined Perez and Collier in support of "#goodtrouble," referencing the late Democratic Rep. John Lewis.
"We know this is a #riggedredistricting process. Democrats are not giving up!" he posted.
Collier echoed that statement.
"I think they need to find their resistance," she said of her supporters." Finding your voice and your resistance -- that will make a change in America."
Plesa said Collier had gotten support and calls from people around the country -- including former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris called Collier Tuesday and gave her words of encouragement, according to a representative for the former vice president.
"Know that we’re in the rooms with you no matter what. And you have our support," Harris told Collier.
House Speaker Dustin Burrows responded to Collier's action in a statement Tuesday, saying, "Rep. Collier's choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules."
"I am choosing to spend my time focused on moving the important legislation on the call to overhaul camp safety, provide property tax reform and eliminate the STAAR test -- the results Texans care about," he added.
A spokesperson for the Texas House Democratic Caucus told ABC News that Collier is effectively stuck in the Capitol until Wednesday at the earliest if she doesn't sign the form, because that is the earliest the House could do a rules change.
Collier told ABC News on Monday that she was taking a stand for herself and her constituents.
"Look, I'm not a criminal. I've exercised my right, and I am tired of the government controlling our movement, and so this is nothing more than the government exercising its control over people who exercise their constitutional rights to resist," she said.
Collier said she had no issue with the DPS officers themselves since they were ordered by the state Republican leadership to escort the selected Democrats; however, she was angry that the directive was made in the first place.
"I'm tired of being pushed around and told what to do when I disagree with the actions of our government," she said.
"You don't have to do this. You don't have to dig in deeper into the harm that you're doing. You are going to get what you want," Collier said of the Republican leadership. "This is just petty and unnecessary, and I don't think that it is fair. It's demeaning to me as a person and to my community, and I just won't take it."
