Following through on his pledge to use all means necessary to find, arrest and return absconding House Democrats to Texas, the Texas House, led by House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, sued Democrats hiding out in California.

Texas and California — the two most populous U.S. states — are the leading actors in a back-and-forth push to remake the balance of power in the U.S. House, kicked off when President Donald Trump called for Texas to redraw district lines with the GOP’s fragile House majority imperiled in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.

Texas has been the epicenter of Trump’s push to gerrymander congressional maps to shore up Republicans’ narrow House majority before next year. But the standoff is threatening to into other states — including California.