After two weeks of strike, enough Democrats from the Texas House of Representatives were back in the Capitol to restore a quorum, allowing the second special session to begin.

The return comes after intense protests over the Republican congressional redistricting initiative, potentially clearing the way for Republicans to pass changes that could net them as many as five new House seats next year.

According to a preliminary, unofficial roll-call count taken by House Speaker Dustin Burrows and released by the Texas legislature Monday afternoon, 120 members answered affirmatively on the roll call, including 32 Democrats, while another 30, all Democrats, are listed as absent.

The House subsequently referred the new version of the bill, which includes new congressional maps, to the House Redistricting Committee, an expected procedural step the House must follow again given the start of a new legislative session. The House did not hold any votes and was adjourned until Wednesday. Burrows said civil arrest warrants remain in effect for the Democratic members who prevented the House from reaching a quorum in recent weeks. Democrats, meanwhile, did not confirm any specific steps they plan to take inside or outside the House, but said they will build a "legal argument against the discriminatory map." The new maps are expected to be the subject of lawsuits if they pass the legislature.

“We ended the corrupt special session, stood up to unprecedented surveillance and intimidation, and mobilized Democrats across the country to join this existential fight for fair representation, completely transforming the landscape for 2026,” Democratic Caucus Chairman State Rep. Gene Wu said in a statement. “We are returning to Texas more dangerous to Republican planes than when we left.”

Elsewhere in California, days after Gov. Gavin Newsom formally announced plans to submit new congressional maps to the hard-pressed voters in November, unlike in Texas, the state legislature is set to reconvene Monday from its recess and is set to work quickly to pass legislation to get the maps on the ballot. Republicans and gerrymandering advocates plan to protest and denounce what they consider an unfair process.

The Democratic governors of Illinois and New York have also threatened to respond to Texas in kind, and a bill in the Democratic-controlled Maryland House of Representatives would force the state to change its map if another state proposed a new one by mid-decade. Republican-controlled Florida and Missouri are also reportedly considering redistricting before the midterm elections.