Dems take walkout stand

For a self-described wallflower, state Rep Gene Wu has been getting a whole lot of attention.

- STORY: POOJA SALHOTRA / NYT

As chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, Wu, a Houston lawyer, recently led his fellow Democrats in a walkout from a special legislative session that governor Greg Abbott called, in large part, to enact a gerrymandered congressional map designed to flip as many as five US House seats from Democratic to Republican in the 2026 midterm elections.

For his troubles, Mr Wu faces a lawsuit from Mr Abbott that would oust him from office and even broader threats from the state attorney general, who wants to remove all the absent Democrats from their seats.

Mr Wu has been vilified online by some conservatives for his ethnicity, as national Democrats pressure him to hold firm, even as he and his colleagues absorb US$500 (16,000 baht) penalties for each day they stay away from the Capitol in Austin.

There is little doubt that Texas Republicans, who hold a majority in both legislative chambers, will ultimately succeed in pushing their redistricting agenda through.

But Mr Wu still says it’s been worth it.

“Why should destroying our government be easy?” he asked in a phone interview from Chicago, where more than a dozen Texas Democrats flew to on Aug 3. “It was necessary to send a message that the people of Texas are not going down without a fight.”

Mr Wu might seem an unlikely person to lead that fight. He immigrated to the United States from China with his parents as a young child and said he grew up a shy, nerdy kid who rarely received attention.