WASHINGTON — Democratic state lawmakers have fled Texas in a bid to stop a vote on a new congressional map that would heavily favour Republicans.

The redistricting, unveiled by Texas' majority Republicans last week and backed by President Donald Trump, would create five new Republican-leaning seats in the US House of Representatives.

Two-thirds of the 150-member Texas legislature must be present in order to hold a vote. Fifty-one Democratic lawmakers have fled, most of them to Illinois, denying Republicans the required quorum.

They said they plan to stay away for two weeks until the end of a special legislative session convened by Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott.

The session is being held to approve the redistricting, as well as provide disaster relief for last month's deadly Texas floods and to ban THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

Each of the 51 lawmakers could face a $500 (£380) fine for every day they are away, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, has threatened to have them arrested.

He said on X the state should "use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law".

"Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately," he wrote.

In a statement, Texas Democrats defended the move.

"We're not walking out on our responsibilities," said state legislator and chairman of the Democratic caucus Gene Wu.

"We're walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent."

While Democrats nationwide have threatened tit-for-tat tactics, their options may be limited.

In states where they handle the redistricting process, such as Illinois, New Mexico and Nevada, Democrats have already gerrymandered just as eagerly as Republicans.

The most recent Illinois map, for example, received an F grade from the Princeton Gerrymandering Project because it was rated so politically unfair.

But in other Democratic-controlled states, such as New York, California, Colorado and Washington, redistricting is handled by non-partisan, independent commissions, rather than the state legislatures.

Texas Republicans currently hold 25 out of 38 congressional seats in the Lone Star State.

They hope the new maps could increase that number to 30 - all in constituencies that Trump won last November by at least 10 points.

Ahead of next year's midterm elections, Texas' redistricting could help pad the slender Republican majority in the US House, where Trump's party currently has 219 of 435 seats, while Democrats hold 212.

The new map would include a redistricting of the Rio Grande Valley and combine two districts in the state capital of Austin currently held by Democrats.

In northern Texas, the map would expand a district currently held by Democratic congresswoman Julie Johnson to include rural Republican strongholds.

It would also redraw four Houston-area seats, including one held by Democratic congressman Al Green.

Texas state legislator Todd Hunter, a Republican who sponsored the measure to redraw the map, called it "a good plan for Texas".

This is the third time in the past few years that Democrats have fled Texas to deny Republicans a quorum.

The party's legislators took off for to Washington DC in 2021 in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to block the passage of new election rules.

Texas Democrats also left for Oklahoma in 2003 in a bid to stop redistricting that Republicans eventually managed to get approved.

States typically undergo redistricting every 10 years, when voting maps are redrawn to account for population changes.

The most recent US Census was in 2020. Redrawing district lines in the middle of a decade is unusual. — BBC