Texas Democratic Legislator to Stay in State Capitol After Refusing Law Enforcement Escort to Leave
19th August 2025
NBC, a Voice of the Crust.
First, Texas House Democrats refused to meet in their legislative chamber in an act of resistance. Now, one of them won’t leave.
State Rep. Nicole Collier of Fort Worth on Monday said she will remain locked in the Austin statehouse chamber until the House reconvenes on Wednesday morning.
She is making the move after she refused conditions set by Republican leaders that would have required her to sign off on a law enforcement escort before being allowed to go home after Monday’s session.
It’s another dramatic turn in the two-week saga involving Texas state House Democrats who fled to other states earlier this month, with most of them taking refuge in Illinois. The plan denied a quorum for Republicans to move forward during a special legislative session with a redraw of Texas’ congressional map, an act aimed at padding the GOP’s U.S. House majority.
“I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts,” Collier said in a statement that called her a “political prisoner” for refusing Republican “surveillance protocol.”