Forty Texas House Democrats have fled to Illinois to deny Republicans a quorum needed to approve new maps that would expand the state’s GOP congressional majority ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

The walkout, which Texas Democrats called an “extraordinary and necessary step,” came a day after a House panel advanced a congressional map that would add five new Republican districts next year.

The rare mid-decade redistricting plan comes amid pressure from President Trump to draw new maps to protect the GOP’s narrow 219-212 majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Texas Democrats will join Gov. JB Pritzker at a Sunday evening press conference in Carol Stream.

Pritzker met with Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu in Oklahoma on June 28 after delivering a keynote address

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