DALLAS — Jim Dunnam remembers the camera crews.

“There were four or five satellite trucks in the Holiday Inn in Ardmore, Oklahoma,” he said. “We never dreamed that was gonna happen.”

That was 2003, when Dunnam and more than 50 Texas House Democrats boarded a bus, crossed the state line, and broke quorum to stall a Republican-backed redistricting plan mid-decade. At the time, the maps were pushed by then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, aiming to tilt Texas districts in favor of securing long-term GOP control in Congress.

Eleven Texas Democratic senators also joined the quorum break and escaped to New Mexico.

“You can't just allow people to redraw the maps every time they don't like the result,” Dunnam said.

Credit: WFAA Jim Dunnam interviews with WFAA.

Now, in 2025, the strategy

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