HOUSTON — More than two decades after leading a dramatic walkout to block a Republican redistricting plan, former Texas House Democratic Caucus Chairman Jim Dunnam is speaking out as history repeats itself.

Dunnam was at the center of the 2003 political standoff, when more than 50 Democratic lawmakers fled to Ardmore, Oklahoma, to deny Republicans a quorum in the Texas House. Their goal then: stall a controversial mid-decade redistricting plan pushed by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

“We went out of state for five days on a Mother’s Day,” Dunnam recalled. “It took them a while to find us.”

Now in 2025, Texas Democrats are employing a similar tactic—this time leaving for states like Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts—to stop a new redistricting map they say is gerrymandered to

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