Defiant Texas Democrat Spends Night at the Capitol After Refusing Police Escort

A Texas House Democrat spent the night at the state Capitol on Monday after refusing to comply with a Republican-mandated permission-slip system to track lawmakers’ movements.

Democrats who returned to Texas this week after a more than two-week-long stalemate to delay the passage of new congressional maps were met with cheering crowds — and a draconian set of restrictions masterminded by their Republican colleagues.

In order to leave the House floor on Monday, Democrats who fled the state were required to fill out permission slips agreeing to be released into the custody of a Department of Public Safety officer who would remain with them to ensure their return for Wednesday’s session.

Rather than submit to the surveillance measures, state Rep. Nicole Collier opted instead to remain at the Capitol overnight, and was later joined by several of her colleagues, including the Texas House Democratic caucus chair, Rep. Gene Wu, and Rep. Vince Perez.

“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 Monday. “When I press that button to vote, I know these maps will harm my constituents — I won’t just go along quietly with their intimidation or their discrimination.”

Collier, whose X account has livestreamed her actions from the House floor for more than 13 hours to an audience of more than 50,000 viewers, refused to sign again on Tuesday and stayed another night in the Capitol. She said, however, that she had been allowed to return to her office.

In a photo posted to her followers, Collier donned an eye mask and bonnet while stretched out across her desk chair in the middle of the Texas House chamber. She also had a blanket and a rechargeable fan, as well as a copy of the David Hackett Fischer book, “African Founders: How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals.” A small Texas flag rounded out the scene.

Collier was joined by Wu and Perez shortly after her standoff began. They were among a group of Democrats who previously agreed to the mandated escorts before returning to the Capitol to support Collier’s efforts, according to The Texas Tribune.

“It’s real cold, it’s freaking freezing in here,” Wu said standing alongside Collier in a video posted to X around 6 a.m. on Tuesday from the House chamber, in the same suit sets they wore the day before. “What we’re doing right now, this is civil disobedience.”

“And it’s resisting,” Collier added.

Republicans, for their part, shrugged off Collier’s efforts.

“Rep. Collier’s choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules,” Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said in a statement. “I am choosing to spend my time focused on moving the important legislation on the [governor’s special session] call to overhaul camp safety, provide property tax reform and eliminate the STAAR test — the results Texans care about.”

For other Democrats, navigating the day with a police escort has had its own hiccups. Rep. Sheryl Cole said her Department of Public Safety escort lost her while on a walk on Tuesday, and threatened to have her arrested.

“While on my morning walk in the Mueller neighborhood, my DPS escort, who was forced upon me to track my every movement, threatened to arrest me,” Cole posted on X. “He lost me on the trail, got angry about it, and made a scene in front of my constituents on the trail.”

Texas lawmakers are scheduled to return for a full session Wednesday, where a vote on the gerrymandered redistricting maps is expected to take place.