Democrats are fundraising to cover $500-a-day fines lawmakers would incur under House rules that were set after Democrats fled the state in 2021.

The chair of the Texas redistricting committee, Republican state Rep. Cody Vasut, said during a Thursday hearing that "it is prudent and proper" for the committee to deal with items the governor put on the agenda, and that "we have no plans to change any particular district."

Now, back to Beto. O'Rourke, whose 2018 tantalizingly close challenge to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has made him Texas' most recognizable and perhaps most influential Democrat. Even after making a failed bid for the 2020 presidential nomination and losing two years later by double digits to Abbott, O'Rourke remains the face of the Texas Democratic Party.