Dems accuse JD Vance of ‘congressional level shoplifting,’ call for more to join AWOL lawmakers

Democratic lawmakers from the Texas and Indiana legislatures slammed Republican redistricting efforts before the 2026 Midterm Elections, with one Indiana lawmaker accusing Vice President JD Vance of being "engaged in congressional-level shoplifting."

The lawmakers held a press conference in Chicago on Wednesday to protest an ongoing effort in Texas to pass a redistricting bill that would likely hand the GOP five additional congressional seats.

During the event, Texas state Rep. Gene Wu, who is chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said that by fleeing the state to deny a voting quorum in the Texas House, his caucus is "blocking a racist, unconstitutional and illegal gerrymandering effort."

He said the AWOL Democrats are also "stopping the DC swamp from dictating who we get to vote for."

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This comes as Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other state authorities have called for the arrest and removal of Democratic lawmakers who disappeared from the state and brought legislative progress in the state House of Representatives to a grinding halt. Because of the missing Democrats, the Texas House has not been able to pass the redistricting bill though it passed in the Texas Senate on Tuesday.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Abbott said that, in addition to political backlash, Democratic lawmakers who accepted money to assist with their exodus could face felony bribery charges.

Now, several Democrats are reportedly planning to return to the state as Abbott calls for a second special legislative session to pass the redistricting bill.

Despite this, the Democrats are asserting that their efforts have been a success.

Speaking on Wednesday, Wu said, "I'm so happy to be here today because in the past week we have heard from California, we have heard from New York, we have heard from Illinois, that people are ready to stand up. People are ready to fight back."

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Wu called on more people to join in the efforts and to take "more aggressive actions" to fight the GOP.

"We cannot do this alone; that this is not a fight that we can sustain and win on our own," said Wu. "What we need is we need more people to join us. We need more states to come to our aid, and we need more people to say we will start taking more aggressive actions, we will defend against this."

Wu went on to say that if Texas and other red states are "determined to do this," then "other states will make sure that it does not matter what they do, that we will nullify their actions."

"We will make it pointless for them to attack our democracy," he said.

In response, Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott, told Fox News Digital that "Democrats fundamentally misunderstand Texans."

"Texans expect their elected leaders to show up to work, and the Democrats refuse to do so," said Mahaleris. "Voters, especially Hispanic Texans, are increasingly deserting the Democrats and deserve to be able to vote for candidates who better align with their values. At the end of the day, candidates win on the merits, not the map. If Democrats have any hope of winning elections, they need to change their platform. Running away from a fight is not a solution and is the antithesis of being a Texan."

Amidst this controversy, Vance has also called for red states to counter what he called "aggressive" Democratic gerrymandering in blue states like California, New York and Illinois.

Speaking with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" this past weekend, Vance said, "We're just trying to rebalance the scales and frankly push back against a very unfair system created by the Democrats."

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Vance said Democrats have had the upper hand in the game for many years and, under President Donald Trump's leadership, Republicans are finally playing offense.

"It's ridiculously unfair," he said of illegal immigrants being included in the total population used to determine how many seats each state receives in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"The only real way to fight back against it is for us to redistrict, in some ways, as aggressively as these hard blue states have done," he added.

On Wednesday, Indiana state Rep. Ed DeLaney, a Democrat serving in a majority Republican legislature, accused Vance of engaging in "congressional-level shoplifting."

"JD Vance, in my view, and I'm being serious about this, the man is engaged in congressional-level shoplifting, and I say that again. That's what he's doing," said DeLaney.

"Never in my life did I think that the Vice President of the United States would come to my state to ask our legislators to shoplift a congressional district like this, steal them off the shelf, run outside and wave them in front of the country. We cannot have this kind of conduct," he said.

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DeLaney asserted that "this game of, you know, ritual gerrymandering" puts at risk "the mutual respect of the legislature of our state and of Texas and of other states."

He went on to say, "If these idiots get their wishes, what happens if they lose one of those five congressional races? Oh my God, let's have another redistricting next year. This has got to be put to a stop."

He went on to say that the Texas Democrats "are the people who are going to try to put it to a stop," adding, "I know how hard it is, but we need to support them and stand with them. Otherwise, our people will be subjected to ever-changing districts, none of which are representative."

Fox News Digital also reached out to Vance's office for comment, but did not immediately hear back.

Fox News Digital's Taylor Penley contributed to this report.