The Texas Democratic lawmakers who decamped to Illinois to block a redistricting effort in their state faced threats of arrest and criminal charges if they didn’t return home.
But as their time away from the state dragged on, the threats grew more worrisome.
A group of state legislators who stayed at a hotel in St. Charles, a suburb outside of Chicago, endured two bomb threats on different days. It reached point that the Texas lawmakers quietly switched hotels and made an internal pact to keep those details private.
Even more concerning to them was what their families were dealing with back at home.
Some of the legislators said their homes in Texas received repeated pizza deliveries when they hadn’t made the orders. It’s now considered by law enforcement to be an intimidation tactic after a judge’s son was murdered by an assailant who posed as a delivery driver.
In another instance, state Rep. Diego Bernal said a man wearing a backpack showed up to his family’s residence in San Antonio. Bernal told NBC News in an interview that the individual represented himself as a worker for the water company and started asking for Bernal’s whereabouts, including when he’d be home and how long he had been gone.
The episode was caught on the family’s home surveillance camera, and Bernal said while he doesn’t know if the person was intent on doing harm, he was certain the man misrepresented himself, as he was not wearing the customary identifiers of a water department employee.
“Almost everybody has a story like that now. You’ve got him, you’ve got the pizza folks, you’ve got the people online saying to ‘hunt us down,’” Bernal said. “The atmosphere online has been really toxic, and one of the real disappointments about this is that when we’re in session, even when we really disagree, when we have big floor debates and fights, there’s still a level of respect, decorum and even personal compassion between members across the aisle. There’s been literally none of that while we faced a bomb threat, or while people are being told to hunt us down, or someone’s address might be leaked online.”
The threats have been weighing on the lawmakers, who have now been away from home for nearly two weeks as they sketch out their plans to return to Texas.
When asked what he was fearful of, state Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said one word: “Minnesota.” He was referring to a Minnesota state lawmaker who was shot and killed along with her husband earlier this year when the suspect appeared at their home.
“I have left directions to my family: Do not open the door for anyone. We are deadly afraid there will be another Minnesota incident,” Wu said in an interview. “We get threats all the time. When the Republicans have people calling us communists and traitors and all these other things, it provokes a certain reaction. And that threat is real. We don’t take this lightly.”
Texas state Rep. Ramon Romero Jr., who leads the Democratic Hispanic Caucus, lamented the ongoing threats and what he described as intimidation tactics from Republicans as a troubling “sign of the times.”
He pointed to Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, posting a map with the location where the lawmakers were staying and GOP state Rep. Mitch Little naming the hotel they were staying in a TV interview where he said, “Whoever wants to go and get them, we fully support that effort.”
“You have people that want to be famous, and because Roger Stone said, ‘This is where they are,’ the next day there’s a bomb threat at that location,” Romero said. “It’s just a sign of the times. This is what happens when people use incendiary comments, when they say, ‘Go get ’em.’”
In response Little said in a message to NBC News: “That’s ridiculous. I saw their location on social media like everyone else. [The Department of Public Safety] was charged with bringing them back, and that’s exactly who I was talking about.”
And in a text message, Stone said that it was a news organization that first revealed the hotel where the lawmakers were staying.
Apart from security threats, lawmakers’ family members contended with other kinds of disruptions. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said earlier this week that the Department of Public Safety had special agents deployed in every region of the state, making clear they were prepared to take the lawmakers into custody at any moment.
“They are set up outside members’ homes, conducting surveillance, knocking on doors, calling their phones multiple times a day. So far, no one’s home. But the search continues and it will not stop,” Burrows said.
In a statement, Burrows denounced the threats lawmakers have faced. He also received a voicemail threatening his family, according to a copy of the voicemail reviewed by NBC News.
“Threats of violence and intimidation against elected officials have no place in our politics, and it is unfortunate that members on both sides of the aisle have been subjected to harassment,” Burrows said. “These threats will never be tolerated, and working with law enforcement, we will ensure that anyone targeting a Texas elected official or their family will face the full force of the law.”
Gov. Greg Abbott’s office also decried the threats against lawmakers and rejected assertions from Democrats that Republicans were fanning the flames.
“First and foremost, violence — or even the threat of it — is unacceptable and the Governor condemns it without reservation,” Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement. “But to suggest that calling on Democrats to return to Texas and do their jobs somehow inflames threats is absurd.”
On Friday, Burrows gaveled the first special legislative session to a close and Abbott called for another one to begin hours later so lawmakers can consider, among other things, a new congressional map that could net Republicans as many as five more seats.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom countered on Thursday by calling on lawmakers in his state to set a special election that would allow them to pursue their own mid-decade redistricting effort.
A person close to the situation who has knowledge of the plans said Texas Democrats plan to return to their state “as soon as Monday.” They have set two conditions for their return: first, that the special session in Texas come to an end, and second that California Democrats release their own redistricting proposal.
Wu said Friday, “One of the two conditions have been met when the governor caved. We expect the other condition to be met next week.”