The lawsuit from Paxton is one of several ways Texas officials have pressured Democrats to return to the state for a vote on a congressional redistricting expected to add five Republican seats in the U.

The political standoff at the Texas Capitol intensified Friday as Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit seeking to remove 13 Democratic state representatives from office over their continued absence from the House floor.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking the state's highest court to vacate the seats of more than a dozen Texas House Democrats that left the state to break quorum in an attempt to prevent a vote on redrawn congressional maps.