.

Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier abruptly ended a private call with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders this week after she said she was warned it was a felony for her to be on the call from within the Texas Capitol.

The incident came during tense discussions about Texas’s controversial redistricting bill, which Democrats charge runs afoul of federal voting rights protections.

Collier joined the virtual call with Newsom, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, and other members of the party while lawmakers were debating a redistricting bill championed by former President Donald Trump in the Texas House. During her remarks on the call, Collier said that the map being considered in the Lone Star State unfairly targeted the Voting Rights Act and would suppress the power of minority communities to elect their preferred candidates.

“This bill will prevent Black and brown individuals from selecting the candidates of their choice because they’re cracking and packing these districts,” Collier said.

About 30 minutes into the call, during remarks by Martin, Collier suddenly interrupted to inform the other members that she had to end the call. “Sorry, I have to leave. They said it’s a felony for me to do this,” Collier told the other call members. “I can’t be on the floor or in the bathroom,” she continued before saying something off camera.

“You told me I was only allowed to be here in the bathroom,” Collier said to the unseen individual. Collier then turned back to the call and finished her remarks. “No, hang on. Bye everybody. I’ve got to go,” she said before cutting off the call.

Her unexpected exit left the group dumbfounded. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker quickly responded, saying it was “outrageous” and congratulating Collier for her actions. “Let me tell you something, Rep. Collier in the bathroom has more dignity than Donald Trump in the Oval Office,” Booker said.

Newsom nodded along in agreement, and Booker continued, charging that the moment was about more than just Texas’s redistricting and was an effort to silence a Black woman leader.

“What they’re trying to do right there is silence an American leader, silence a Black woman, and that is outrageous,” Booker said. “What we just witnessed, them trying to shut her down and saying it’s illegal for her to be in the bathroom and on this call, this is the lengths that they’re going to in Texas.”

Battle Over Texas’ Redistricting Effort Heads West to California

The dramatic exchange was the result of a power struggle over some of the most hotly contested redistricting efforts across the nation. Texas Democrats fled the state for two weeks last month in a highly publicized effort to break quorum and block the Republican-led bill in the Lone Star State. In response, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other GOP leaders signed an order to arrest the missing members and threatened the lawmakers with removal from office if they did not return.

When Democrats eventually returned to Austin, they described a Texas Capitol under near-lockdown as the tension mounted over the redistricting efforts. Members said that since their return, they had been placed under surveillance by Texas Department of Public Safety officers who, at times, guarded their offices or escorted lawmakers around the Capitol complex. Members said some officers made lawmakers sign “permission slips” if they left the Capitol under the tightened security efforts to ensure lawmakers had returned to reach quorum.

The bill under debate could add as many as five new Republican congressional seats, according to Democrats who say the move would solidify GOP control for the next decade. As a result, California Democrats have moved to counter Texas’s efforts with a redistricting plan of their own. Newsom, working with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), announced that the committee would unveil a new congressional map in California that would help erase five Republican seats, negating possible GOP gains in Texas.

On Friday, a map from California was released, which showed how Democrats hoped to reshape the balance of power on the West Coast to nullify Republican gains in Texas.

Texas Republicans are already facing redistricting efforts in state legislatures from Democrats in Georgia, who also see the efforts to redraw maps as partisan power grabs. At the national level, Republicans and Democrats alike are watching the redistricting efforts that will occur at the end of this year to prepare for their 2022 congressional election battle. With both parties focused on flipping Congress in the next election, every new district gained by either party could matter.

Democrats have now seized on the fight in Texas as both a voting rights issue and a battle cry for Texas Democrats in particular and for other minority groups in other states who may face similar efforts to redraw districts, which could diminish their ability to choose their own preferred candidates.

Collier’s dramatic departure has now become one of the most memorable images of the fight, of a lawmaker forced to end a call with her party leaders from a Capitol bathroom, told she may be committing a crime by doing so.