Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday filed a lawsuit in the Texas Supreme Court in the hopes of securing a judicial order to declare vacant the seats of Texas Democrats who fled the state.

"I've filed a historic lawsuit against Democrat runaways in SCOTX to secure an order declaring their seats vacant," he announced. " These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process. Their out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked, and the business of Texas must go on."

Democratic legislators left the state in a bid to deny Republicans a quorum and block a redistricting effort that is expected to favor the GOP for the midterms.

Texas law enforcement is actively seeking those legislators and the state has authorized their arrests.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.