Texas Republicans are moving closer to approving new congressional maps amid a Democratic show of protest over the GOP House speaker’s order that members who fled the state weeks earlier be placed under law enforcement watch.

Texas Democrats end walkout as GOP-controlled legislature prepares to vote on redistricting maps that could flip five congressional seats to Republicans

A second special session that has made approving the map a priority started Friday, shortly after the first one ended.

Multiple Texas House Democrats will spend the night inside the Texas House chamber to protest law enforcement escorts that have been following them around to ensure they show up to the Capitol on Wednesday.

A partisan move by Texas to redraw its congressional maps in the middle of the decade to secure five more GOP seats in the U.S. House set off a clamor to replicate the effort in statehouses controlled by both parties.

As California pushes to eclipse Texas’ gerrymandering effort to win the House of Representatives at midterm elections, the first draft of the newly drawn congressional maps became public Friday.

Texas Democratic legislator Nicole Collier says she will remain locked in the Austin statehouse chamber until the House reconvenes Wednesday morning, the latest development in the two-week saga involving a redrawing of Texas’ congressional map.