Gov. Maura Healey said an attempt by Texas Republicans to redraw local U.S. House maps to increase the number of Republicans in Congress is a “partisan, craven political power grab” that affects people in Massachusetts because of the impact it could have on future elections.

Healey took pot shots at President Donald Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as she stood alongside a group of Democratic lawmakers from the Lone Star State who were skipping out on their legislative duties to postpone a vote on the maps.

The first-term Bay State Democrat said residents here have “seen the impact in Massachusetts of Donald Trump’s cuts to Medicaid and anti-hunger programs, and the way his tariffs … raised the cost for everyone.”

“What’s happening in Texas matters to the people of Massachusetts, and it matters to people all over this country if we don’t have a fair election system in this country. That impacts, that hurts all Americans,” Healey told reporters at the State House Tuesday afternoon.

Dozens of Democratic state lawmakers from Texas have left the state to cities across the country in a final effort to prevent Republicans from adopting U.S. House maps that Trump wants in place before the 2026 midterm elections.

The decision to leave the Lone Star State puts Democratic state lawmakers out of reach from Texas law enforcement, and allows them to effectively block votes by guaranteeing the 150-member Texas House does not have a quorum to do its business.

Republicans in the Texas House did not have a required quorum for a scheduled vote on the new district maps Monday afternoon, though local representatives in Texas had plans to try again Tuesday.

In the meantime, Abbott and his fellow Republicans have threatened to remove Democrats from office, fine the absent lawmakers each day they are out of the capitol, and even have the legislators arrested if they do not come back to Austin.

Abbott ordered Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to track down lawmakers and bring them back to the Texas State House.

Rep. Anna Hernandez, a Democrat who represents parts of Houston, said she is facing a $500-a-day fine that will not be paid “until, if and when we return.”

“That is not what we are concerned about,” Hernandez said. “As we left the state, it was to make sure that our constituents have a voice. Because that’s what this process is doing. It’s silencing our constituents, and we will not stand for it.”

Abbot defended the redistricting plan this week as an effort to redraw lines to better reflect voters who supported Trump in the 2024 election, when the president easily won the Lone Star State.

“Gerrymandering can be done, or drawing lines, can be done on the basis of political makeup, as in Republicans versus Democrats. And there’s nothing illegal about that,” Abbott said Monday in an interview with Fox News. “All of these districts that are being added are districts that were won by Trump.”

But Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, who has helped oversee the redistricting process in the Bay State for decades, said Trump is “stealing the rights of Massachusetts voters and voters throughout this country.”

“If you’re an American who’s concerned about Congress, you should understand that these votes he’s trying to steal in Texas will come back to hurt us with national legislation that’s going to affect the lives of everybody in this country,” he said.

The U.S House maps Texas Republicans are trying to push through would add five more Republican seats in Texas ahead of the midterm election, which would help the party’s chance at preserving its slim majority in the chamber.

Republicans hold 25 of Texas’ 38 U.S. House seats.

Sen. Carol Alvarado, a Democrat who represents parts of Houston and surrounding suburbs, said legislators who have left Texas are “holding the line on democracy, not just for Texas, but for our nation.”

“This is coming to you. You’re next. This is not a Texas problem. This is a United States of America problem,” Alvarado said at the Massachusetts State House. “… We have become so accustomed to rolling up our sleeves and fighting because we know that this is not stopping in Texas, this is coming to a state near you.”

Materials from the Associated Press were used in this report.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Gov. Maura Healey meets with a group of Texas lawmakers at the State House Tuesday. (Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)