State Rep. Nicole Collier can’t leave the Texas Capitol building because she won’t sign a paper agreeing to a state police escort.

Collier is among the Texas House Democrats who broke quorum to block mid-decade congressional redistricting. She and at least 51 other lawmakers left the Capitol to block a map that opponents say would disenfranchise voters and position Republicans to gain five seats in Congress.

Other Texas Democrats, including from DFW, joined Rep. Nicole Collier after they tore up their “permission slips” to leave the chamber.

Texas State Representative Nicole Collier has emerged as a key figure in the state’s ongoing electoral map controversy.

“Way to go Rep Collier!” Rep. Marc Veasey, a Fort Worth Democrat, said in a post on X. “Don’t sign the slip! This is why we need to keep Voting Rights Act! Making someone sign a permission slip is way too antebellum!!! This is ridiculous! And, it’s so natural for them (GOP) to behave this way! It’s systemic in their every day actions!”

A Democratic state lawmaker who fled Texas in protest of a GOP redistricting effort is asking a court to let her exit the Capitol, after she was told she needs a police escort to leave the building.

Texas Republicans mandated that Democratic lawmakers not be allowed to leave the state house without a permission slip and a police escort.

The standoff began on Monday, when Democratic members returned to the Capitol after being out of the state for more than two weeks due to a controversial redistricting map. Rep. Collier refused to agree to leave the chamber under the surveillance of the Department of Public Safety.

Texas’ Republican-led legislature gave initial approval to a controversial new electoral map on Wednesday, a redistricting move designed to give the GOP an additional five seats in the U.S.