WASHINGTON

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation Wednesday into a group founded by former Democratic Congressman Beto O’Rourke, accusing it of unlawfully funding Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to block legislative action.

“I just launched an investigation into Beto O’Rourke's radical group for unlawfully funding runaway Democrats,” Paxton wrote on X. “Any Democrat coward breaking the law by taking a Beto Bribe will be held accountable.”

In a separate statement, Paxton said his office was reviewing whether O’Rourke’s Powered by People political action committee (PAC) illegally financed Democratic state legislators who left Texas to prevent a quorum, possibly violating state bribery and campaign finance laws.

“These jet-setting runaways have already lost public trust by abandoning our state,” he said, vowing “aggressive legal action” against those who fail to return to the state House of Representatives by the Speaker’s Friday deadline.

Most of Texas' state House Democratic lawmakers fled to Illinois over the weekend to block a vote on a congressional map that could give Republicans up to five additional seats in the US House.

The walkout has triggered a wave of political and legal retaliation. On Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott filed an emergency petition to the state’s Supreme Court seeking to remove Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu from office.