Cornyn acused the absent Democrats of possible criminal acts, saying "they may be guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses."

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Texas’s senior senator up for reelection in 2026, announced on Thursday that FBI Director Kash Patel agreed to his request for federal agents to help Texas law enforcement track down and return runaway Democratic lawmakers.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) hit back at the idea of federal agents coming into his state to detain the Democratic lawmakers who fled there. Pritzker told Jessica Yellin on her News Not Noise podcast on Wednesday, saying, “The fact is that you know our local law enforcement protect everybody in Illinois. Our state troopers protect everybody in Illinois and anybody who’s here in Illinois.” He added that “if you haven’t broken federal law” and are in his state, “there’s no way” you can be arrested by the FBI.