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Texas Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier left a private call with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders on the California call abruptly after being warned it was a felony for her to participate while at the Texas Capitol, she said this week. The House was in session at the time, as lawmakers were debating a Texas redistricting bill passed in the Texas Senate and backed by former President Donald Trump.

Collier joined the call, which also included Newsom, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, and other Democrats, while the Texas House was in session, debating the Republican-backed redistricting bill. Collier claimed it was a felony to participate in the call while on the Capitol grounds. She also spoke against the redistricting map on the floor that day, which she said violated the Voting Rights Act and would “diminish the power of communities of color” to elect their candidates of choice.

“I want to tell you that as we look at this map, this bill is not in line with the Voting Rights Act,” she said. “This bill will dilute the voting power of communities of color. This bill will prevent Black and brown individuals from selecting the candidates of their choice because they’re cracking and packing these districts.”

Collier was one of at least 51 Democratic members of the Texas House who fled the state for two weeks to prevent the state from passing the redistricting measure without Democrats having a voice in the voting, which was backed by Trump. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other GOP leaders in the state eventually ordered lawmakers to be arrested and threatened to remove them from office if they refused to return. This week, California Democrats rolled out a redistricting bill of their own. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee unveiled their congressional map in California, one that Democrats believe would wipe out five GOP seats in that state.

The map, released Friday, would effectively erase five Republican seats in the Golden State in the event Republicans hold a slim majority in Congress after the 2022 midterm elections. The effort in California has been led by Newsom in coordination with DCCC Chair Rep. Tony. Advancing the California map is considered key in the effort to fight back against any potential gains the GOP could make in Texas.

Members have said the mood at the Capitol has changed since they returned to Austin from their boycott of the state House. Members told The Daily Beast that Texas Department of Public Safety officers were now assigned to shadow them to ensure quorum, including guarding their offices or walking behind them in the Capitol. Some Democrats even said DPS members were making them sign “permission slips” to leave the Capitol.

The Texas bill could result in as many as five Republican congressional seats in the state, according to Democrats, which they said would set up GOP gains for the next decade. But California Democrats this week said they would aim to counter that by changing their congressional map to effectively take back five seats, likely eliminating Republican districts on the West Coast.

Newsom announced last week that, in coordination with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the state would release a congressional map in California that would likely accomplish that goal. Friday, the map was made public. The incident was another striking example of how redistricting fights in one state have also bled into the national political sphere. As both parties contest for control of Congress in the next few election cycles, every new district matters.

For Democrats, the fight in Texas has also emerged as a symbol of larger concerns around voting rights, with the party choosing to use the event as a rallying cry for defeating what they see as minority voter suppression.