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Texas Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier abruptly ended a private call with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other party leaders this week after she said she was warned it was a felony for her to be on the call while at the Texas Capitol. The moment also captured just how tense the fight has become over Texas’s redistricting bill, which Democrats say violates federal voting rights protections.

Collier was on a video call with Newsom, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, and other party leaders as the Texas House of Representatives was in session. The House was in the middle of debating a redistricting bill favored by former President Donald Trump. Collier, in her remarks on the call, said the map violated the Voting Rights Act and would dilute the political power of minority voters.

“This bill will prevent Black and brown individuals from choosing the candidates of their choice because they’re cracking and packing these districts,” Collier said on the call.

About half an hour into the conversation, as Martin was talking, Collier hung up on the call to announce that she was leaving. “Sorry, I have to leave. They said it’s a felony for me to do this,” Collier said, as she hopped off the Zoom call. “I can’t be on the floor or in the bathroom,” she said before speaking to someone off camera.

“You told me I was only allowed to be here in the bathroom,” Collier said to an unidentified person off camera. She then turned back to the camera to say, “No, hang on. Bye everybody. I’ve got to go.” Collier then disconnected from the call.

Her abrupt action shocked the group. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker immediately slammed the actions of Texas officials. “This is outrageous. She is out of here, standing up for herself and the truth,” Booker said. “Let me tell you something, Rep. Collier in the bathroom has more dignity than Donald Trump in the Oval Office,” Booker said.

Newsom nodded in agreement as Booker continued. “What they’re trying to do right there is silence an American leader, silence a Black woman, and that is outrageous. What we just witnessed, them trying to shut her down and saying it’s illegal for her to be in the bathroom and on this call, this is the lengths that they’re going to in Texas,” Booker said.

CALIFORNIA GOP LAWMAKERS MOVE TO STOP TEXAS-STYLE REDISTRICTING AMID TEXAS-CALIFORNIA RIFT

The entire episode came amid the most vicious redistricting fight in the country. For two weeks in July, dozens of Democratic members of the Texas House had fled the state to try to deny Republicans a quorum so the chamber could not pass the legislation. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other GOP state leaders had the lawmakers arrested and threatened to remove them from office if they did not return.

After the Democrats returned to Austin, lawmakers said they were shocked at the change in tone at the state Capitol. The Texas Department of Public Safety officers were ordered to track each lawmaker, sometimes guarding their offices or following members as they walked through the building. Some lawmakers have described having to sign “permission slips” before they could leave the Capitol, as the new security measures were put in place to ensure a quorum.

The bill itself would create as many as five Republican congressional seats in Texas, which Democrats say would lock in GOP power in those seats for a decade. To balance the political impact of that move, California Democrats moved forward with their redistricting map. Newsom, in conjunction with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), on Friday unveiled a new congressional map for California that would cut five Republican seats – a move that would directly offset any gains Republicans were able to make in Texas.

On Friday, that new map was unveiled as the California Democrats showed how they could reshape political power on the West Coast in a way that would negate Republican gains from the Texas map.

The episode demonstrated how battles over redistricting in one state are playing out in the larger national political conversation. As Democrats and Republicans jostle for control of Congress ahead of elections next year, each new district matters. For Democrats, the fight in Texas has emerged as not just a voting rights flashpoint but also a way to galvanize their opposition to what they see as minority voter suppression.

Fox News Digital contacted the offices of Booker and Newsom for further comment, but did not immediately receive a response. Collier’s office also did not provide additional details, citing the fact that the Texas House was still in session.

As of now, Collier’s unexpected Zoom disconnection stands as a vivid image of the tensions involved in the fight: a lawmaker forced to hang up on her leaders from a bathroom in the Capitol after being warned that her actions could be a felony.