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Texas Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier abruptly left a private phone call with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders this week, saying she had been informed it was a felony to participate in the conversation while present in the Texas Capitol.

The shocking event highlighted tensions over Texas’s controversial redistricting bill that Democrats say runs afoul of federal voting protections. Collier was on the video conference with Newsom, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, and others while in the Texas House of Representatives chamber to monitor that state’s debate of the redistricting proposal that Trump endorsed.

Collier, in her remarks on the call, criticized the map for not upholding the Voting Rights Act and said it would “cause minority communities to be less effective in electing candidates of their choice.”

“This bill will prevent Black and brown individuals from selecting the candidates of their choice because they’re cracking and packing these districts,” Collier added, calling out a practice of diluting a voting bloc by spreading them across multiple districts.

Collier, who was about 30 minutes into the discussion when Martin was speaking, cut into his presentation to hang up on the other leaders. “Sorry, I have to leave. They said it’s a felony for me to do this,” she said to the group. She then added, “Apparently, I can’t be on the floor or in the bathroom,” and she turned to speak to an unidentified person not seen on camera.

“You told me I was only allowed to be here in the bathroom,” Collier said to that individual, before then turning to the camera. “No, hang on. Bye everybody. I’ve got to go.” With that, Collier left the call.

It stunned those in the meeting. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker immediately reacted, calling the episode “outrageous” and commending Collier. “Let me tell you something, Rep. Collier in the bathroom has more dignity than Donald Trump in the Oval Office,” Booker said.

Newsom, who had just nodded in approval at Booker’s first statement, prompted the California Democrat to expand further on the moment. Booker then shifted his assessment to what he saw as the greater import of Collier’s ouster from the bathroom to talk to her colleagues in other states.

“What they’re trying to do right there is silence an American leader, silence a Black woman, and that is outrageous,” Booker continued. “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.”

The fight is one of the country’s most heated battles over redistricting. A group of dozens of Texas House Democrats fled the state for two weeks in an attempt to deprive Republicans of a quorum to pass the bill. The Republican leadership, led by Gov. Greg Abbott, ordered the lawmakers arrested and threatened to remove them from office if they did not return.

Democrats would eventually return to Austin, but their return was marked by a changed security situation at the state Capitol. House members said Texas Department of Public Safety officers were assigned to shadow them in and out of the building. Lawmakers have also said that those officers guard some members’ offices or track them as they walk through the Capitol. Some said DPS officers in the building have demanded lawmakers sign “permission slips” to leave the Capitol under the new security provisions created to help ensure quorum.

The bill would add up to five Republican seats in Congress, according to Democrats, and that, they said, could solidify GOP power for the next decade. To counter that, California Democrats created their redistricting bill that would do the opposite. The new California congressional map that Newsom and the DCCC finalized this week would likely eliminate up to five Republican seats from that state, effectively negating those new GOP gains in Texas.

The new map in California was released on Friday, and that plan showed Democrats redrawing congressional districts in California to counter GOP efforts in Texas.

The back-and-forth marks how Democrats and Republicans in one state, over redistricting efforts, are now working to redraw congressional districts in other states. With the fight for Congress in the 2022 and 2024 elections just months away, every new district matters, and both parties are working to ensure they have the advantage in the next decade of political fights. For Democrats, that also means Texas’ fight has become not just about concerns over voting rights but also a call to arms for resisting Republican efforts to roll back minority political power.

The scene on the call and Collier’s hasty exit from the bathroom remains a potent symbol in the fight for Texas so far: a lawmaker cut off from her party leaders over the fear of a criminal charge.