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Texas Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier abruptly hung up during a private call with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders this week, saying it was a felony for her to be on the call while in the Texas Capitol building.

Collier’s abrupt exit during the video meeting this week highlighted the rapidly intensifying fight over one of the most controversial redistricting bills in the country, which Texas Democrats have accused of flouting federal voting rights protections.

The lawmaker joined the call with Newsom, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, and other party leaders while the Texas House of Representatives was in the process of debating a redistricting bill on the floor of the Capitol in Austin that was pushed by former President Donald Trump.

During her public comments on the floor, Collier had argued the map would allow for the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act and would therefore disenfranchise the minority voters’ ability to choose their preferred candidate.

“This bill will prevent Black and brown individuals from selecting the candidates of their choice because they’re cracking and packing these districts,” Collier said, citing GOP lawmakers’ redistricting tactics that involved diluting Black and Latino voting strength in various communities.

In her words and appearance, Collier continued her comments as Martin was speaking. After about 30 minutes of the call, while Martin was still speaking, she abruptly left the call.

“I’m sorry. I have to leave. They said it’s a felony for me to do this,” she said, after which she added, “Apparently, I can’t be on the floor or in the bathroom,” before turning and addressing someone who was off camera.

“You told me I was only allowed to be here in the bathroom,” Collier said to the unknown person. She then looked back at the camera and the group on the call and added, “No, hang on. Bye everybody. I’ve got to go.”

Collier then hung up.

Her move seemed to stun the group. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker was the first to respond, angrily calling it “outrageous.”

“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. Booker then turned on Collier’s interlocutor, off-camera, and continued.

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

Collier’s confrontation on the call came after one of the most aggressive redistricting fights between the neighboring states of Texas and California.

Dozens of Democratic members of the Texas House had fled the state and avoided the legislature for two weeks in an unprecedented move to break up the quorum and deny Republicans the votes needed to pass the measure.

In retaliation, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican leaders had the lawmakers arrested at airports and state highways around the state as they were rounded up and returned to Texas. Abbott and GOP leaders also began filing the rare orders to remove the lawmakers from office if they did not return and face their punishment.

After their two-week absence from the Capitol, lawmakers had returned to Austin when the confrontation on the call with Newsom’s group had happened. Members returned to a dramatically changed environment at the Capitol, with several saying that Texas Department of Public Safety officers were being put on their tail, guarding their offices and rooms, sometimes even when they had to use the restroom. Some lawmakers said they even had to sign “permission slips” when they tried to leave the Capitol, under the new security protocols put in place after their absence to make sure members did not try to break quorum again.

The bill itself, if passed, could add as many as five Republican congressional seats in the state, an effort that Democrats have said would cement GOP power in the state for the next decade.

In an effort to counter the Texas GOP-led effort, California Democrats announced their redistricting plans for the state. Newsom, in a move with the DCCC, drew up a congressional map for California that would likely wipe out five GOP-held seats – the same amount Texas’s GOP efforts might add.

On Friday, that map was released, showcasing how the West Coast would redraw representation that would likely erase the GOP gains secured by Texas.

The unprecedented moment underscored the growing nationalization of redistricting battles in states across the country, as the political parties jockeyed for congressional seats and control of Congress in the coming years. For Democrats, it also had become a kind of symbol for their fight in Texas, both against what they had said was an erosion of voting rights and against the GOP’s plans to erode that power. In a larger sense, it’s also another way that the battle over which party will control Congress next year – and therefore power – is not just in the voting booth, but in the drawing of the districts.

In the immediate, the image of a lawmaker being asked to be on the call from her own Capitol bathroom, only to be told that participation was illegal, is stark.