Texas State Representative Nicole Collier has emerged as a key figure in the state’s ongoing electoral map controversy.

A Democratic state lawmaker who fled Texas in protest of a GOP redistricting effort is asking a court to let her exit the Capitol, after she was told she needs a police escort to leave the building.

The Texas State Capitol was cleared of visitors Tuesday evening and closed to the public after a social media threat, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

The Capitol grounds were cleared after 7 p.m. as a demonstration against a GOP redistricting plan was about to begin. Texas lawmakers and staff members were allowed to remain inside the Capitol.

Democratic State Rep. Nicole Collier is hunkering down in the Texas Capitol building in protest of Republican leadership assigning law enforcement officers to monitor the state's Democratic caucus, after dozens fled the state for two weeks in attempts to halt a vote on new congressional maps that would advantage the GOP in next year's elections.

Texas Republicans mandated that Democratic lawmakers not be allowed to leave the state house without a permission slip and a police escort.

After Democrats returned to the Texas statehouse, Republican leadership assigned law enforcement officers to monitor them to prevent further delays to their plan to redraw congressional voting districts to favor Republicans ahead of the election.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris personally reached out to Texas State Rep. Nicole Collier as she continued to be confined inside the state Capitol after refusing a demand from the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives to sign a permission ...