The Texas Legislature began a new special legislative session Friday after Gov. Greg Abbott called lawmakers back to deal with congressional redistricting and a host of other issues — laying down a new gauntlet for Democrats who fled the state nearly two weeks ago to halt a vote on a new district map.

Democrats have shown they are willing to go beyond words of outrage and use whatever power they do have to win.

“We can’t stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across the country,” Newsom said at what amounted to a campaign kickoff rally for the as-yet unreleased maps that Democ...