‘There Was a Lot of Crying’: Texas Democrat Says Colleagues Did Not Want to Flee to DC

Rep. James Talarico, who is one of dozens of Texas Democratic lawmakers currently in Washington, D.C. in order to stall a vote back in Austin on a controversial election bill, joined Mediaite founder Dan Abrams on his SiriusXM radio show on Wednesday. The night before, Talarico clashed with Fox News’s Pete Hegseth in a wild eight-minute segment about the lawmakers’ decision to deny a quorum in the Texas statehouse by leaving the state to prevent the bill from moving forward.

Abrams asked Talarico if the move to flee was grandstanding in what will ultimately be a futile attempt to stop the bill from becoming law. Talarico responded by saying the move was “the last resort”:

None of my colleagues wanted to do this. My colleagues are leaving behind their their kids, some of them leaving behind a dying family members. One of my colleagues canceled her wedding that was scheduled to break quorum. There was a lot of crying among legislators who had to make this decision as they left their their families. This was not our first option. This was the last resort and one that we desperately tried to avoid by working with our Republican colleagues.

Several Republican-led states have taken up a series of voting bills they say are meant to ensure election integrity. The measures come in the months after Donald Trump falsely said the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, a claim he continues to repeat.

“We just celebrated 244 years of America and this experiment of ours,” said Talarico. “And we do feel that it is under threat because of President Trump’s Big Lie.”

The representative then admitted their temporary self-exile in Washington, D.C. won’t stop the bill, saying “there is not an endgame.”

Talarico noted that Gov. Greg Abbott can keep calling for special sessions for as long as it takes, and “so the only play left for us is to come to DC and beg, plead, implore our Democratic peers, our Democratic president, our Democratic senators, and our Democratic house members to take immediate action to pass another voting rights act to ensure that the rights of Americans across this country at the ballot box are protected. So that’s the only play we have left.”

“If Congress doesn’t act, then we’re gonna fail,” he said. “And I want to be very honest about that fact.”

Listen above, via The Dan Abrams Show on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel.