Texas Democrats Leave State to Kill GOP-Backed Voting Bills, Heading to DC to Rally Support for Fed Bills
Photo by Sergio Flores/Getty Images.
For the second time in a year, Texas Democrats are leaving the state capitol to block Republican-supported voting bills, this time in opposition to legislation being considered during a special session.
The exodus from Austin came after a contentious weekend of hearings on the bills, which drew hundreds of Texans to participate in public comment. The previous Democrat walkout in May came at the very end of the regular session, and only required the Democrats to stay out of the legislative chambers for a few hours. Twenty-seven days are left in the current special session, meaning that these legislators are potentially facing being absent for weeks.
Monday afternoon, the Texas House Democrats issued a statement confirming that they were in fact leaving the state in order to deny Republicans a quorum “to fight back against state Republicans’ continued attacks on Texans’ freedom to vote.”
“We are now taking our fight to our nation’s Capitol,” the statement said, declaring their support for the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, two bills sponsored by congressional Democrats.
It’s official. pic.twitter.com/uJzxsSUMx4
— Ashley Lopez (@AshLopezRadio) July 12, 2021
The Texas Democrats’ plan, as reported by multiple news outlets earlier Monday, was to fly to Washington, D.C. on privately chartered planes and rally there in support of those federal voting rights bills.
The Texas Constitution allows the governor to schedule a special session and set the agenda, as Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) did regarding election issues for this special session, but he cannot actually force them to pass anything.
The Legislature does require a quorum of two-thirds of their membership to be present in both the Texas House and Senate in order to conduct state business, and the Texas Department of Public Safety has the power to arrest truant lawmakers to force their attendance. However, this power does not apply until the absence of quorum is officially established on the floor, and the House Speaker issues an order compelling the attendance of the absent members, which would not happen until roll call Tuesday morning.
Currently, Democrats hold 67 seats in the 150 member Texas House, meaning that they are several members over the 51 needed to break quorum.
Texas Democrats had made clear their opposition to the GOP-backed voting legislation, which included restrictions on early voting and drive-through voting, and Monday’s move was not a surprise. It remains to be seen how long the legislators are willing to stay out of state and what exact concessions from Republicans might induce them to return.
Many Texas political observers commented that the Texas Democrats’ strategy was only viable because of their recent electoral gains. Republicans have controlled both chambers of the Texas Legislature for years, and their majorities were large enough to prevent the Democrats from killing quorum with a walkout. That was the case until the 2016 election, when the Democrats went from 50 to 55 seats, and then increased their numbers to 67 in the 2018 election (the partisan breakdown of the Texas House stayed the same in the 2020 election).
CNN’s Victor Blackwell and Alisyn Camerota interviewed reporter Jessica Dean, who was on the ground in at the state capitol building in Austin, on the day’s developments and noted that travel arrangements like this — private chartered planes, hotel rooms, etc. for dozens of legislators and staffers — would have required not just advanced planning, but significant funding.
“So many questions here: chartered planes, who is playing for the hotels?” said Blackwell. “For a party that is so focused on dark money and politics, they should disclose who’s paying for all this. We understand their mission. We understand why they’re doing this. But somebody spent a lot of money on this.”
Watch the video above, via CNN.
