The day after they left Texas, flying from Austin to Washington to break the state House’s quorum and block a bill that would make it harder for many Texans to vote, House Democratic leader Chris Turner said his party’s members will lobby national Democratic leaders to help stop Gov. Greg Abbott and majority Republicans in the state legislature.
“We can’t hold this tide back forever,” Turner told reporters outside the Capitol. “We’re buying some time. We need Congress and all of our federal leaders to use this time wisely.”
Democrats’ decision to bolt from the state was also symbolic: Texas Democrats want to make clear they are doing everything possible to slow the wave of restrictive new voting laws inspired by former President Donald Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud and already enacted this year by some Republican-led states, including Florida and Georgia.
“We are not going to buckle to the Big Lie in the state of Texas — the Big Lie that has resulted in anti-democratic legislation throughout the United States,” said Rep. Rafael Anchia, the chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus.
The Texas Democratic lawmakers said they will meet with members of Congress while they are in Washington to urge them to pass voting rights legislation, including the For the People Act — a sweeping measure that has stalled in the Senate, where Democrats only have 50 of the 60 votes they’d need to break a filibuster and moderate Democrats such as West Virginia’s Joe Manchin have opposed changing the rules to eliminate the filibuster.
President Joe Biden is set to deliver a speech on voting rights Tuesday in Philadelphia, which Texas Democrats said they’ll be watching.
They also urged national Democrats to adopt Clyburn’s idea of a filibuster carve-out for constitutional issues, which would open the door for Democrats to pass voting rights legislation while preserving the 60-vote threshold for other bills.
“Greg Abbott and his group of extremists will never change. What can change today is in this building,” US Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat who joined the state House members at a Tuesday news conference, said.
In Texas, minority House Democrats walked out of the final hours of this year’s legislative session, blocking Republicans from approving Senate Bill 7 — the controversial measure that would have made casting mail-in ballots harder; banned drive-thru voting centers and 24-hour voting — tactics Harris County, the home of Houston, used in the 2020 election; empowered poll watchers, made it easier for courts to overturn election results; effectively outlawed Black churches’ “souls to the polls” get out the vote push and more.
Abbott, the Republican governor who is seeking a third term in 2022, called a 30-day special legislative session, saying that “election integrity” would be one of his priorities. Majority Republicans in the House and Senate in recent days unveiled bills that closely mirrored SB 7.
State House and Senate committees advanced those bills after hearing opposition in hours-long hearings over the weekend.
House Democrats’ only available move to stop the bills’ progress was to leave the Capitol building — preventing the state House from having the two-thirds quorum necessary to conduct business — and flee the state entirely, blocking Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan from having those Democrats arrested and returned to the House chamber.
The Texas Democrats admitted Tuesday it was merely a stalling tactic. After the current special session ends on August 7, Turner said expects Abbott to call another special session.
“We are living right now on borrowed time in Texas, and we can’t stay here indefinitely to run out the clock to stop Republican anti-voter bills,” said Rep. Rhetta Bowers. “That’s why we need Congress to act now and pass the For the People Act. Texas Democrats will use everything in our power to fight back, but we need Congress to act now.”