Texas Democrats are FLEEING again to stop Abbott and Republicans from passing common sense voting reform

by The Right Scoop

Texas Democrats are on the run again, this time to Washington DC, in order to prevent Republicans from having quorum during this special session called by Abbott to get pass election reforms:

NY POST – Tex​as Democrats fled the state on Monday to block Republican-backed election reform bills for a second time — setting up a standoff with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and heading to Washington, DC — risking arrest by leaving during a special session.

A majority of the Texas House’s 67 Democrats are planning on flying from Austin on two charter flights to the nation’s Capital, where they will press the Biden administration and congressional lawmakers to pass federal voting rights legislation, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The mass exodus of Democrats would deny the House a quorum when it gathers on Tuesday.

It would be the second time since May that the Democrats used the tactic to scuttle Republican attempts to overhaul the Lone Star State’s election laws.

They walked out on May 30 just hours before the chamber was expected to vote on the voting legislation, leaving it short of the required number of lawmakers needed to conduct a vote in the final hours of the regular legislative session.

Abbott then immediately called for a special legislative session.

Under House rules, the chamber can vote to lock the doors to prevent lawmakers from leaving and order law enforcement officials to track down and arrest any members who already fled, the Texas Tribune reported.

Even if Democrats manage to disrupt the special session, Abbott, a Republican, can just call for another when they return.

Republicans say the voting measures — ending 24-hour polling places, banning ballot drop boxes, and empowering partisan poll watchers — are designed to ensure the integrity of the vote by preventing voter fraud.

Here’s more from Texas Tribune on what happens next Tuesday if there is no quorum:

“All absentees for whom no sufficient excuse is made may, by order of a majority of those present, be sent for and arrested, wherever they may be found, by the sergeant-at-arms or an officer appointed by the sergeant-at-arms for that purpose, and their attendance shall be secured and retained,” the House rules state. “The house shall determine on what conditions they shall be discharged.”

It’s unclear, though, what options Phelan may have to compel Democrats to return to the Legislature if they’re out of state.

I guarantee you Democrats want to make as big a scene as possible, as well as being arrested on TV, to both subvert the will of the people in Texas and gain as much ‘sympathy’ in the process for electoral reasons. It’s despicable, cowardly, and at the end of the day it won’t much matter because, as the Post points out, Abbott will just call another special session to get this done.

Abbott responded to the madness, saying:

“As they fly across the country on cushy private planes, they leave undone issues that can help their districts and our state,” Abbott said in a statement Monday afternoon. “The Democrats must put aside partisan political games and get back to the job they were elected to do.”

Cushy planes loaded with lots of beer, I might add:


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