One day after more than 50 Texas House Democrats broke quorum by fleeing the state in an effort to block voter restrictions being considered in a special session of the legislature, the remaining members of the House voted Tuesday to send for them and have them arrested if necessary.
The Texas House had only 80 of its 150 members in the chamber Tuesday morning. House rules require two thirds of legislators to be in the state for a vote to take place.
State Rep. Will Metcalf, R-Conroe, moved for a call of the House, a procedural move that allows law enforcement to arrest legislators and bring them back to the chamber. The measure passed 76-4.
However, Texas law enforcement officers are likely unable to arrest the lawmakers, who arrived to Washington D.C. on Monday. Gov. Greg Abbott, who was a guest on the Ingraham Angle on Monday, told the Fox News host that there was no legal recourse he could take while lawmakers were outside the state.
“Once they step back into the state of Texas they will be arrested and brought to the Texas Capitol, and we will be conducting business," Abbott said.
On Tuesday, Texas Democrats stood outside Congress and called on the Biden administration and federal lawmakers to pass new legislation to protect voting rights — and to do it soon.
The Democrats broke quorum at the Texas House as part of a gamble to halt two bills that would, among other things, ban drive-through and 24-hour voting, make mail-in voting more difficult and give partisan poll watchers more authority at voting sites. Abbott called on a special legislative session after House Democrats blocked similar measures in May by walking away from the chamber and breaking quorum near the end of the regular session.
The Democrats seemed intent on remaining in Washington until the end of the special session, but they said the delay cannot last forever. The special session still has more than 20 days to go, and Abbott has the power to call for more special sessions after the end of this one.
"We know that is exactly what [Abbott] is going to do. We went into this eyes wide open. We know exactly what will happen," state Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, said Tuesday morning at a press conference in front of Congress.
In addition to the House Democrats, nine Texas Senate Democrats made the trip to Washington on Tuesday. Four Democratic members of the Senate remained in Texas, leaving 22 of the 31-member body in total — enough for a quorum in the chamber. The Senate passed its version of the GOP voting bill on party lines late Tuesday afternoon, though without a House quorum, it's effectively dead.
Democrats said the purpose of their trip to Washington is to push Congress to try again to pass new voting legislation. Senate Republicans used the filibuster to block debate on the For the People Act last month.
The state legislators said they’re also hoping to hear President Joe Biden reiterate his commitment to moving forward new voting protections during his speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon.
“What we really need today is a Lyndon B. Johnson moment,” said U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin. “We need the president and vice president and every Democrat in this Senate working together to preserve American democracy.”
During his speech, Biden criticized the Texas GOP for its efforts to pass the more restrictive laws. In particular, he called out protections for poll watchers as partisan attempts to intimidate voters.
“They want to make it so hard and inconvenient that they hope people don’t vote at all," he said.
State Rep. Penny Morales Shaw, D-Houston, told Houston Public Media that the walkout was necessary in order to draw attention to what have been called some of the toughest voting laws in the country.
Morales Shaw said she believed Texas needed to work on laws that strengthened voting rights.
"This bill, it's not going to affect one person, one party or another, it's going to affect everyone," Morales Shaw said. "It will affect teenagers, it will affect young people, it will affect disabled people, it will affect all people of all creeds."
Not every House Democratic lawmaker was in Washington. State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, told Cohen he was in an "undisclosed location" in Texas after having the bottom of his leg amputated.
"I think that my colleagues did the right thing by going to Washington, D.C.," Coleman said. "And if I could get myself together, and wasn't in a wheelchair, then I’d be on a plane up there too."
Houston Public Media's Paul DeBenedetto contributed to this story.
