Texas Democrats to Flee State to Block Election Integrity Bills
CV NEWS FEED // At least 58 Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives plan to sabotage election integrity legislation by leaving the state during a special legislative session during which the bills in question were slated to pass.
“Today, Texas House Democrats stand united in our decision to break quorum and refuse to let the Republican-led legislature force through dangerous legislation that would trample on Texans’ freedom to vote,” Democratic leaders said in a joint statement released Monday.
The Texas Democrats’ strategy has raised eyebrows, as it represents a position exactly opposite to what Democratic Party leaders are currently pushing for on a national level: the elimination of the Republican minority’s right to filibuster legislation in the U.S. Senate.
Many Democratic senators have gone to great lengths to vilify the filibuster when they were unable to obtain the 60-vote supermajority necessary to end a filibuster, including Sen. Brian Schatz, D-HI.
“The filibuster was never in the constitution, originated mostly by accident, and has historically been used to block civil rights,” wrote Schatz. “No legislatures on earth have a supermajority requirement because that’s stupid and paralyzing. It’s time to trash the Jim Crow filibuster.”
Yet Texas’ Democratic lawmakers plan to paralyze the chamber, causing legislative business to halt until either the session ends or the departed members return to the assembly. This would prevent the GOP majority in the House from proceeding with the bills.
Like Sen. Schatz, the Biden administration has also evoked the Jim Crow era to defend their positions. In this case, however, Kamala Harris praised the filibuster-style walkout by comparing Texas House Democrats to civil rights leaders marching against racist laws.
The Texas bills under protest include House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 3, which would add new ID requirements for mail-in voting, eliminate select early-voting options, and create new criminal penalties for breaking election code.
Many of the Texas Democrats plan to avoid the Legislature and instead fly, via private jets chartered for the occasion, to Washington D.C. to rally in support of federal voting legislation.
Texas Congressman Ronny Jackson called out Democratic lawmakers in a tweet.
Other commentators recognized what many called “hypocrisy” on the part of both Democrats and the media on the issue of breaking quorum for political gain.
Commentator Stephen Miller shared a report from the New York Times’ Reid Epstein. “Texas State House Democrats have arrived at Dulles Airport and are recording selfie videos of themselves for their social media networks,” wrote Epstein.
“Watching these guys go from being camped out [at] Manchin’s office for 2 months to make him scream uncle on the Filibuster to covering this stunt like it’s the second coming of Edmund Pettus Bridge,” Miller responded, calling out such uncritical reports as “an incredible and demonstrable example of pure media corruption….”
“Minority rights matter now,” chided Tim Carney of The Washington Examiner.
Twitter user Doc Kilmer argued that the Democrats had “no shame and no sense:”
“Why shouldn’t the Senate GOP do what you sniveling cowards do and just deny quorum to Schumer?”
