Five weeks ago, dozens of Democrat state lawmakers from Texas decided it would be a good idea to flee the state instead of giving their Republican colleagues the quorum they needed during the special session to conduct state business.
At issue was an election reform bill those same Democrats were trying to prevent the GOP-controlled state legislature from passing. So about 50 or so maskless Democrats piled into two charter buses – cases of Miller Lite beer in hand, boarded two private jets, and made a beeline for Washington, D.C. on a trip funded in part by failed Senate/presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke.
A number of them proceeded to further beclown themselves while on the trip by, among other things, posting pictures of their just-washed lingerie drying out on a hotel shower curtain rod as an example of their “sacrifice,” making fun of the appearance of a Republican colleague who has autism, and pleading for care packages.
Two took a trip to Portugal. And earlier this month, 22 of them actually filed a lawsuit against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, which alleged “anxiety and distress over the separation from their families.”
But last week, after 38 days, three of the Democrats who cut and run from the state decided to return, and with their return, they provided Texas House Republicans with the quorum they needed to get back to work:
The few who returned to the Texas House defended their decision, saying they had successfully pushed Congress on voting rights legislation and pointing to the growing urgency of surging COVID-19 caseloads in Texas.“Now, we continue the fight on the House Floor,” Democrats Garnet Coleman, Ana Hernandez and Armando Walle said in a joint statement.
You will not be surprised to learn that this has led to some hurt feelings and more temper tantrums among those who still have no plans to return to the Texas Capitol anytime soon:
By Friday, the tenuous alliance among Democratic House members split into open confrontation, as 34 of them released a joint statement criticizing their colleagues who returned to the Capitol. The caucus chairman, Chris Turner, did not sign on.“We feel betrayed and heartbroken,” the Democratic members wrote in their joint statement. “But our resolve is strong and this fight is not over.”State Representative Jessica González, a Democrat from near Dallas, said she was particularly frustrated with the suddenness of the decision, with no advance warning that the other Democrats would be returning.“What’s most disheartening,” Ms. González said, “is that so many of us have stuck together on this, so many of us have made sacrifices, and the least that people can do is just at least have a conversation as a caucus, as a whole. That way people can make their own decisions, too.”
Democrat House Rep. Gene Wu, who was perhaps the most vocal and obnoxious of the bunch, has remained strangely silent on Twitter regarding the matter for some odd reason.
Sadly for the holdout Texas Democrats, the only thing they have to show for their efforts is a supreme amount of embarrassment along with the numerous COVID-19 cases some of them came down with during the course of their little stunt.
As for the election reform bill, per the New York Times, “a potential showdown” could come as soon as this week:
It was scheduled for a committee hearing on Monday, and would still need to go through another committee before it could come to the floor for a vote, setting up a potential showdown [this] week.
Special sessions can last for up to 30 days in Texas, so Republicans have until September 5th to get a bill passed.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY