Arrest warrants have been issued for dozens of Texas Democrats who fled the state in order to stop a voting bill.
A prominent Texas lawmaker signed arrest warrants for 52 Democrats who fled Austin in order to avoid voting on a contentious GOP election reform bill they claim would restrict minorities’ ability to vote.
According to The Dallas Morning News, House Speaker Dade Phelan signed the warrants late Tuesday, after the chamber voted 80-12 to compel the runaway lawmakers to return to the statehouse.
According to the report, the move came hours after the Texas Supreme Court authorized the use of law enforcement to compel Democrats who flew to Washington, DC a month ago to lobby for federal voting reforms to return and vote on the measure.
Republicans asserted that the new partisan arrest warrants are civil in nature, not criminal.
“No one is going to jail, but they do have to return to work,” Republican state Rep. Mayes Middleton stated.
Only about half of the renegade Lone Star cohort remains in Washington, as progressives pressure Dems who have returned to Texas to avoid Austin. Numerous members, including Rep. James Talarico, have re-entered the House, escalating intraparty tensions.
“We had numerous heated discussions in Washington as we deliberated on our own next steps,” Talarico explained. “I’m going to keep those disagreements to myself. However, I am aware that emotions are running high everywhere, and it has been a trying month.”
“Why did you throw us under the bus today?” Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos tweeted the message alongside a photo of Talarico and other Democrats on the House floor.
Rep. Celia Israel returned to Austin but stated emphatically that she would not seek election to the Texas House.
“Every day that we are unable to conduct business in accordance with Governor Abbott’s agenda is a good day,” Israel said.
Republicans required five additional lawmakers to form a quorum Tuesday in order to proceed with a revised voting measure. The abridged proposal — one of several across the country influenced by former President Trump’s false election fraud claims — would prohibit 24-hour polling locations and drive-thru voting in the red state, while giving politicians more control over the voting process.
According to a Brennan Center analysis of national voting laws in 2020, Texas already had the strictest voting laws in the United States.
According to the Morning News, Rep. Chris Turner, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, stated Tuesday that it is “fully within our rights as legislators to break quorum to protect our constituents.”
Last week, nearly two dozen Democrats sued Gov. Greg Abbott and other state Republican leaders, alleging that efforts to recall them to Austin for a special session violated their constitutional rights.
Due to the lack of a quorum, officials have been unable to act on other pressing state matters, including allocating federal COVID-19 relief funds as Texas grapples with an epidemic of the highly contagious Delta variant.
