At least 50 Texas House Democrats left our state and flew to Washington, D.C. this afternoon because they plan to break quorum tomorrow to prevent Texas Republicans from ramming through their revised voting restrictions bill. Texas House Democrats have no options aside from breaking quorum for a second time (they broke quorum in May to stop the first version of this bill), and they hope that Democrats in the U.S. Senate will pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to protect voters’ rights and elections in Texas and throughout the country.
In a tweet this afternoon, veteran Texas political reporter Scott Braddock pointed out a reality that is all too frequently forgotten:
Again: Every. Election. Matters.
A decade ago, Texas Democrats did not hold enough seats in the Legislature to break quorum.
Yes, not having taken back our state has been discouraging for me and many other Texas Democrats, but we’ve made progress. My 10-year kosiversary is on Friday 7/16, and we could not have broken quorum the year I signed up to post here.
We’ve got 50+ Democrats to support, and Beto is in there amplifying their efforts as usual.
Beto also expects that some Texas Senate Democrats will break quorum as well. We shall see.
As usual, this is an open thread. Not raining here tonight!