Texas Democrats took a potentially costly risk this week by fleeing the state to avoid a controversial vote on a new Congressional district map that they’ve denounced as unnecessary, illegal, and racist.
The bold choice to “break quorum” will inevitably delay, but not halt, legislation that the Dems actually want to pass, like improved communications and disaster recovery protocols in the wake of the July 4 Hill Country floods.
The lawmakers fled to Chicago, Boston, and New York and have vowed to stay until Governor Greg Abbott’s 30-day special session expires August 19. The inability to do business without at least 50 members of the Texas House puts work on pause, but Abbott can call the elected officials back as many times as he wants through the end of next year.
It’s unlikely that the “quorum break,” created by House Democrats ghosting mid-session, will halt redistricting and some of the other agenda items for good, said University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus.
“Republicans are pretty dug in on redistricting,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll see a lot of accommodations on this, especially after the quorum break, which has a tendency to increase hurt feelings. Once the Democrats decided to break quorum, it was an effective political break, making every other kind of negotiation legislatively more challenging.”
“Quorum breaks aren’t a recipe to change the legislative trajectory or even the outcome,” he added. “It’s an opportunity for Democrats to spread their message and highlight the issue for audiences that might be politically relevant. The national implications to these stories are why Democrats have been able to generate a lot of publicity from this break as opposed to other breaks.”
A 2003 mid-decade redistricting effort prompted 11 Democratic senators to flee to New Mexico during a special session called by former Gov. Rick Perry. They remained there for 46 days until then-Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, returned to Texas, allowing the chamber to reach a quorum and to pass the redistricting legislation, according to the Texas Tribune.
A 2021 quorum break also was unsuccessful for Democrats who fled to block restrictive voting measures. The Dems’ unity began to fracture while opposing a second special session and three Houston lawmakers returned from Washington, D.C., citing the COVID-19 pandemic, and restoring quorum so the legislation could pass.
“It doesn’t happen with great frequency, but it’s happened a lot more in the past 20 years because Democrats have felt alienated from the process,” Rottinhaus said of quorum breaks. “It’s when there’s an issue of statewide or nationwide importance and Democrats don’t feel like they’re able to participate in the process and they’re being railroaded.”
Eighteen items are on the agenda for the special session that began July 21. Some are GOP-led efforts that weren’t expected to get much traction, like a bathroom bill and a stricter anti-abortion law.
Others, like a THC ban or regulation — the original reason the special session was called — are being watched closely because they affect the livelihoods of hemp farmers and access of THC users. A bill that would protect victims of human trafficking from criminal liability for non-violent acts closely tied to their own victimization was vetoed by the governor during the last session and is expected to pass with minor tweaks to the language.
People are counting on those things to be decided, but there’s not really a deadline on when they have to happen, Rottinghaus said, adding that a second special session will undoubtedly be called later this month.
And it’s clear that the Democrats don’t want to participate in mid-decade redistricting, which appears to be an order from the White House to flip five Texas Congressional seats red.
Everyone across party lines, however, appears to agree that improvements are needed in disaster response and emergency communication protocols statewide.
At least 137 people died in the Hill Country floods last month and no one wants that situation to be ignored. Republicans will make the case that the Democrats’ absence delays funding for disaster recovery, Rottinghaus said.
But it’s worth noting, he added, that Governor Abbott has “made robust use of his unilateral emergency powers when it comes to funding,” so he can spend money to resolve problems in Central Texas without legislative approval. Some of the more complex matters, such as an overhaul of the statewide first responder radio system, was likely to get punted to the 2027 session anyway.
“Republicans [in past quorum breaks] used the issues that weren’t getting discussed as leverage to try to compel Democrats to come back,” Rottinghaus said. “That’s certainly a case that could be persuasive to some voters who may not understand the full three-dimensional chess of this process.”
In addition to stalling legislation, the quorum break could create severe consequences for the fleeing lawmakers, or at least that’s what Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows want them to believe. At a minimum, each Democrat who joined the quorum break faces a $500-per-day fine.
Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, said the decision wasn’t made lightly.
“As a state representative, I get paid about $600 a month, before taxes,” he said on social media. “That’s not much to live off of. Many of my colleagues, including myself, have day jobs that help us pay the bills. And by breaking quorum, we are leaving those day jobs behind. We are sacrificing the income that we need to make ends meet.”
When the Legislature convened Monday afternoon, Burrows commended those who showed up, “honored their oath and came here ready to work for the people of Texas.”
“Your presence speaks volumes,” he said. “You understand that the issues before us — disaster recovery, fighting for the families who lost loved ones in the floods, human trafficking and more — are not abstract policy debates. They are real-world problems demanding immediate solutions.”
“But instead of confronting those challenges, some of our colleagues have fled the state and their duty,” he added. “They’ve shirked their responsibilities under the direction and pressure of out-of-state politicians and activists who don’t know the first thing about what’s right for Texas. To be absolutely clear, leaving the state does not stop this House from doing its work. It only delays it.”
Burrows then heard a motion from Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, for a “call on the House” until consideration of the redistricting bill is completed. A “call on the House” is basically the legislature’s bat signal, compelling the attendance of absent members, Rottinghaus said.
Burrows said he would sign warrants for the “civil arrests” of those who left the state.
Rottinghaus, who is not an attorney, speculated that such a warrant would not be effective outside of Texas unless another state chooses to domesticate it and enforce it. Democrats fled to states where they’d consulted with the governors and knew they’d be protected, he added.
Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, filed HB 257 this week that, if approved, would vacate the seat of any lawmaker who skips seven consecutive legislative days without an excused absence.
“If you abandon your job, you don’t deserve the title,” Cain wrote on social media. But lawmakers can’t vote on a bill without a quorum, so such a bill is not going to become law anytime soon, Rottinghaus said.
“One thing to note here is that this episode has unified both the Republican and Democratic parties,” he said. “The Republican Party needed that unity because there were concerns on policy issues that they didn’t always agree on: STAAR testing, THC reform, and taxpayer-funded lobbying. These are issues where Republicans were disagreeing within their own caucuses. This moment has definitely unified those partisans.”
Rep. Jolanda Jones, D-Houston, who is running for U.S. Congress, was unfazed by Abbott’s threats of arrest.
“There is no felony in the Texas penal code for what he says, so, respectfully, he’s making up some shit,” Jones said Monday at a press event in New York. “He’s trying to get soundbites and he has no legal mechanism, and if he did, subpoenas from Texas don’t work in New York, so he’s going to come get us how?”
Sen. Molly Cook, D-Houston, called for Abbott to abandon plans to redistrict and focus instead on flood recovery.
“Despite widespread devastation, the governor and our Republican colleagues have refused to prioritize disaster aid in the session call,” Cook said in a statement. “The governor could act today. He could make executive decisions to prioritize flood victims and help families rebuild, but instead, he’s choosing to spend taxpayer dollars on racist redistricting maps to dismantle communities of color.”
Rottinghaus said it all comes down to messaging.
“Whoever wins this messaging battle is going to be the more victorious out of this,” he said. “Ultimately, Democrats can’t stop what the Republicans are doing legislatively, so the best they can hope for is to get a little bit of message mileage out of it. They have to find that rhythm because if they don’t then it will be for naught and it will be a punishing return for them.”
