Now fugitives, Texas Democrats vow to stay in DC as long as it takes to protect voting rights

Updated at 2:40 pm with new information throughout.

WASHINGTON – After escaping Texas to block a GOP bill that they say would undermine minority voting rights, state Democrats gathered in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday as defiant refugees and crowded the Congress to intervene.

They vowed to stay in the country’s capital for as long as it takes to prevent the Texas House from considering the measure – at least weeks – by removing quorum from the chamber.

“We’re not going to indulge in the ‘Big Lie’ in the state of Texas. We said no during the regular session and we say no during the special session,” said State Representative Rafael Anchia of Dallas, chairman of the Mexican-American Legislative Council Appeals unsubstantiated claims by Donald Trump and many of his allies that the election was stolen – and justify, they say, tough new electoral rules.

President Joe Biden praised her courage, and Vice President Kamala Harris made a space on her calendar to meet later that week.

In Austin, Governor Greg Abbott railed that the Democrats were in decline. And those who stayed in the Texas house voted 76-4 to order the sergeant to bring back the absent members – “with warrant if necessary,” said spokesman Dade Phelan.

State Representative Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, chairman of the Texas Democratic Caucus, shrugged off the threat.

“Well, best I know, Texas law enforcement doesn’t have jurisdiction outside of the state of Texas,” he said outside of the US Capitol.

At least 55 Texas Democrats fled Austin on two chartered planes Monday night.

Most gathered in the U.S. Capitol to dramatize the skirmish, along with two Democratic Congressmen from Texas. Many met with the Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, and other allies.

In the plenary session of the US Senate, Senator John Cornyn accused them of “a highly orchestrated and ethically questionable act of political theater”. He accused the Texas Democrats of peddling false accusations in efforts to build public confidence in elections through voter suppression.

When asked if he would meet with them, he said, “Not if I can help it.”

The Texas Democrats staged a dramatic strike in May to block the measure in the final hours of the regular session. About 15 came to Washington a few days later to meet with Harris, who leads the government’s electoral efforts, and lobbies Congress to revive the landmark proxy law, castrated by the Supreme Court in 2013, and the more controversial ones Bill to revise the campaign’s financial regulations and establish national standards for conducting elections.

The Republicans in the Senate have vowed to thwart the measures.

Abbott insists that “electoral integrity” is an urgent priority amid doubts about the outcome of the 2020 presidential contest. He called the legislature for a special session last Thursday to try again.

Biden condemned the “hideous” proposals in Texas, where lawmakers want to “allow poll workers to intimidate voters”.

“Jim Crow’s attack is real. It’s relentless ”and“ un-American, ”he said in Philadelphia, where he passed two democratic electoral laws that stalled in Congress.

The fact that Donald Trump-inspired non-polluters broke through the Capitol on Jan. 6 “should worry you,” Biden said. “In America, if you lose, you accept the results. You abide by the Constitution. You try again. You do not misrepresent facts or try to bring down the American experiment just because you are unhappy. This is not statecraft. This is selfishness. It’s not a democracy. It is denial of the right to vote. “

Abbott likened the Democratic strike to a filibuster, calling it the “height of hypocrisy” urging the US Senate to repeal its own filibuster rule in order to clear the way for upcoming electoral laws.

“You were not chosen to flee and hide. They were chosen to make arguments that are best for their constituents and then cast votes, ”Abbott said on Chad Hasty radio show. “They’re escaping with just one case of Miller Lite, going to Washington DC to party on Texan taxpayers’ dime, and Texas taxpayers will hold them accountable in the upcoming election.”

The US MP Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, one of the federal legislators who support his counterparts in the states, called them “brave”.

“You can come up with these clever little noises and say, ‘Texans aren’t leaving,'” he said. “Good Texans don’t discriminate against other Texans.”

Abbott was referring to a case of Miller Lite visible in a photo of fugitive Democrats on a bus to the airport.

However, it is unclear what Abbott meant by claiming the excursion was subsidized by Texas taxpayers, and his office did not respond to a request for details.

Your hotel and travel expenses are covered by campaign donations.

Abbott had already canceled their statutory salaries by vetoing the funding of their $ 7,200 annual salaries.

Many left other jobs. At least two brought children to Washington because of childcare issues. Many emphasized the personal financial sacrifices they made.

“If someone wastes tax dollars, it is him and he lies,” said State Representative Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, noting that in addition to GOP-backed election restrictions, “We kill anti-trans child laws, we kill stupid bail reform, going in the opposite direction. We’re killing a lot of bad bills … Do you want to talk about people wasting tax dollars? We are not. “

The legislature holds an ordinary session every two years. Abbott promised to continue calling month-long special sessions until its entire agenda is passed with 11 items, even if that means going through the 2022 elections.

But “if you start the process so violently … you’ve poisoned the whole process,” Anchia said, referring to the governor cutting the legislature’s salaries. “We are sad for democracy in the state of Texas.”

Nine Texas Senate Democrats were also in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to urge federal lawmakers to pass the two bills that Biden also proposed.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Act would restore the Department of Justice’s oversight of Texas and other states with a history of discrimination against non-white voters. The For the People Act would revise campaign funding rules and set national standards for conducting elections, trump 19 state laws restricting voting by mail, and force states to issue an affidavit in lieu of those of 27 states, including Texas, to accept the required IDs.

The bills stalled in the 50-50 Senate, where a Republican filibuster would need the support of 60 Senators.

“These legislators are brave. And they’re just fighting for the right to vote for every Texan – what could be more typically American than that? ”Said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after meeting some Texans. “These people will be remembered on the right side of history. The governor and Republican lawmakers will be remembered on the dark and wrong side of history. “

At an outdoor show of force a few hours earlier, sweat dripped from the brows of state and federal Texas lawmakers and a large media outcrop, with suffocating humidity driving the heat index down to 100.

But neither this heat nor Abbott’s, they swore, would deter them from this rare and dramatic course.

“We need a Lyndon Johnson moment…. We need the President and Vice President and all Democrats in this Senate to work together to preserve American democracy, “said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin.

Doggett was one of the famous “Killer Bees” who staged a five-day strike in 1979 in the Texas Senate to prevent Texas from holding its presidential primary and another bill to change candidate registration fees.

From 76-4, Texas state officials approve a House convocation. With the same margin, the members ask the NCO to bring missing members, “if necessary with an arrest warrant,” says @DadePhelan. #txlege pic.twitter.com/GNAJ5QQZH2

– Bob Garrett (@RobertTGarrett) July 13, 2021

Turner said his group would use the remaining 24 days of the special session to beg Congress to restore federal oversight over states with a history of discriminatory electoral rules.

It takes 2/3 of the 150-person Texas House to do business. Democrats delivered at least 57 letters to the domestic worker Tuesday to ensure their voting machines were locked during their absence, Turner said.

Cornyn insisted that the Republicans only wanted to deter fraud and protect legitimate elections.

“It is insincere and downright wrong to say that any attempt to prevent fraud is a covert attempt at voter suppression,” he said. “We should make it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”

He and other Texas Republicans ridiculed the Democrats as “cowards” for escaping Austin – a course that would certainly lead to their defeat.

“They turned their backs and jumped on a private jet and ran away from this fight,” Cornyn said.

Senate Bill 7 would have authorized judges to reject an election with no evidence of widespread fraud, a provision nicknamed the “Trump Amendment.” It would also have empowered partisan election observers, which critics say is an invitation to intimidate voters; Penalties created for election workers who send unsolicited postal voting application forms; and shorten the voting hours valued by the Black Churches on Sundays.

“Texas law is part of a concerted attack on our democracy that is being carried out in state houses across the country based on the same repeatedly refuted lies that led to the attack on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6,” the White House spokeswoman said , Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One when Biden flew to Philadelphia.

Austin chief Robert T. Garrett and Austin correspondent Allie Morris contributed to this report.

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