In a stunning turn of events, members of the Democratic caucus of the Texas House of Representatives staged a dramatic walkout in a last-ditch effort to stop the Republican Party from passing one of the most severe voter suppression bills in the U.S. The walkout by all 67 Democrats in the state House meant that the Republican Party wouldn’t be able to form a 100-member quorum in the 150-member body, meaning that the bill was not able to be passed before the end of this legislative session, which ended on May 30.
Just 24 hours ago, it seemed as though nothing could stop Texas Republicans, which had control of both chambers of the state legislature and the governorship, from passing a major voter suppression bill — Senate Bill 7. The Texas Senate, which Republicans controlled with an 18-13 majority, used a procedural maneuver to ram through the bill in a midnight vote. The House looked to be on track to jam through the bill in a lightning-fast vote just before this year’s legislative session ended on May 30.
However, Texas Democrats pulled off a truly amazing feat. At around 10:35 p.m. CDT, about an hour and a half before the clock ran out on the legislative session, Texas Rep. Chris Turner, the chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, sent a text to members which said, “Take your key and leave the chamber discretely. Do not go to the gallery. Leave the building.”
Slowly but surely, over the next 10 minutes, all 67 members of the Democratic caucus left the chamber, and at around 10:45 p.m., there were fewer than 100 members left in the chamber, resulting in Republicans not being able to hold a vote due to the lack of a quorum.
At least for now, the bill was dead.
Had the bill passed, it would have put Texas in the same ranks as Florida, Georgia, and other Republican states that have used former President Donald Trump’s lies about “election integrity” that would have made it disproportionately harder for minorities and lower-income individuals from being able to vote.
These measures included banning 24-hour voting and drive-thru voting, which Harris County experimented with during the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020 election. These measures allowed many more Black and Latino voters in the Houston area vote during the election.
It would have required voters requesting an absentee ballot to submit more information, prohibit voting officials from sending out absentee ballot application to those who have not requested one, or working with groups that encourage voting.
It would also ban any voting on Sunday before 1 p.m. This makes it far more difficult for Black churches to conduct “souls to the polls” after-church get-out-the-vote efforts. These efforts have encouraged many more Black voters, the majority of which vote overwhelmingly Democratic, to vote.
Other provisions include expanding the power of partisan poll watchers to allow them to watch elections closely, make it easier for courts to overturn the results of an election, and other restrictions on voting.
All of this was proposed by the Texas Republican Party under the guise of “election integrity,” after the party embraced the onerous lies of Trump claiming that the 2020 election was rigged against him. However, such measures — like closing polls before certain hours — does little to improve on election integrity, and serves only to make it more difficult for certain groups of people to vote.
President Joe Biden had previously called out the bill on Saturday, saying it was “wrong and un-American” while also being “part of an assault on democracy that we’ve seen far too often this year — and often disproportionately targeting Black and Brown Americans.”
Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier said, “We used all the tools in our toolbox to fight this bill, and tonight we pulled out that last one. We are no longer going to stand and let them continue to push measures that disenfranchise our voters.”
The Democrats had gathered in front of a historically Black church in east Austin just after leaving the state capitol. It was reminiscent to 2003, when Texas Democrats fled to Oklahoma in order to stop Republicans from gaining a quorum and passing a gerrymandered federal House map. (Like in many other states, Texas state troopers are required to arrest legislature members and bring them back to the legislature in Austin to force them to vote.)
Despite the Democrats’ best efforts, however, it may all have been in vain. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, announced that he would be including the bill in a special legislative session later this summer, which was previously planned to draw new House districts for the 2022 midterms after census data was released.
Texas Republicans claimed Democrats “chose to vacate their Constitutional responsibility and leave millions of Texans without resolutions on key issues.”
State Rep. Trey Martinez, a Democrat, called out Abbott for refusing to call special sessions previously over hurricanes, mass shootings, or COVID-19, but so willing to call one to impose new voting restrictions to further his political ambitions. Abbott, who is up for election in 2022, is likely to face a tough battle against Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who came within three points of unseating Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018. Making it more difficult for minority groups to vote, which typically lean Democratic, would help increase his chances of winning.
Republican lawmakers vowed to pass the bill in the special session. Because the Republicans control both chambers of the legislature, they would be favored to pass the bill.
The dramatic walkout served as another wake-up call to Congress and builds pressure on Democrats in Washington to pass voting reforms, including H.R. 1, the Democrats’ signature voting rights legislation. Passing it in the U.S. Senate would require the filibuster to be abolished, something that would require all 50 Democratic senators to agree to. At least one, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, is opposed to doing so. He has been opposed to passing voting rights reform on a partisan basis, even when Republicans have made clear that there was practically no room for compromise.
The Senate’s other moderate Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, has signed on to be a co-sponsor of the bill, despite opposing eliminating the filibuster.
However, another bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which is less broad than H.R. 1, does have Manchin’s support, and it could realistically pass, should Manchin be open to it.
Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., said, “If the vote and protecting the rights of all Americans to exercise that most precious right isn’t worth overcoming a procedural filibuster, then what is?”