Democrats Fly Coop and Abandon Texas Legislature Over Voting Law

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Texas House Democrats walked out of a legislative session on Monday denying quorum in protest of Texas Senate Bill 1.

Democrats flew to Washington, D.C. where they say they will stay.

Shortly after landing, Democrats indicated they plan to remain out of state until the end of the special legislative session that ends Aug. 6.

Without two-thirds of members present, Democrats’ absence is expected to bring the House to a halt just days into a 30-day special session with an agenda chock full of conservative-friendly items.

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan released the following statement on the Democrats decision to break quorum and leave the legislative session.

“A number of House Democrats stated their caucus intends to break quorum in an attempt to stall election integrity legislation. These actions put at risk state funding that will deny thousands of hard-working staff members and their families a paycheck, health benefits, and retirement investment so that legislators who broke quorum can flee to Washington D.C. in private jets. The Texas House will use every available resource under the Texas Constitution and the unanimously-passed House Rules to secure a quorum to meaningfully debate and consider election integrity, bail reform, benefits for retired teachers, Child Protective Services reform, Article X funding, and the other important measures Gov. Abbott placed on the special session agenda. The special session clock is ticking — I expect all Members to be present in our Capitol in order to immediately get to work on these issues.”

Governor Greg Abbott tweeted he sides with the majority of Texans who oppose walk outs.

Texas House Democrats walked out of a legislative session back on May 30th to protest Senate Bill 7 which they claimed restricted voter rights. Changes were made to the bill, and it was reintroduced as Senate Bill 1, but again Democrats left the session in protest.

What are your thoughts, your reaction and your opinion of the Democrats actions? None of us can walk out on our jobs and not expect consequences. Tell us what you think on Facebook or chat with us on our station app.