Could Texas Democrats break quorum again?
It’s a question resurfacing in political circles after Gov. Greg Abbott unveiled an 18-item agenda for the upcoming special session—largely packed with conservative priorities that stalled during the regular legislative session.
But what’s really turning up the temperature is an effort to redraw congressional maps to increase the Republican majority in Congress. President Donald Trump has told members he wants to see five new Republican seats from Texas.
That’s the same issue that sparked the infamous 2003 walkout, when 51 Democrat members of the Texas House boarded a pair of charter buses and fled to Ardmore, Oklahoma. Their goal? To deny the House a quorum and block a Republican-led congressional redistricting plan backed by then-House Speaker Tom Craddick and U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The standoff lasted four days, until the clock ran out on the session.
When Gov. Rick Perry called a special session to revive the redistricting effort, Democrats in the Texas Senate followed suit, this time fleeing to Albuquerque, New Mexico. That standoff dragged on for over a month but ultimately failed to stop Republicans from pushing through a new map that helped shift the state’s congressional delegation further to the right.
More recently, in 2021, Democrats once again fled the state over election integrity legislation. Nearly 60 House Democrats chartered private planes to Washington, D.C., claiming to fight for voting rights. Their absence ground legislative business to a halt for 38 days. Eventually, members began to trickle back, quorum was restored, and the legislation was passed.
Despite breaking quorum and leaving the state for over a month, there were virtually no consequences. Lawmakers continued collecting their pay, held on to their committee positions, and returned without any meaningful reprimand.
Now, with redistricting once again on the call—and reports that national Democrats are urging another walkout—questions are building over whether Gov. Abbott will implement stricter deterrents, such as declaring the seats of absent lawmakers vacant.
As of publication, Abbott’s office has not responded to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared alongside members of the Texas congressional delegation on Tuesday to accuse Abbott of using the special session to “conspire to rig the Texas congressional map” in the wake of the deadly Hill Country floods. Jeffries claimed the governor was “undermining free and fair elections” instead of focusing on disaster recovery.
With the special session set to begin July 21, the stage is once again set for a high-stakes showdown. The only question is: will Democrats make the same move, and will Republicans let them get away with it?
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