It’s been 12 days since Texas House Democrats staged their dramatic quorum break to block the GOP’s election legislation, but it’s felt like an eternity.
On July 12, more than 50 Democratic state representatives jumped on chartered planes to Washington, D.C., ensuring that the Texas House would not have enough members to operate and bringing Governor Greg Abbott’s nascent special session to a screeching halt. In Washington D.C., they planned to seize the national spotlight and push recalcitrant U.S. Senators to pass stalled-out voting rights legislation that could prevent Texas Republicans from further restricting state voting laws.
When they landed in Washington, House Democrats acknowledged that the quorum break was a temporary solution to their more permanent predicament: being a minority party up against a radical majority party. “We can’t hold this tide back forever. We’re buying some time. We need Congress and all our federal leaders to use that time wisely,” Democratic Caucus Chair Chris Turner said.
