DOMINGUEZ, DEMS ARRIVE IN WASHINGTON, PREVENT QUORUM

Texas House Democrats departing a bus at Dulles International Airport outside Washington after fleeing Texas in an effort to block the voting restrictions bill. Kenny Holston for The New York Times
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By Reid J. Epstein and 

Nick Corasanti

New York Times

STERLING, Va. — Texas Democrats fled the state on Monday in a last-ditch effort to prevent the passage of a restrictive new voting law by the Republican-controlled Legislature, (and arrived in) Washington to draw national attention to their cause.

The group left Austin in mid-afternoon on a pair of chartered flights that arrived at Dulles International Airport just before sunset. Fifty-one of the 67 State House Democrats flew on the planes, leaders of the delegation said, and several others arrived separately in Washington; that’s enough to prevent Texas Republicans from attaining a quorum, which is required to conduct state business.

(The special legislative session starts today at 10 a.m.) 

The hastily arranged departure added a cinematic element to the partisan wrangling in a state with a colorful political history. Democrats have fled to neighboring states in the past to try to block legislation, including in 2003, when they traveled to New Mexico and Oklahoma in an effort to avoid Republican attempts to redraw congressional districts.

(That's District 37 state rep and fellow legislator upon reaching Tennessee en route to Washington.)

The move could paralyze the Legislature for weeks if Democrats remain out of state until this special session ends in August. Still, it lays bare their limited options long-term in a Legislature where the Republicans hold the majority in both chambers. Parliamentary procedures and efforts to add amendments can delay the process but not derail it. Republicans said Monday the Democrats’ gambit would ultimately fail.

“It’s just delaying the inevitable,” said State Representative Briscoe Cain, a Houston-area Republican who chairs the House Elections Committee. He described the move as “political theater.”

“We will eventually get it done, this special or another,” he added.

Nevertheless, by traveling en masse to Washington, the Texas Democrats were hoping to apply pressure to Democrats in the U.S. Senate who so far have been unable to pass federal legislation to address the issue.

“We have to decide if we are going to stand for democracy,” said State Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, who organized the effort to leave the state. “We want the nation to join us and we want the U.S. Senate to hear us and act.”

The move comes just one day before President Biden is scheduled to deliver a major speech on voting rights in Philadelphia. Activists have been imploring the administration to address the issue with more urgency.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/12/us/politics/texas-democrats-voting-bill.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20210713&instance_id=35184&nl=the-morning&regi_id=118696256&segment_id=63295&te=1&user_id=e686a99f0675424fa8b39ab931759509