TexasStateCapitol.jpg

AUSTIN – More than 50 Democratic lawmakers have left Texas to prevent the passage of a redistricting map that would benefit Republicans.

The Texas House of Representatives convened briefly Monday, but legislators were unable to conduct any business because that would require a quorum. With 51 of the 62 Democrats in the House out of the state, the GOP-led House couldn’t move forward on the legislation.

Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows admonished the dozens of Democrats who fled the state as having “abandoned their post and turned their backs on the constituents they swore to represent.” Most of the Democrats went to Chicago and were welcomed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, while others went to a legislative conference in Boston. Others went to New York to meet with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who wants laws changed there regarding redistricting.

Burrows had the doors to the House chamber locked and told the sergeant at arms to “send for” the Democrats who fled “under warrant of arrest, if necessary.”

Abbott.jpg

Abbott

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says he will remove the Democrats who left the state from the House, using a previous opinion from state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Paxton.jpg

Paxton

“They've shirked their responsibilities under the direction and pressure of out-of-state politicians and activists who don’t know the first thing about what’s right for Texas,” House Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Republican said Monday. “Leaving the state does not stop this House from doing it’s work. It only delays it.”

In 2021, Paxton secured a Texas Supreme Court ruling that said the House could arrest absent members to secure their presence and establish a quorum. His office says that ruling helped create the current legal framework to allow for rogue lawmakers to be found, arrested and brought back to the state Capitol.

Paxton’s office says the AG “will continue to use every legal tool at his disposal to enforce the law and stop the radical lawmakers from ignoring their duty to the people of Texas and breaking quorum.”

“Instead of showing up to work and doing the jobs they were elected to do, House Democrat members have fled the state in a cowardly desertion of their responsibilities as elected officials,” Paxton said. “These jet-setting runaways abandoned Texas, abdicated their duties in the House, and sacrificed their constituents for a publicity stunt.

“I am prepared to do everything in my power to hold them accountable because these liberal lawmakers are not above the law. It’s imperative that they be swiftly arrested, punished, and face the full force of the law for turning their backs on the people of Texas.” 

On Sunday, Abbott issued a statement outlining the legal consequences the Democrats face for breaking quorum.

“Real Texans do not run from a fight,” Abbott said. “But that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did. Rather than doing their job and voting on urgent legislation affecting the lives of all Texans, they have fled Texas to deprive the House of the quorum necessary to meet and conduct business.

These absences are not merely unintended and unavoidable interruptions in public service, like a sudden illness or a family emergency. Instead, these absences were premeditated for an illegitimate purpose — what one representative called ‘breaking quorum.’ Another previously signaled that Democrats ‘would have to go by an extreme measure’ of a quorum break ‘to stop these bills from happening.’

“In other words, Democrats hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber’s business.”

Abbott said that amounts to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office. He said attending a special session called by the governor isn’t optional.

“It’s a duty,” Abbott said. “The absconded Democrat House members were elected to meet and vote on legislation — not to prevent votes that may not go their way. Every session, legislators on both sides of the aisle find themselves on the losing side of a legislative vote.

“And every session, most of those legislators find a way to disagree agreeably and behave like adults, rather than going AWOL.”

Abbott said the truancy must end, and he gave them a Monday afternoon deadline that they didn’t meet..

“For any member who fails to do so, I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House,” Abbott wrote Sunday. “In that opinion, the Attorney General considered ‘whether Texas law allows for a determination that a legislator has vacated office’ if they intentionally break quorum.

“The Attorney General concluded that ‘whether a specific legislator abandoned his or her office such that a vacancy occurred will be a fact question for a court.’ He further concluded that ‘through a quo warranto action, a district court may determine that a legislator has forfeited his or her office due to abandonment and can remove the legislator from office, thereby creating a vacancy.’”

Abbott said that ruling allows him to act swiftly to fill vacancies under Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution. He also says the Democrats might have committed felonies.

“Many absentee Democrats are soliciting funds to evade the fines they will incur under House rules,” Abbott wrote. “Any Democrat who ‘solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept’ such funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have violated bribery laws. …

“The same could be true for any other person who ‘offers, confers, or agrees to confer’ such funds to fleeing Democrat House members. I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons.”

More News