‘We’re buying some time’: Texas Democrats press Biden and Congress to take action on voting rights

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The day after they left Texas, heading from Austin to Washington to break a state quorum and block a bill that would make it difficult for many Texans to vote, House Democratic Leader Chris Turner said members of his party would press national Democratic leaders to help stop Governor Greg Abbott and a majority of Republicans in the state legislature.

“We can’t hold back this tide forever,” Turner told reporters outside the Capitol. “We are buying some time. We need Congress and all of our federal leaders to use this time wisely.”

The Democrats’ decision to withdraw from the state was also symbolic: Texas Democrats want to make clear they are doing everything they can to slow the tide of restrictive new voting laws inspired by former President Donald Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud that have already been enacted this year by some. Republican-led states, including Florida and Georgia.

“We are not going to be bound by the big lie in Texas – the big lie that has resulted in anti-democratic legislation across the United States,” said Representative Rafael Anchia, chair of the Mexican-American Legislative Assembly.

Democratic lawmakers in Texas said they would meet with members of Congress while in Washington to urge them to pass voting rights legislation, including an Act for the People — a sweeping measure stalled in the Senate, where Democrats only have 50 votes. The 60 votes they needed to break disruption Moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin of West Virginia opposed changing the rules to eliminate disruption.

Manchin said Tuesday that he “definitely” wants to meet with Texas Democratic lawmakers while they are at the Capitol today, but he doesn’t know when yet.

When asked if he would accept lawmakers if they took the case to him to reconsider keeping legislative procrastination at the 60-vote threshold, he said, “I respect everyone’s wishes and requests and I’m sure they’ll respect my answers.”

President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver a speech on voting rights Tuesday in Philadelphia, which Texas Democrats have said they will monitor.

They also urged national Democrats to embrace Claiborne’s idea of ​​a blocking chop on constitutional issues, which would open the door for Democrats to pass voting rights legislation while maintaining the 60-vote threshold for other bills.

“Greg Abbott and his group of extremists will never change. What can change today is in this building,” said U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas who joined members of the House of Representatives at Tuesday’s news conference.

Asked by CNN if he would meet with Democrats from Texas, Republican Senator Ted Cruz said he had not “heard a word” from the group.

“I haven’t heard anything from them,” Cruz said. “Frankly, they should go back to Texas to do their job, not engage in a political stunt here in Washington.”

In Texas, House Minority Democrats pulled out of the final hours of this year’s legislative session, blocking Republicans from passing Senate Act 7 — a controversial measure that would have made casting mail votes more difficult. Car-to-car polling banned and 24-hour voting — tactics of Harris County, home to Houston, used in the 2020 election; Powerful ballot observers made it easier for the courts to annul the election results; The “black spirits of the churches” effectively banned the ballot boxes from getting out of the voting campaign and more.

Abbott, the Republican governor who is seeking a third term in 2022, called a special 30-day legislative session, saying “election integrity” would be one of his priorities. Majorities of Republicans in the House and Senate have in recent days unveiled bills very similar to SB 7.

State and Senate committees introduced the bills after hearing opposition in hearings that lasted for hours over the weekend.

The only step available to House Democrats to halt the progress of the bills was to leave the Capitol — preventing the state House from obtaining the two-thirds quorum needed to do business — and flee the state altogether, preventing Republican House Speaker Ded Phelan from leaving. Arrest these Democrats and bring them back to the House of Representatives.

Back in Austin, the Texas House of Representatives on Tuesday approved — with nearly all Republican members — a motion directing the sergeant-at-arms to dispatch all unexcused absent members in an effort to secure a quorum, “by warrant of arrest, if necessary.”

Texas law enforcement does not have jurisdiction in Washington, D.C., so the system is unlikely to have much influence while Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives remain out of the state.

However, Abbott told KVUE on Monday that once House Democrats return to Texas, “they will be arrested, and they will be held inside the Texas Capitol until they get their jobs done.”

Texas Democrats admitted Tuesday that it was just a stall tactic. After the current special session ends on August 7, Turner expects Abbott to call another private session.

“We’re now living on lost time in Texas, and we can’t stay here indefinitely to run out of time to stop anti-voter bills,” Representative Rita Powers said. “That’s why we need Congress to make a decision now and pass a law for the people. Texas Democrats will use everything we can to respond, but we need Congress to act now.”

This story was updated with additional developments on Wednesday.

CNN’s Diane Gallagher, Ali Zaslav and Jessica Dean contributed to this report.

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