Texas Democrats fled the state to prevent voting restrictions Reuters

Julia Hart

(Reuters)-Dozens of Democratic lawmakers left Texas on Monday in an orchestrated move to undermine the efforts of Republican colleagues to pass new voting restrictions and other conservative measures during the special legislative session.

On Monday afternoon, Texas Rep. Alex Dominguez called from a plane to Washington, DC, and told Reuters that “almost all” of the 67 Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives had fled. The state.

The exodus aims to deny the legislature the quorum needed to approve any measures on the agenda of the Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s special meeting, including bills that restrict abortion and prevent transgender students from participating in sports matches that match their gender identity.

Dominguez said: “If they always want to throw frustrating bills, then we will continue to fight with them, no matter what we must do.”

“We are determined to cancel this bill at this special meeting that will end on August 7, and in order to do so, we will stay there,” said Rep. Crist, chairman of the Democratic Caucus of the House of Representatives of Texas. Na said at a press conference that he was at Dulles International Airport in Washington on Monday night with dozens of his colleagues.

Democratic lawmakers held a similar strike on May 30 to resist voting on early voting legislation before the end of the regular legislature meeting, prompting Abbott to convene a special meeting.

Texas Republicans, including the governor and Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, condemned the strategy.

“The Democrats must put aside partisan political games and get back to the job they were elected to do,” Abbott said.

Texas is one of many Republican states pushing new voting restrictions in the name of enhancing election security, on the grounds that former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that his November election failure was the result of widespread fraud.

On Sunday, the House of Representatives and Senate committees of the Texas legislature passed a new version of voting measures that would ban driving and 24-hour voting locations, add new identification requirements for mailed voting, and give party vote observers that power.

It is expected that voting will be held in the whole house this week. On the contrary, the Democrats are crazy.

The administration of President Joe Biden has pledged to continue to push Congress to pass legislation protecting voting rights. But Senate Republicans did not support the measure, and it is likely to be doomed to failure.

The White House said that Biden will discuss the measures the government plans to take to support voting rights in his speech on Tuesday.