Texas Democrats Get Attention for Walkout, but Unified Republicans Get Revenge

By Kayla Guo, The Texas Tribune

AUSTIN, TX — When Texas House Democrats returned to the Capitol after walking out over the GOP’s new congressional map, they were cheered by supporters as bulwarks of democracy — then promptly bulldozed by Republicans fed up with their protest.

“They will be lucky if they get out of this special session without it being a whole lot worse than it would have been had they just stuck around,” Rep. Tom Oliverson of Cypress and chair of the House Republican Caucus, said last week. “If they had any leverage at the start of the last special session, it’s all gone.”

Democratic lawmakers cast their two-week walkout as a victory for sparking a national movement among blue states for retaliatory redistricting, and for buying time to evaluate a legal challenge to the Republican gerrymander, which aims to net up to five more GOP seats among Texas’ 38 congressional districts. The Democrats said it was just the first chapter of their fight, which they intend to continue by working to kill the new lines in court.

But the move also unified typically factious House Republicans, who are now solidly behind a speaker some once decried as “liberal,” and more emboldened to steamroll any Democratic resistance in the remaining weeks of the special session to pass every conservative priority on the agenda — and then some.

“Democrats did a really good job of getting Republicans united,” said Arlington GOP Rep. Tony Tinderholt, who commended Speaker Dustin Burrows’ handling of the walkout after previously opposing his rise to the speakership.

Republicans moved quickly to drive the map through both chambers of the Legislature within a week of the Democrats’ return. But they also wasted no time advancing a host of conservative priorities that Democrats vehemently oppose, including bills cracking down on the manufacturing and distribution of abortion pills and requiring transgender people to use the bathroom aligned with their sex assigned at birth in government and school buildings.

Those measures stalled in the House during the regular session. And while Gov. Greg Abbott, who controls the special session agenda, had put them on the to-do list from the start, Democrats’ protest has only increased the GOP appetite to push them all through as retribution for the walkout.

“Now we’re not even going to negotiate,” Oliverson said. “We’re just going to slam it through, too bad.”

Democratic lawmakers condemned the expected retaliation but stood by their walkout, arguing that electoral representation was important enough to fight for, no matter the immediate costs.

“This is the linchpin,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu of Houston said Friday. “If we don’t beat this, if politicians in red or blue states just are free to redistrict after every election cycle to make sure that there’s as little dissent as possible — that’s bad for everyone. It’s bad for America.”

Fines and new punishments

The moment Democratic lawmakers fled the state earlier this month, Republicans began clamoring for ways to hold them accountable — from burying Democrats in fines and stripping them of their committee vice chairmanships to kicking them out of their duly elected offices.

By the time Democrats returned two weeks later, Abbott had called a new special session with virtually the same agenda that stalled in the first, and Burrows was promising to muscle through every item on the call, “and even some more.”

Legislation Democrats oppose was put on a fast track to passage, with the so-called bathroom bill and abortion pill clampdown both set for a hearing last week as soon as the map cleared the House. Burrows said he expected to complete the governor’s agenda by Labor Day weekend, almost two weeks before the 30-day session times out.

“There’s a definite loss from a negotiating standpoint on many other bills that we did not want to see hit the floor,” said Rep. Terry Canales of Edinburg, a Democrat who did not participate in the walkout.

The House adopted the new map along party lines on Wednesday, releasing Democratic lawmakers from the around-the-clock police escort Burrows had imposed to ensure their attendance.

Just over an hour later, Abbott expanded the session agenda to include punishments for lawmakers who “willfully absent themselves” to block the passage of legislation.

New penalties are needed, Abbott said in a press release, “to ensure that rogue lawmakers cannot hijack the important business of Texans during a legislative session by fleeing the state.”

Republican lawmakers have filed bills in both chambers that would declare a member’s seat vacant if they are absent for seven consecutive days without permission. The proposal swiftly picked up enough joint and coauthors in the House to pass the chamber, with several key Republicans in leadership signing on. And another measure — designated House Bill 18, signaling it has Burrows’ blessing — would limit political donations to lawmakers who leave the state to stall legislative action, with stiff fines for violators.

The absent Democrats were already subject to daily fines while they were away on their latest quorum break. The final tally amounted to $9,354 for each member, including $500-per-person penalties for every day of the walkout and certain costs incurred in securing their attendance.

“The fines are, for sure, going to be a big issue,” Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, said. “We’re not going to just let those go away.”

Upon the Democrats’ return, Burrows said the House would remain a chamber where “the minority has the right to be heard.” But he underscored that it would also be one where “the majority has the right to prevail,” and by the end of Wednesday, he was heralding a “new chapter of Republican unity” ushered in by the map’s passage.

“These past few weeks have not been easy, but the House members who showed up for work every day have shown a dedication to their constituents that will not be forgotten,” he said. “I am proud to have led my colleagues in this important achievement.”