United States: Democratic Members of Congress Leave Texas Capitol to Boycott Republican Voting Bill | International

Most of the Texas Capitol Democrats left the state for the United States capital on Monday, rejecting Republicans’ proposals for election laws, which they see as an attack on the right to vote. More than 50, out of a total of 67 Democrats at Austin State House, left mid-afternoon for Washington on two flights, with the ultimate intention of increasing pressure on President Joe Biden and Congress. for them to take action and pass what is known as the People’s Law and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, “to protect Texans, and all Americans, from the national battle of Republican supporters of Donald Trump against democracy” .

With his departure, Democrats deny having a quorum for the Republican majority to approve voting bills. Asked by Reuters, Representative Alex Dominguez spoke to the agency by phone from the plane to confirm that “almost everyone” in the House of Representatives had left the state.

In Texas, blocking the legislative quorum not only requires leaving the state capital, but you must also leave the state. If lawmakers were still in Texas, law enforcement, including Rangers, could be deployed to bring them back to Congress for the vote.

There is already a precedent for a similar exodus. In 2003, Democratic politicians fled to New Mexico and Oklahoma in an attempt to prevent the Republican majority from drawing new electoral district boundaries, in order to design them in their favor.

“Today, Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives are united in our decision to break the quorum and refuse to allow the Republican-led legislature to impose dangerous legislation that will violate Texans’ freedom to vote.” , according to reading in the statement sent by Democratic House leaders.

The statement came from House Democratic Caucus Chairman Chris Turner of Grand Prairie; US-Mexico Legislative Caucus Chairman Rafael Anchía of Dallas; Texas Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Nicole Collier of Fort Worth and Legislative Study Group Caucus Chairman Garnet Coleman of Houston.

Just a month ago, Democrats again denied a Republican majority quorum after a sit-in in the House of Representatives thwarted the first attempt to impose new voting restrictions on Texas, including by prohibiting new polling stations open 24 hours a day. letter and toughens the conditions for identification, among a series of measures which, according to civil rights defenders, are particularly detrimental to the participation of racial minorities in electoral processes. “It’s time to take the fight to our nation’s Capitol. In Texas, the hours are numbered. We need Congress to act now, ”the statement said.

A dozen Republican-led states have passed restrictive election laws since the 2020 presidential election, which Donald Trump called stolen elections. The Texas bill is one of the broadest and most sweeping attempts to restrict voting in a state already known as one of the hardest in the country to vote.

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