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Georgia Roth had no plans to make the two-and-a-half-hour trip to the State Capitol in Austin on Tuesday. But when she saw dozens of Democrats in the legislature abruptly leave the state on Monday, blocking Republicans’ plans to pass new legislation to restrict access to the vote, the 74-year-old jumped in her car and headed east.
“I think that kicked the ass,” Roth, who is from Hunt in Texas Hill Country. “At least they have to listen to us and understand that they have to represent everyone.”
On Tuesday morning, Roth was among hundreds of Texans who filled a cavernous underground conference room in the state capital. They had come from across the state, a few hours’ drive, to meet with lawmakers and urge them to defeat the bills. It was a day of lobbying planned before the walkout, but it gained new momentum afterwards. When an organizer mentioned that Texas Democrats interrupted the session when leaving the state, the room erupted into enthusiastic applause.
The moment underscored the jolt of energy Democrats in the state House of Representatives injected into the voting rights fight this week by choosing to fly to Washington DC. Amid a months-long attack by Republican legislatures on access to the vote, Texas quickly became something of an Alamo – a Hail Mary against a purely political effort to make it harder to vote in a State that saw its highest turnout for decades in 2020 and little evidence of voter fraud.
Many of the bill’s provisions target Harris County, the seat of Houston and the most populous in the state, which has become one of the most diverse in the state in recent decades. In Houston, 45% of the population is Latinx, 22.6% is black, and nearly 7% is Asian, according to census estimates. County officials took creative steps in 2020 to expand access to voting, including allowing drive-thru as well as 24-hour voting. Republicans unsuccessfully attempted to invalidate the votes of 127,000 people who used drive-thru voting last year.
Lawmakers who have left the state plan to stay in the nation’s capital until at least August 6, denying the GOP-led legislature the quorum necessary to proceed with the legislation. Unresponsive to threats of arrest from the Legislature and Governor Greg Abbott, they have spent the past few days lobbying Democrats in Congress to pass two important federal voting bills, arguing that the bills on the right to vote should be exempt from filibuster, the Senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance legislation. The rule has allowed Republicans to thwart Democrats’ efforts to pass federal legislation so far.
Texas Republicans have vowed they will call another special session to pass the bill if it fails. But even as they ultimately succeed in passing new restrictions, Democrats in Texas energized voters who saw Republicans in Texas and across the United States impose voting restrictions over Democrats’ objections.
“I’m so happy they’ve finally grown some balls,” said Michelle Anderson, 51, who traveled to Austin from Dallas to meet with lawmakers. “Someone defend me and risk going to jail so that I can vote. It sends a strong message. “
After the walkout, many saw Washington’s federal election legislation as Texas’ last hope. Senate Democrats are trying to pass two separate and important bills: one would require states with a history of voting discrimination, like Texas, to get voting changes approved before they go into effect. force. The second would implement sweeping changes to voting policy, including requiring states to offer postal voting to everyone, as well as requiring automatic, same-day and online voter registration. (Texas has none of the three).
“These must be enacted to stop the shenanigans happening in our state. I think that’s our only hope, ”said Joy Davis, 45, from Houston to the state capital.
This is the hope of the Texas lawmakers who are also camping in Washington.
“Breaking the quorum has been important in raising voting rights again in the national conversation,” Rafael Anchía, a Dallas Democrat who chairs the US-Mexico legislative caucus, said in an interview. “We hope the Senate provides Texas with a federal safety net because the state legislature has repeatedly proven its readiness to discriminate against free voting.”
With the Texas home at a standstill on Tuesday, business under the pink limestone of the Texas capital continued as normal, with tourists entering and exiting the building, stopping to take photos.
But the Texas Senate, which unlike the House still had a quorum, passed its own version of the new voting restrictions. The bill requires ID for mail-in ballots, prohibits local election officials from proactively sending requests by mail to voters, and bans 24-hour and drive-thru voting.
Rita Robles, 51, of Houston, was one of many who called the round-the-clock and driving bans the most alarming of the bill. “It takes away from people, as I said, who are blue collar workers. They can’t go to the polls on normal working days, working hours. They work, provide for their families, and they just don’t have the time, ”she said. More than half of voters who used both Drive-thru and extended voting hours in Harris County last year were black, Hispanic or Asian, according to an analysis by the Texas Civil Rights Project.
It is not yet clear how the fight in Texas will end. The Democrats may be able to use the leverage of their walkout to try to negotiate a more palatable bill. Republicans can dig in and refuse to compromise. Washington’s federal reform could significantly change the bills. Or it couldn’t.
Whatever the outcome, Texas Democrats have sent a clear message at a time of growing fears that nothing can be done to stop an unprecedented effort to curtail the franchise.
Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democrat from San Antonio, said he was sitting in the hallway of his Washington hotel late Tuesday night when he realized he had visited Washington, had met with several senators Americans and spent over an hour with the Vice President of the United States, all in just over 24 hours.
“It just shows the level of interest and attention Texas Democrats are paying to the nation’s capital in demanding a national voting standard,” he said.
“I can tell you that we are here for the long haul.”
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