Runaway Texas Dems settle in for long exile with financial help from Beto O’Rourke, Willie Nelson

WASHINGTON – With financial help from Willie Nelson and Beto O’Rourke, and moral support from the White House, Democrats in the Texas Legislature spent their second full day advocating for congressional help on the voting rights.

As they settled into a month-long exile at a four-star hotel a few blocks from the White House, they also focused on liberal allies like Senator Elizabeth Warren who already support the cause that brought them down. prompted to leave Austin on short notice Monday, putting Texas House to a screeching halt for lack of quorum.

Some will meet with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin on Thursday, one of two Democrats who are resisting removing the filibuster blocking Democrat-backed voter protection bills.

“Our commitment is to kill Bill for this session and to advocate for the US Senate to embrace the good work of the House,” said State Representative Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, President of Texas. House Democratic caucus and leader of the fugitives who left Texas to escape the reach of state soldiers. “We are in no way suggesting that members are going to stay out of the state of Texas for the remainder of the year, the next two years, which is obviously unrealistic.”

O’Rourke, the former congressman from El Paso who challenged Senator Ted Cruz in 2018, used his formidable database and profile among Democrats to raise donations that would cover expenses that would easily exceed 10,000 $ per day just for the accommodation of all the fugitives. .

As of Wednesday afternoon, the tally came to $ 526,780 from 14,654 donors, for an average of $ 36 per donation.

Nelson, the country music star, donated $ 5,000 and posted a video urging others to donate.

House Republicans voted in a nearly empty room in Austin to send the Sergeant-at-Arms to round up the fugitives. Governor Greg Abbott has vowed they would be arrested on sight if they set foot in Texas, which of course is why they fled in the first place.

Abbott called the Legislature to a month-long special session July 8 to August 6, demanding a rewrite of the state’s electoral rules – the same move that prompted House Democrats to stage an 11-month strike. hours that killed Bill in the biennial regular session.

President Joe Biden called the bill a “non-American” effort to suppress votes, during a trip to Philadelphia on Tuesday to launch stalled efforts to protect voting rights at the federal level. Hours later, Vice President Kamala Harris met with 57 Democrats in the Legislative Assembly at a teacher’s union office near the United States Capitol, hailing their efforts to thwart the voter suppression and presenting them as glimmers of hope on the issue.

“I know what you have done comes with a great sacrifice, both personal and political,” she said, comparing their bold move to the life of Frederick Douglass, who escaped the slavery in Maryland and became one of the country’s leading abolitionists.

“The whole point is to make sure that we do the things in our power to try to get this federal legislation passed to stop some of the ugly laws that are being passed by a Republican-dominated legislature, under the guise of integrity.” voters in quotes. said State Senator Royce West of Dallas.

West spent 47 days in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2003, when Democrats broke the quorum to block a particularly aggressive attempt to redraw the lines of Congress for the second time in two years.

“We are one of the best states when it comes to the space race,” he said. “We have a rover on Mars. Talk about sending people to the moon, to live. But yet, we still can’t make voting more accessible to people in the state of Texas. “

Nine of the 13 Texas Senate Democrats joined their House counterparts in solidarity with Washington for the start of the weeks-long exile.

“There are powerful forces in Texas right now trying to roll back our voting rights,” said State Representative Victoria Neave of Dallas, as more than 30 Texas lawmakers spoke to the media from their hiding places. not so secret at Washington Plaza. hotel, a few blocks from the White House. “We are not going to give up … We are inspired by the millions of Texans who have personally contacted our offices to support us.”

But while Democrats view Texas lawmakers as heroes, Republicans view them as cowards who fled a fight, even though they would certainly lose GOP control over the State House.

A dozen young assistants from the Republican National Committee demonstrated outside the hotel, holding hand-drawn signs such as “Who paid for the private jets?” “Everything is bigger in Texas, even the losers! and “Miller Time”.

They handed out a flyer with a photo showing a case of Miller Lite, brewed in Fort Worth, visible on the bus as lawmakers walked to their charter plane. (Several lawmakers said they had never seen this beer again and even more said it wouldn’t be their first choice of beer by far.)

Another sign mocking Democrats as “salad eaters” hinted at a photo posted by State Representative Gene Wu, which trailed Fox News and GOP critics with tongue-in-cheek messages showing his meals, including two Caesar salads, to expose the banality of their attacks.

“We don’t track them down,” said Nathan Brand, RNC deputy director of communications. “They’re not doing their job and peddling lies about Texan law and Republican efforts across the country … It’s all part of an effort to nationalize the election and eliminate voter identification.” What the Texas legislature is proposing is common sense. “

Wu, inside the hotel, called out the salad and Miller Lite insulted a diversion.

“They don’t want to talk about reducing voting rights. They don’t want to talk about voter suppression, they don’t mean that we don’t tackle the [Texas power] grid, ”he said. “It’s just a special level of stupidity to be crazy about a salad ….. And who in Texas is crazy about having a 12-pack of beers?”

In Austin, Abbott accused them of shirking their duties of “partying for the Texas taxpayer’s penny.”

But he has already vetoed their annual legislative salary of $ 7,200, effective Sept. 1, to push them to give in on the elections bill. His office provided no evidence to support the claim of any taxpayer subsidy.

On Wednesday morning, Republicans in the Texas Senate sharply criticized Democrats not only for blocking the Election Bill, but for crippling current bail legislation that they say would deter voter fraud and violent crime.

Democrats insist they are not living up to it.

Many have left behind spouses, children and jobs.

“This is a very good hotel. I don’t think it would be a luxury hotel, ”Turner said. “Our expenses are paid for by the Democratic caucus, the Mexican-American legislative caucus and other caucuses. All of our caucuses have raised funds throughout the year.

The bill in question has already passed in a special session in the Texas Senate, where Democrats have too few seats – 13 of 31 – to break the quorum. But most of these senators were in Washington to show their solidarity.

“Our constitutional rights are under attack. We are here to defend them, ”said Senator Carol Alvarado of Houston, chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus in Austin. “We will come back to fix this problem. It’s like the sequel to a movie and you all know the sequel is always worse.

State Representative Ron Reynolds of Missouri City denounced Abbott for calling this “suppression session” – a move so blatant that it demanded they “break the quorum and nationalize this critical issue that the government is facing. Texas and this whole nation are facing ”.

“This bill was just the latest of Trump’s Republicans attacks on democracy,” Reynolds said. “Governor Abbott and Republican lawmakers will stop at nothing, absolutely, unequivocally, to deprive Texans of their freedom to vote by continuing to perpetuate the ‘big lie’ of voter fraud. “