Texas Democrats have been issued warrants, but blockade continues

AUSTIN, Texas – Agents in the Texas House of Representatives on Wednesday issued civilian arrest warrants for more than 50 absent Democrats as frustrated Republicans redouble efforts to end deadlock over sweeping election bill which runs until its 31st day.

But after the Sergeants-at-Arms finished touring the Texas Capitol – dropping copies of the warrants at Democrats’ offices and politely asking staff to tell their bosses to come back – there was little. Signs of the stalemate that began when Democrats fled to Washington, DC in July in order to shut down State House were closer to a resolution.

The latest escalation has thrown the Texas legislature into unusual territory with neither side showing any certainty about what will follow, nor how far Republicans could push their resolve to achieve a quorum of 100 current lawmakers – a threshold that ‘they were only four members to reach.

“I don’t worry about things I can’t control,” said State Representative Erin Zwiener, one of the Democrats who received a warrant and refused to return to Capitol Hill. “Nothing in these mandates comes as a surprise, and they don’t necessarily affect my plans.”

Democrats, who admit they cannot stop the GOP voting bill for good due to Republican dominance in both houses of the Texas Legislature, have responded to mandates with new defiant protests . One of them showed up in a Houston courtroom and obtained a court order to prevent him from being forced to return to the Capitol. In the Texas Senate, Democrat Carol Alvarado attempted to delay passage of the bill in her chamber by speaking indefinitely in the form of obstruction, although she admitted it likely wouldn’t prevent it. to go past.

The NAACP also intervened on behalf of Texas Democrats, urging the Justice Department to investigate whether a federal crime was being committed when Republicans threatened to arrest them.

Refusing to attend legislative sessions is a violation of House rules – a civil, not a criminal offense, leaving the power of warrants to bring Democrats back to the House unclear, even for Republicans who have invoked it. Democrats would not be jailed. Republican Travis Clardy, who helped negotiate an early draft of the voting bill that Democrats first shut down with a walkout in May, told ABC News he believes “they can be physically brought back at the Capitol “.

State Representative Jim Murphy, who heads the Texas House Republican Caucus, said he had not seen a situation like this occur during his tenure, but understood that officers might s ‘address the missing lawmakers and ask them to return.

“I hope they will come because the warrants have been issued and they don’t want to be arrested,” Murphy said. “It’s amazing to me that you have to arrest people for doing the job they campaigned for, sworn in to uphold the Texas Constitution.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety, the state’s law enforcement agency, referred questions about the warrants to the Speaker of the House.

The move marks a new GOP effort to end the protest against election legislation that began a month ago with 50 Democrats taking private jets to Washington in a dramatic display of determination to make Texas the front line of ‘a new national battle for voting rights.

Republicans are now in the midst of their third attempt since May to pass a series of adjustments and changes to the state’s electoral code that would make it harder – and even, at times, legally riskier – to vote in Texas, which has already some of the most restrictive electoral laws in the country.

Texas is among several states where Republicans have rushed to pass new voting restrictions in response to false claims by former President Donald Trump that the 2020 election was stolen. The current bill is similar to the ones Democrats blocked last month on their way to the nation’s capital. It would ban 24-hour polling stations, drive-thru voting, and give partisan observers better access, among other things.

It was unclear on Wednesday how many Democrats remained in Washington, where they had hoped to push President Joe Biden and other Democrats there to pass federal legislation that would protect voting rights in Texas and beyond. Senate Democrats have pledged to make it the top order of the day when they return in the fall, even though they lack a clear strategy to defeat the steadfast Republican opposition.

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Acacia Coronado is a member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative body. Report for America is a national, nonprofit service program that places reporters in local newsrooms to cover undercover issues.