WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris avoided exposure to COVID-19 when she met Texas Democratic lawmakers in Washington who left the state to protest Republican-backed voting restrictions, a senior aide said.
Two of the legislators present at the meeting on Tuesday were reported to have tested positive, Harris’s spokesperson Symone Sanders said in a statement.
Based on the timeline of the positive tests, it was determined that Harris and staff at the meeting “were not at risk of exposure because they were not in close contact with those who tested positive and therefore do not need to be tested or quarantined,” Sanders said.
Three Democratic state lawmakers who left the state subsequently tested positive, one on Friday and two on Saturday, Phillip Martin, the caucus director for Texas House Democrats, was quoted as saying by Associated Press.
A group of Texas House Democrats fled Austin this week to forestall passage of a state law that would put new voting restrictions in place. They visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday to press Congress to pass federal voting-rights legislation.
