AUSTIN, Texas — Three Democrats broke ranks and returned to the Texas House on Thursday, edging Republicans ever closer to the quorum needed to resume work on a controversial elections bill after a weeks-long standoff that drew national attention.
A silence fell over the chamber as Houston Reps. Garnet Coleman, Armando Walle and Ana Hernandez walked into the chamber together. In a statement, the three said they were proud of the work they had done to bring the “fight for voting rights” to Washington D.C.
“Now, we continue the fight on the House Floor,” they said.
Their presence shocked many in their own party, who just hours earlier were still convinced they could upend Gov. Greg Abbott’s second special session by continuing their boycott.
Since mid-July, a majority of House Democrats have refused to come to the Capitol in protest of the elections bill they decry as voter suppression. Their absence forced work to grind to a halt, since the House cannot conduct business without a quorum present.
GOP House Speaker Dade Phelan sat behind the dias at the front of the House, but had not yet gaveled in the chamber by 5 p.m. leaving it unclear how many members were actually present. The three additions Thursday are likely enough to make a quorum, so long as all 82 House Republicans are in attendance, along with the 13 other Democrats who have already come back to Austin or never left.
With enough House members present, lawmakers could begin working full steam ahead on not just the elections bill, but the rest of Abbott’s special session agenda. It includes funding border security, overhauling the state’s bail system, further limiting abortion inducing drugs and restricting the sports teams transgender students can play on.
The Senate has already passed a large chunk of the agenda and sent the bills over to the House, where they’ve been stalled.
House Democrats have twice upended the GOP election bill by fleeing the chamber. The first was in a walkout at the end of the regular legislative session. The second was the start of Abbott’s first special session, when they fled to Washington D.C. where they pressured Congress to pass federal voting rights legislation.
Since the start of the second special session on Aug. 7, Democrats had been clinging to a fragile agreement to abide by the wishes of the majority. Since returning from Washington, where many of them camped out to stall the elections bill, most of the caucus supported continuing the quorum break.
As of Thursday morning, the majority view was to still stay away from the Capitol, according to various members and Democratic operatives. But there had always been a concern that some veteran members, including Coleman of Houston, would break ranks and help Republicans get a quorum.
The mantra of most House Democrats: “Any day there isn’t a quorum is a good day.”
It remains to be seen whether the rest of the absent Democrats will return.
