FORT WORTH, Texas — Texas lawmakers passed several conservative priorities during the legislative session: “constitutional carry,” a bill that dictates how educators teach current events in public schools, and one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws, to name a few.
But a widely-criticized election bill that’s been likened to “Jim Crow 2.0” was the breaking point for Texas House Democrats.
The bill was up for debate and nearing a vote late Sunday when most Democrats exited the floor, breaking quorum and shutting down business before a midnight deadline to pass the voter bill and others that had been worked through in conference committees.
Monday was the last day of the regular legislative session.
The plan had been to talk the bill off a cliff, said Democrat Chris Turner of Grand Prairie. But as the night progressed, he and other Democrats began to pivot as it became apparent Republicans were going to cut off debate and push the bill through, Turner said.
Denying the quorum needed to consider bills was Democrats’ final tool. So most left before 11 p.m., and many drove about three miles to Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Austin.
“We knew that they were going to ram shot this,” Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, said as her fellow Democrats stood behind her. “They were going to roll over and take our voices away and now allow us to speak.“
But as Texas Democrats made their exit and decried the bill and what they described as Republican efforts to silence their voices, talks amplified for a special session to take up “election integrity” and other Republican priorities that suffered fatal blows.
Gov. Greg Abbott soon confirmed what some already suspected.
“Election Integrity & Bail Reform were emergency items for this legislative session,” he wrote on Twitter. “They STILL must pass. They will be added to the special session agenda. Legislators will be expected to have worked out the details when they arrive at the Capitol for the special session.”
A LOOMING SPECIAL SESSION
Among Abbott’s top items were “election integrity” and the “Damon Allen Act,” a bill dealing with bail named after a state trooper killed during a traffic stop. The clock ran out on both.
Abbott had already said lawmakers would come back a special session in the fall for redistricting and the allocation of federal COVID-19 relief dollars. It’s unclear whether these new items will be taken up then or at an earlier date, and a spokesperson for Abbott didn’t return a request for comment on the timing.
Several Republicans have said a special session is needed to address priorities that didn’t pass. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Wednesday asked Abbott to call lawmakers back to Austin in June to consider several of his top bills. One prohibits transgender student athletes from participating on a team that matches their gender identities, another bars some local governments from contracting with lobbyists and a third addresses “social media censorship.”
State Rep. Jeff Cason, R-Bedford, said he’d want to see “school choice, tax-funded lobbying, religious freedom and many other GOP priorities” passed in a special session. Rep. Matt Krause, a Fort Worth Republican, said he too would support a special session on the election bill and others.
“These are such important bills. I’m OK coming back as soon as the governor wants to call us back,” Krause said Sunday night as he left the House chamber, the body having adjourned until 10 a.m. the next morning.
Rep. Briscoe Cain, R- Deer Park, who sponsored the Senate voting bill in the House, was quick to join the calls, tweeting: “Ready to get back to work.”
“I think you’re sent here to do your job, we still had business before the House, some important bills, and we’re debating some important things, so to leave before ... the deadline hits, I think it’s a shame,” he said Sunday.
Cain and his fellow lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans alike — were back on the floor Monday morning to close out the regular session.
“I tend to have an understanding that it’s always about policy, not personalities, and I tend to believe that we can have our debates and come back together,” he said.
Cain noted that there were things in the conference committee version of the bill that needed to be fixed. With a special session apparently on the horizon, ”I get the chance to make some lemonade,” he said.
But tensions appear high between the chambers and leadership.
Abbott said Monday he would line-item veto the article of the state budget dealing with funding for the legislative branch.
“No pay for those who abandon their responsibilities,” he said on Twitter. “Stay tuned.”
Turner responded: “Our constitution provides for three branches of government. Equal branches of government. And the executive doesn’t get to trump the legislative branch. So, any attempt to veto the appropriations or defund the legislative branch... is absurd.”
‘OUR ALL-OUT PROTEST’
The Austin church were many Democrats gathered after blocking a vote on the election bill didn’t appear to be picked by happenstance. A newly added provision of Senate Bill 7 would have banned voting before 1 p.m. on the last Sunday of early voting, raising concerns about the affect the provision could have on “Souls to the Polls” events held by Black congregations encouraging voter go to the polls after church.
“We are no longer going to stand and allow them to continue to push measures that disenfranchise our voters,” Collier said. “We are no longer going to allow them to provide the narrative that they have the rule on election integrity. We believe in election integrity, and we believe that there’s no problem with what’s going on right now. There’s no widespread voter fraud.”
The legislation also would have banned drive-thru voting and set times when polling places can operate, effectively prohibiting 24-hour voting. It offered protections for poll watchers and required a person seeking an application to vote by mail because of a disability to provide the “specific grounds on which the voter is eligible for a ballot to be voted by mail.”
Additionally the legislation would have made it a crime for poll workers who send an application to vote by mail to a person who didn’t request one and for election officers who refuse to accept a volunteer poll watchers for service.
“We can only handle so much,” Rep. Ramon Romero, D-Fort Worth, said. “There’s going to have to be a time when the rules will allow us to demonstrate our power and to demonstrate our all-out protest to the way this session has gone.”
Romero didn’t appear deterred when asked if he fears the next version of the election bill will be more restrictive.
“There’s no reason to fear any less or any more now,” he said. “And the facts are, the people of Texas are paying attention to what happened in Austin last night.”
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