Texas state Rep. Jessica González, front left, is flanked by other Democratic lawmakers as she speaks at a press conference in May 2021 after Texas House Democrats staged a walkout to defeat a highly restrictive voting bill. (AP File Photo)
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
When Democrats broke quorum in 2003, they drove up I-35 to Ardmore. When they pulled into the Holiday Inn, they were greeted by a big sign that was planted next to the driveway that read, “Budweiser welcomes the Texas Legislature.”
The issue then, as now, that prompted the Dems to decamp was redistricting. Republicans wanted to create five new Republican seats. On one proposed map, Galveston would have been in the same district as Texarkana.
The quorum break lasted only five days and was done with more of a sense of humor.
Other quorum breaks happened in 2021, 1979 and 1870. That 19th century walk-out by 13 senators to protest a bill giving the governor of Texas wartime powers established breaking quorum as a legitimate power of the minority party.
That tactic of breaking quorum was reinforced after the 2021 session when a court ruled that the state’s constitution allows “quorum-breaking” as a legal and legitimate tool the minority party may use. At the same time, it granted the party in power to use “quorum-forcing” to encourage members of the Legislature who have left the state to return.
Arresting fleeing members and returning them to the floor of the Legislature has been threatened before, and it’s been done before, although with limited success — but only within the borders of Texas.
Senator John Cornyn’s scheme to involve the FBI to locate and arrest Democrats across the country is a new take, as is Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to fine absent House members $500 per day. That money can’t come out of campaign funds raised.
Members of the Legislature can’t stay out of the state forever. But Republicans are working against a clock, as well. Abbott will call another 30-day special session as soon at the current special session adjourns this week. Then he may call another in September and another in October.
But new maps would need to be approved by mid-November, before candidates begin to file to run for office, to affect the 2026 midterm elections.
As part of the Republican tactic to lure Democrats back to Austin, Abbott has asked courts to remove 13 Democrats from office, claiming they vacated their seats. That way, if the others Democrats return to Austin, they’ll have quorum and the select 13 would be held up as examples.
Among the 13 are four from the Dallas area — Reps. Mihaela Plesa, Chris Turner, Anna-Maria Ramos and Jessica González.
González, whose district runs from Oak Cliff to Grand Prairie, chairs the LGBTQ+ Caucus. She speculated this week that chairing that caucus, as well as her being a Hispanic woman representing a majority-Hispanic district, was probably reason enough for Abbott to target her.
Abbott said the 13 House members he named “made incriminating public statements regarding their refusal to return.” But González told Dallas Voice she doesn’t know what those incriminating public statements might be. She said she was one of the ringleaders of the 2021 quorum break, but she’s been pretty quiet during this one.
She was equally confused about the other Dallas-area representatives on Abbott’s list. Regarding Plesa, González speculated that Republicans are simply furious that a Democrat won a Collin County seat.
Similarly, Ramos, a Hispanic woman, dares represent Richardson.
And Chris Turner? His is “a Tarrant County seat in a congressional district [Republicans are] screwing with,” she suggested.
Still, González said, her anxiety level is off the charts. But she suggested Abbott chose her because he knows she can’t be broken.
“Breaking quorum is procedural,” she said. “For Paxton or Abbott to think they can remove us from office for not doing our jobs — this is me, working for the voters in my district.”
This quorum break is different from past ones. She said the legal harassment and death threats against members as well as their families is way beyond anything she ever imagined.
“The extent of the nastiness. Dragging our families into this,” González said. “If that doesn’t terrify you [against letting] Republicans stay in power.”
She said DPS cars are staked out at legislators’ homes, terrifying some members’ families.
“If they put this much energy into the things Texans need — all the things the flood victims need — Abbott has broad discretionary powers to provide these folks relief. He didn’t have to call a special session” to do that, González stressed.
But the discretionary power Abbott doesn’t have is to pick and choose who gets to sit in the Legislature. She called that a scary threat to democracy.
González said the comments on social media have been disgusting. Someone posted on her X account, “Women shouldn’t run for office.”
But, “If anything, it’s kept us united,” she said.
González said she hasn’t been in Chicago for the entire quorum break. She was part of a delegation that traveled to California to meet with that state’s Legislature. She spoke to them about where the LGBTQ+ community stands in Texas.
What’s amazed her is that “Everybody across the country is talking about what we’re doing,” she said. “This has national implications.”
Those implications go beyond just control of the U.S. House. For the LGBTQ+ community it has to do with erasing trans people and eliminating marriage equality.
When the first special session ends, and the second session is called, will Democrats return to Texas?
“I don’t know the next plan,” she said. “But a decision will be made as a group.”
Texas Democrats are getting support from the national party. DNC Chair Ken Martin pledged that “Democrats are not backing down,” and he issued a statement that said, in part, “After enduring bomb threats and attempts at arrest and expulsion, Texas Democrats have held firm and blocked Trump’s efforts to rig the Texas maps this session.”
Democrats tried to shift the focus to the more than 130 people who lost their lives in the flood.
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu, also on Abbott’s expulsion list, said, “Now, the ball is in Abbott’s court: He can stop blocking flood relief immediately. Stop playing political games, stop pretending to be sheriff and finally get to work on behalf of Texas families.”
Democrats from the Texas Legislature’s upper house are supporting the walk-out by House members. Sen. Nathan Johnson, who represents North Dallas and is running to replace Ken Paxton as attorney general next year, responded to Republican charges that Democrats had abdicated their responsibility.
“There’s only one party here that has actually abdicated its responsibility, and that’s the Republican party,” Johnson said.
As for the legality of Abbott asking a court to remove House members, the governor claims he has that power when the actions of those members creates a crisis.
State Rep. Mary Gonzalez, founder of the LGBTQ+ Caucus, filed a brief that argues that a quorum break is not a crisis.
Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee also filed an amicus brief that says Abbott doesn’t have the power to bring this sort of lawsuit and encouraged the suit be thrown out of court.
The other major question is whether the FBI has the jurisdiction to locate the quorum breakers, arrest them and return them to Texas.
Asked on Meet the Press, former Attorney General Eric Holder said, “Short answer: No. I mean, you’re asking the FBI to get involved, to find these legislators who are in the process of trying to defend democracy in Texas.”
And Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the FBI could not arrest Texas lawmakers in his state and called it “a lot of grandstanding” by Abbott, Paxton and Cornyn.
“The reality is that all that he has said, Cornyn, is that the FBI has been authorized to locate the Texas House Democrats, nothing more,” Pritzker said. “And you know why? Because there is no federal law that allows them to arrest Texas Democrats who are here visiting the state of Illinois.”