Texas Gov. Abbott vows to have missing Dem lawmakers arrested when they return
Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to arrest the Democratic lawmakers who fled a special session in order to block Republican-backed election reform bills.
“Isn’t this the most un-Texan thing you’ve ever heard — Texans running from a fight? They’re quitters,” Abbott, a Republican, said on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” on Monday evening.
“Once they step back into the state they will be arrested and brought back to the Capitol and we will be conducting business,” the governor pledged.
Roughly 60 Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives traveled via two chartered flights to Washington, DC, on Monday to press Congress and the Biden administration to pass federal voting rights legislation.
The absence of the lawmakers means the House lacks a quorum and is unable to vote on any legislation.
It’s the second time Democrats acted to deprive the House a quorum.
They walked out of the chamber in the final hours of the regular legislative session on May 30 just hours before an expected vote on the election legislation.
Abbott said he will call for another special legislative session just as he did in May.
“We have special sessions that last 30 days,” Abbott said. “And the governor calls them, and I will continue calling special session after special session because over time it is going to continue until they step up to vote.”
Under House rules, the chamber can vote to lock the doors to prevent lawmakers from leaving and order law enforcement officials to track down and arrest any members who already fled, the Texas Tribune reported.
Republicans say the voting measures — ending 24-hour polling places, banning ballot drop boxes, and empowering partisan poll watchers — are designed to ensure the integrity of the vote by preventing voter fraud.
Democrats say the Republican plan is to hamper the voting process.
But many took offense at Democrats running to DC and “hiding” instead of staying in Austin to debate the legislation.
“Enjoy the all expenses paid charter jet and vacation in DC. But you really should be earning your taxpayer provided income rather than running and hiding,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) sniped on Twitter.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) called the Democrats “pathetic.”
“Hard to imagine a more delusional group of people – thinking that lying about these bills, hopping on a chartered flight, sipping beer, and skipping work is ‘sacrifice,’” Crenshaw tweeted. “You guys are pathetic. Totally pathetic.”
Other commentators on Twitter blasted the lawmakers as “cowards.”
“What a bunch of cowards these Texas Democrats are. Cowards are never moral and these losers have abdicated their duty to represent their constituents both Republican and Democrat,” entrepreneur and political commentator Caleb Bonham snarled.
“The Democrat cowards who ran from Texas know that the voting laws are going to be passed. They are just raising their profile with Democrats in DC before that happens. But the bills are being passed,” conservative writer Carmine Sabia also wrote.
Meanwhile, Texas Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer insisted he and other Democrats have the “resolve” to wait out the special session.
“There is nothing special about this session in Austin. It is a suppression session. They are trying to take away our right to vote and we’re not going to put up with it and we’re going to fight,” he said on MSNBC.
