A week into their walkout, Texas Democrats are figuring out what to do next

CNN

6 days ago

Congressional news
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Texas Democratic lawmakers expected to confront many uncertainties when they left the state in a last-ditch attempt to block Republicans from pushing through a new congressional map.
How long would they be away? What retaliation might follow? Would their gambit work?
Laundry, though, was not among the concerns for those temporarily staying in Illinois. Their hotel — a sprawling complex attached to a convention center an hour outside Chicago — offered a washer and dryer on site.
Then, a bomb threat Wednesday morning forced an evacuation and, ultimately, a location change. Clean clothes suddenly became another unknown.
'Still haven't figured it out yet,' state Rep. Ron Reynolds joked to CNN on Friday.
A week into their effort to deny the Texas House of Representatives a quorum, Democrats have few answers about what comes next. For now, they have stalled a fast-tracked plan to net Republicans up to five additional congressional seats next year – a prize coveted by President Donald Trump – and drawn a rare burst of national attention to the partisan sausage-making behind how House districts are drawn.
The special legislative session ends in 10 days, but the milestone is hardly an end point. Gov. Greg Abbott can demand lawmakers return to Austin the moment it ends. On Thursday he told NBC that he intended to 'call special session after special session after special session' for as long as necessary.
From the outset, Democrats have acknowledged — if not embraced — their lack of clear path forward. Speaking in a cramped local Democratic Party headquarters shortly after landing in Chicago last Sunday, House Democratic caucus chairman Gene Wu said his members were prepared to do 'whatever it takes.'
'What that looks like,' he added, 'we don't know.'
For many of the more than 50 legislators now scattered across Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, memories of a similar stand in 2021 are still fresh. Some arrived wearing the black-and-white 'Let the people vote' T-shirts that memorialized their previous protest. That stalemate lasted 38 days before a handful of their colleagues returned to Austin and gave Republicans the quorum they needed to pass a sweeping elections overhaul.
This time, some Democrats started with muscle memory: how to pack for an indefinite absence, what to keep off social media, which details not to share even with family during daily video chats and other safety measures.
'The idea is to tell no one anything because we don't want our families harassed,' said Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, who told CNN that a pizza was delivered to her home in San Antonio that she didn't order.
Those precautions, though, are not impenetrable. In an interview on ABC News that quickly circulated among the out-of-state Democrats, Republican state Rep. Mitch Little shared the name of the Illinois hotel believed to be housing about 30 Democrats.
'Whoever wants to go and get them,' Little said, 'we fully support that effort.'
Lawmakers are quick to stress they are not on vacation, a distinction they learned to make after a local outlet reported that two members traveled to Portugal during the last walkout. Unlike four years ago, there also have been no cases of Miller Lite appearing in photographs, a precaution born from a 2021 social media flap.
They were better positioned for the heightened interest this time. Members have held daily news conferences and participated in hundreds of interviews with Texas and national outlets. Some lawmakers brought communications teams armed with video equipment. TikTok posts have attracted tens of thousands of views each, far surpassing their typical reach.
Soon after arriving in Illinois, an aide to Rep. John Bucy found a shop near the hotel that sold state flags. Bucy has since made several TV and social media appearances in front of the Lone Star flag, its creases notably smoothed as the week has progressed.
'We've only done this a couple of times,' Bucy told CNN. 'We don't have a good plan all the time.'
The expected costs — personal and financial — are clearer now, especially for newcomers. Lawmakers are missing birthdays, medical appointments and the first day of school for their children.
In Texas, the Legislature meets part-time and pays members $7,200 a year plus a per diem when they are in Austin. House Speaker Dustin Burrows suspended direct deposit payments for any absent lawmakers, requiring them to pick up their checks in person.
Many of the Democrats have caregiving roles or full-time jobs. Their caucus includes small-business owners, realtors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, grandmothers, a deacon and a masonry contractor. Soon, the $500-a-day fines for absent lawmakers enacted after the 2021 protest will outpace the salary they are paid all year. They cannot use campaign or official funds to pay the fines.
'We will have to figure that out when the time comes,' Representative Diego Bernal said of the mounting fees. 'One way or another.'
On Friday, a Texas judge temporarily barred a political committee operated former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke from fundraising for absent Democratic lawmakers.
While the lawmakers left Texas prepared to expect the unexpected, some Republican moves have caught them off guard. Abbott's suggestion he could remove absent lawmakers from office rattled those gathered in Illinois. They huddled Monday with their lawyers with a straightforward question: Can Abbott do that?
They were assured that Abbott was acting on shaky legal ground, Reynolds said. Abbott has filed a motion to have Wu removed, and Attorney General Ken Paxton followed with his own petition asking the state Supreme Court to strip others of their seats.
'We believe that he's talking tougher because of President Trump is asking for this,' Reynolds said.
Democratic lawmakers expected Abbott would threaten to deploy law enforcement to return them to the Capitol, just as he did in 2021. But the suggestion from Abbott and Sen. John Cornyn that the FBI might assist state law enforcement efforts was a jarring reminder that leadership in Washington has turned over since their last walkout.
'No one knows for sure what's going to happen with those threats or if the FBI is deployed,' Bernal said. 'But it's not going to send us running back to our seats. Keeping our seats is not the most important thing in our life. Being able to look at our families and be able to say we didn't bend the knee, that's more important to us.'
Even with so much unknown, Democratic lawmakers say their defiance is not without calculation. They argue that the fight has now stretched beyond Texas, and they hope their resistance will galvanize a broader national response.
On Friday, California Democrats, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, announced their plans to redraw their congressional map to offset Texas by going after five Republican-held seats. Other states could follow suit, setting off a chaotic and unprecedented mid-decade redistricting arms race heading into the midterm elections.
Over the past week, a small but growing number of Republicans have expressed dismay at the tactics – including some in blue states who could lose their Congressional seats amid the fallout. Their public condemnation has been welcomed by Texas Democrats, seeing it as a possible sign that pressure is building for both sides to step back.
'The biggest win,' Gervin-Hawkins said, 'is that we have alerted America that there is some devastation going on.'