Despite former congressman Beto O’Rourke’s bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R) and all the work done to try to turn Texas purple, Democrats have been shut out of power for a generation, and have taken dramatic action before, only to get flattened. The last big quorum break was in 2003, when Democrats fled to Oklahoma for a few days, then New Mexico for over a month to try to stop a gerrymandered redistricting plan, and ended with the law passing anyway. The fugitive Democrats actually broke quorum once already this year, for a few hours on May 30, when they walked off the House floor to block these very same voting restrictions. Abbott simply called a new 30-day special session to pass them — leading to the latest exodus of Democratic lawmakers.

Source: Washington Post August 10, 2021 12:01 UTC