Texas Dem Holdouts Upset After 3 Colleagues Return to House, Allowing GOP Bill to Go Forward

Texas Democrats who left the state in July in an effort to block a Republican-backed election bill are criticizing their colleagues who returned to the Texas House this week, allowing the chamber to resume business.

After nearly six weeks, the Texas Tribune reported that with the return of the three Texas House Democrats—Garnet Coleman, Armando Walle and Ana Hernandez—there were enough legislators in the statehouse for reach a quorum on Thursday.

In a statement on Friday, more than 30 Texas Democrats who have yet to return to the statehouse said they felt "disappointed that a few Democrats chose to return to the floor."

"We feel betrayed and heartbroken, but our resolve is strong and this fight is not over," the statement said.

The Democrats said that with their "questionable quorum," Republicans are now "fully enabled and empowered to enact virtually all" of Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abott's directives, "including many dangerous pieces of legislation that will fundamentally hurt the lives of Texans."

Democrats are concerned that the GOP-backed election bill will curb voting rights. The legislation, which is on the agenda of legislative session called by Abbott this summer, would restrict local voting options and vote-by-mail rules, and give partisan poll watchers more flexibility, according to the Tribune.

When they announced they would return to the Texas House this week, Coleman, Walle and Hernandez said they were "proud of the heroic work and commitment we and our fellow Democratic caucus members have show in breaking quorum in May and again over this summer."

"We took the fight for voting rights to Washington, D.C. and brought national attention to the partisan push in our state to weaken ballot access. Our efforts were successful and served as the primary catalyst to push Congress to take action on federal voter protection legislation. Now, we continue the fight on the House Floor," they stated.

With COVID-19 cases mounting throughout the state, the legislators said it was time to "move past these partisan legislative calls, and to come together to help our state mitigate the effects of the current COVID-19 surge."

Walle, Hernandez and Coleman weren't the first Democrats to return to the statehouse—several others had come back earlier this month, the Tribune reported.

Representatives for the Democrats who returned to the Texas House, as well as the Democrats who have yet to do so, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Newsweek.