Texas Democrats walked out. The tactic has mixed results : NPR

The legislators of the State of Texas aboard a bus after a press conference at the headquarters of the Damage County Democratic Party on August 03, 2025 in Carol Stream, Illinois. The group of democratic legislators left the state earlier in the day, so a quorum could not be joined during a special session called to redirect the state.

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More than 50 Democratic legislators in Texas left the state on Sunday, with the aim of blocking the adoption of a new controversial redistribution card that would make President Trump’s desire to add five other seats from the Republican Congress to the American Chamber.

This decision is called “Breaking Quorum”. The Texas House demands that 100 members present puts business, but has only 88 Republicans. He needs democrats in the room, even if he does not need their votes, in order to promulgate the new card.

“If you are the minority party and you cannot block any legislation, a nuclear option that you still have is to go out, thus preventing the legislature from engaging in an activity and particularly of the legislation,” explains Mark P. Jones, professor of political science at Rice University.

Leaving the state for liberal bastions such as Illinois and New York, dozens of democrats bring the body to stop – at least for the moment. It is not known how long they will be able to stay away from their personal and financial obligations, especially since the part -time legislative calendar of Texas means that many legislators occupy jobs.

The Texas legislature is currently in a special 30 -day session to consider the proposed card, among other elements of the specific agenda. And while the session should end on August 19, Governor Greg Abbott has the power to call special sessions at any time, perpetuity.

“This is often a very effective strategy for delaying legislation and highlighting this legislation,” said Jones. “But this is not an effective strategy to really block the legislation, because Governor Abbott can continue to recall the Texas Legislative Assembly in special session for months after month, and this would force these legislators to stay outside the state.”

Texas experienced a number of legislators’ debraying, in 1870 and as recently as in 2021, when the Democrats left the State to protest against republican efforts aimed at revising the voting rules. After almost five weeks, several legislators returned home, allowing a vote and the bill was adopted.

Other states, including Oregon, Indiana and Minnesota, have also experienced legislative debraying in recent years, with mixed results.

Brandon Rottinghaus, professor of political science at the University of Houston, says that if the quorum breaks was relatively rare, they occur more often as partisanary increases, in Texas and beyond.

“Over the past two years, it has become clear that Texas politics is only a reflection of national policy,” he said. “The kind of polarization we see, the type of problem that arises, the way members act and the way the governor acts is really in accordance with what national policy does.”

How did previous debraying go?

Previous debraying at the national level have concentrated on questions from the Chaud button such as redistribution, abortion and voting rights.

“The times we see these breaks are moments when it seems that the political process is completely insoluble,” explains Rottinghaus. “One side gives the impression that they simply do not draw attention or cannot participate in the process as they wish, so they collect their balls and leave the game.”

In January, after weeks of fighting the management of an equally divided room, 66 Minnesota democrats left the soil on the first day of their legislative session.

The democratic side of the Minnesota House Chamber was empty during a dropout of several weeks in January 2025.

Steve KarNOWSKI / AP

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Steve KarNOWSKI / AP

They managed to prevent the Republicans from electing a speaker and leading business for three weeks, during which the Supreme Minnesota Court officially established the standard for a quorum in 68 members – bringing the legislators to the negotiation table. The Democrats returned to the field after the two parties concluded a power sharing agreement in February.

In 2023, Oregon Republicans released for six weeks – the longest of many members in state history – on proposed measures protecting abortion rights, firearms regulations and the care affirmed by the sexes.

It ended with what the Republicans considered a victory: the Democrats filed new versions of bills with a softer language in certain provisions. But it had a professional cost. The Republicans violated a measure approved by voters in 2022 prohibiting re -election legislators, they have more than 10 unpurred absences – and the senators of the state who left were prevented from running again.

And Texas has also seen its share of debraying. In May 2003, more than 50 Democrats in the House left the state to protest against a redistribution plan supported by the Republicans – similar to the current ranging. They spent a week in a Holiday Inn in Oklahoma, blocking until they lack the legislative deadline for the bill.

But it was not a complete success. Then-gov. Rick Perry called a series of special sessions, during which even more democrats have left. He also sent the application of laws after the Democrats, with regard to state lines. After a month, a democrat returned home, restaurant Le Quorum, and the redistribution bill was adopted during the third special session.

The representative of the State of Texas, Pete Gallego, talks about the stages of the Capitol of the State after the Democrats of Texas returned from a week -long upholsteering on a draft bill in 2003.

Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc / Sygma via Getty Images

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Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc / Sygma via Getty Images

What are the consequences of the exit?

Texas legislators who released in 2003 and 2021 faced any real sanction thereafter, by the management of the Chamber or by the voters, explains Jones.

This time, the Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton and other Republican legislators called on the Democrats who left the state to be arrested on their return.

Abbott also threatened to withdraw them from his functions, citing a legal opinion that Paxton wrote in 2021, the last time the Democrats of Texas broke the quorum. And although efforts to withdraw legislators are probably faced with judicial disputes, certain other consequences are inevitable.

Jones says that after 2021, Texas House changed its rules to add a fine of $ 500 per day for each day, other legislators were unemployed. And Rottinghaus says they could potentially lose other things, such as their office budgets and their parking spaces.

Beyond that, says Rottinghaus, legislators’ debraying tends to exacerbate tensions between the two parties, as was the case in Texas.

“It happened in the 1970s and there were Rassonian feelings, but when it happened in the 2000s, it was Bloodsport.” He said. “And because of the growing issues, he came to the point where the two parties are looking for revenge. It is not an ideal place to be politically.”

What are the advantages of going out?

If debraying generally does not work – and can potentially turn against him – why do legislators continue to use them as a tactical?

“The best hope of Democrats is to highlight what is going on in Texas following some of these national forces,” said Rottinghaus, referring to the pressure that Trump has exerted on the Texas Republicans to redraw his card.

This has aroused concerns that other states could follow suit, reworking their congresses more often than the 10 -year -old intervals in order to give a party a political advantage. This would violate not only long -standing standards, but also the potentially provisions of the 1965 voting law which aimed to prevent the dilution of the votes of minorities, said Jones.

“If Texas succeeds in this effort to reduce the capacity of African-Americans and Latinos to elect the candidates of their choice … This suggests that the same would be possible in other states, let’s say, in Florida or Missouri,” says Jones.

The Democrats of Texas hope that their efforts will force the Republicans to make changes to the redistribution process, either allowing more time for their contribution, or even by adjusting the map itself. Even if it does not work, says Rottinghaus, asserting yourself a national audience has its own advantages.

For example, Democratic leaders in states like New York, California and Illinois welcomed the Democrats of Texas and have taken their cause – suggesting that they could answer with their own cycle redistigation efforts, even if it takes years.

Illinois governor JB Pritzker said at a Sunday press conference that “everything had to be on the table”, while the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, promised on Monday to “do everything in our power to stop this cheeky attack”. New York may not have flexibility that other states do, however. Due to its state constitution, legislators and voters should weigh, and this could take years.

“The heroes will be made from this action,” said Rottinghaus. “It will really make a lot of careers and may be a kind of focal point for the way the Democrats at the national level could take a stand. It is therefore, I think, what they hope.”