(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) After Texas House Democrats left the state on Sunday, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered them to return to Austin or said he would take action to have them removed from office. He also said several of them may have committed felonies.
Several House Democrats posted videos of themselves Sunday appearing to board private planes for Chicago, saying doing so was in defiance of redistricting efforts. They also solicited donations on social media to support their “fight.”
The legislature is currently convened by Abbott for a special session to address 18 issues, including flood relief for Hill Country victims and redistricting. A House committee advanced a redistricting bill on Saturday, which Democrats argue is illegal. The full House is scheduled to vote on it on Monday, The Center Square reported.
On Sunday, Democrats said they were taking an “extreme measure” by causing a quorum break “to stop these bills from happening” and declared, “this special session is over,” The Center Square reported.
In response, Abbott issued a one-page statement, saying, “Real Texans do not run from a fight. But that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did. Rather than doing their job and voting on urgent legislation affecting the lives of all Texans, they have fled Texas to deprive the House of the quorum necessary to meet and conduct business.
“These absences are not merely unintended and unavoidable interruptions in public service, like a sudden illness or a family emergency. Instead, these absences were premeditated for an illegitimate purpose – what one representative called ‘breaking quorum.’”
A quorum of two-thirds of the legislature is needed in each chamber, 100 in the Texas House, to conduct business, according to the state constitution and legislative rules. The House is comprised of 150 members, including 88 Republicans and 62 Democrats. Under House rules, members can request approved absences from the speaker. Unapproved absences can result in fines, censure, arrest and removal from office.
In 2021, after House Democrats absconded, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that those who left could be arrested, The Center Square reported.
On Sunday, House Democrats “hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber’s business,” Abbott said, which is a violation of the Texas Constitution. Their actions amount “to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office,” he said.
When the governor calls a special session, the Texas Constitution “provides that the ‘Legislature shall meet.’ TEX. CONST. art. III, § 5 (emphasis added),” Abbott explained. “It’s not optional. It’s a duty. The absconded Democrat House members were elected to meet and vote on legislation – not to prevent votes that may not go their way.
“Every session, legislators on both sides of the aisle find themselves on the losing side of a legislative vote. And every session, most of those legislators find a way to disagree agreeably and behave like adults, rather than going AWOL. This truancy ends now.”
He ordered the “derelict Democrat House members” to return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3 p.m. on Monday. Otherwise, he will take action to remove them from office.
“I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House,” he said, citing an opinion issued in 2021 after House Democrats absconded to prevent a vote on election reform. At the time, the attorney general was asked to consider “whether Texas law allows for a determination that a legislator has vacated office if they intentionally break quorum.”
The opinion concludes, “If a legislator is believed to have forfeited his or her office by abandonment, the attorney general or the county or district attorney of the proper county may initiate a suit in district court. If the court determines that the public officer has forfeited the office, the court ‘shall enter judgment removing the person from the office.’
“Texas courts recognize that a vacancy may occur by abandonment of office. Through a quo warranto action, a district court may determine that a legislator has forfeited his or her office due to abandonment and can remove the legislator from office, thereby creating a vacancy.”
Abbott argues the opinion “empowers me to swiftly fill vacancies under Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution.”
He also said House Democrats “may also have committed felonies” by “soliciting funds to evade the fines they will incur under House rules. Any Democrat who ‘solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept’ such funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have violated bribery laws,” he said, citing Texas penal code. “The same could be true for any other person who ‘offers, confers, or agrees to confer’ such funds to fleeing Democrat House members.”
“I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons,” he said.
House Speaker Dustin Burrows said the House will convene at 3 p.m. on Monday. “If a quorum is not present then, to borrow the recent talking points from some of my Democrat colleagues, all options will be on the table,” referring to imposing fines and potentially taking action to have them arrested.
