Texas Democrats who fled state for D.C. call on Congress to pass voting rights bills
More than 50 Texas House Democrats who broke quorum to block a GOP voting bill appeared outside the U.S. Capitol on July 13, 2021, urging Congress to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
More than 50 Texas House Democrats — CBS News reported at least 57 of the chamber's 150 members — fled the state on July 13, 2021 to deny Republicans the quorum needed to pass a GOP-backed voting and elections bill during a special legislative session. The group traveled to Washington, D.C., where they appeared outside the U.S. Capitol alongside members of Texas' federal congressional delegation to press for federal voting-rights protections, per CBS News.
The state bill they were blocking would have eliminated drive-thru and 24-hour early voting, added new mail-in voting ID requirements, increased criminal penalties for election officials, and expanded the powers of partisan poll watchers, CBS News reported.
At the Capitol press conference, state Rep. Rhetta Bowers said, "We are here in D.C., our nation's capital, because we want to protect the civil right to vote for millions of Texans," according to CBS News. House Democratic Caucus chair Chris Turner said the group's goal was to run out the legislative clock on the state bill: "Our intent is to stay out and kill this bill this session." Mexican American Legislative Caucus chair Rafael Anchia said, "We are not going to buckle to 'The Big Lie' in the state of Texas," per the same report.
The federal ask
The Texas lawmakers used the Washington trip to call on Congress to pass two federal bills: the For the People Act, a sweeping elections and voting-rights package, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, aimed at restoring a key enforcement provision of the original Voting Rights Act, CBS News reported. The retrieved coverage does not specify what, if any, legislative movement resulted from this specific appearance in Congress in the immediate aftermath.
The White House response
Vice President Kamala Harris met with roughly 60 of the Texas state legislators and called them "fighters," according to CBS News. Harris said, "Defending the right to vote is as American as apple pie." The retrieved coverage does not detail any specific follow-up commitments the administration made beyond that public meeting and statement.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by CBS News. It restores a story originally published on this site in July 2021; figures are as reported at the time.