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This summer's special session of the Texas legislature is set to kick off in just a few days, with the agenda packed full of top Republican priorities, including redistricting. The big question now is, how far are Democrats willing to go to block the GOP agenda?
One of their favorite tactics is to simply leave town and deny the House a quorum. This is something they've done on and off since 2003, including back in 2021, when they famously took a plane to Washington, D.C., in order to stop an election security bill.
Former Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi is expecting the quorum to be broken by the Democrats. He said, "I think they absolutely will. At least House Democrats will. I don't think Senate Democrats will, because they know they can't get away with it in the Senate, but they will in the House."
The question now is, will Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows take any action to maintain the quorum? That would require punishing the very same Democrats who put him in power. Rinaldi pointed out that, "Dustin Burrows was elected with more Democrats than Republicans, he's not going to take his voting base, have them arrested, and bring them back in."
He said instead, "What I see happening is a lot like what happened last time. This will go on for a while, Burrows will make some strong statements, but ultimately, he won't do anything because he wants to be elected speaker."