Since Sunday, Texas democratic legislators have been involved in a confrontation against state Republicans and Governor Greg Abbott. The governor has threatened to expel and replace the representatives for leaving the State to prevent the maps of the Texas Congress of Texas.
But this is not the first time that legislators have fled from the Capitol of the State of Texas, they avoid voting to a measure with which they do not disagree, “breaking the quorum” by depriving the state house of enough legislators to carry out businesses. They have been doing it since 1870, more than 150 years ago.
Texas state legislators broke the quorum for the last time in 2021 when the representatives of the Democratic Chamber fled Texas to avoid measures that restrict voting options. The measures finally passed after internal democratic fissures He led to enough representatives who returned to form a quorum.
The Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, speaks during a round table with President Donald Trump, the first to respond and local officials at the Hill Country Youth Event Center in Kerville, Texas, during a tour to observe flood damage, on Friday, July 11, 2025.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
The legislators first stagnated the electoral bill during the regular session through a last minute strike. After Abbot convened a special session, 57 Democrats fled to Washington, DC, which led the Republicans to promulgate a “call from the camera”, a procedure that requires the assistance of legislators to the state house and allows the sergeant of arms to arrest the members within Texas and bring them there.
When a state representative, Philip Cortez, briefly returned to Austin at the end of July before meeting with the other quorum romas outside the state, the then president of the house, Dade Phelan, signed a civil order for his arrest. At that time, however, Cortez was out of the jurisdiction of the Texas Police.
The Democrats ran out of the clock in the first special session, but they could not prevent the members from returning to Texas after Abbott called a second.
While a state district judge issued a temporary restriction order to prevent Abbott and Phelan from stopping the Democrats, the Texas Supreme Court quickly blocked that order, allowing Phelan to sign orders for the 52 Democrats who remain absent. Police actually did not arrested or arrested any of the legislators.
Legislators began to resort to the state capital, citing Several personal and legislative concerns, such as the imminent process of redistribution of districts that required that the maps be approved before November of that year. Finally, the camera reached quorum, finishing the 38 -day strike and allowing the bill to be approved.
The Texas Capitol is seen on August 4, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell/Getty images
James Talarico state representative Posted in x At the time he had returned to “clean Greg Abbott’s last disorder from Covid to Ercot [the Electric Reliability Council of Texas]. “
Some Democrats who remained in Washington were disgusted. The American representative Jasmine Crockett, then state representative, accused the legislators who returned from “trying to please the governor and his oppressive agenda.”
Beyond the financial cost, the legislators faced few consequences once they returned to the State, in addition to the then talkative Phelan Stripping State State, Joe Moody, of his title of the current house of Pressing Pro Tempore. Dustin Burrows speaker named Moody again in 2025.
The Democrats in 2021 did not face the fine of $ 500 per day, a sanction only implemented in 2023 in an effort to deter future quorum breaks.
The Texas Tribune reported That the Democrats spent about $ 10,000 per day on accommodation and food during the strike, paid by the democratic chaucus of the Chamber, collection of additional funds around the quorum and outside the pockets of the legislators. People drivenBacked by the former representative of the United States and the Texas Senate and the candidate for Governor Beto O’Rourke, gave $ 600,000 to support his stay in DC; The group is also financing the current strike, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Some 55 members of the Democratic Chamber also fled the State in 2003 to avoid another redistribution effort of Republican districts. They Returned to Texas After waiting for a special session. When Gov then. Rick Perry called a second special session, 11 Democratic senators left to break the quorum again.
Finally, then Sen. John Whitmire was the only Democrat who returned To form a quorum. The districts redistribution plan approved during a special special session. Whitmire saying He returned due to the fear that the two -third quorum requirement does not remain during a second session, the need to address other political priorities and the lack of a resolution in sight.
The State Police looked for the Democrats. The Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston, Brandon Rottinghaus, told ABC News that FAA tracked planes that were suspected that they took out the state’s Democrats, and that formal punishments were not imposed once they returned.
The state representative of Texas, James Talarico, speaks during a demonstration to protest against the redistribution hearings of Districts in the Texas Capitol, July 24, 2025, in Austin, Texas.
Eric Gay/AP
He New York Times He reported at that time that the then Republican President of the House of Representatives, Tom Craddick, asked the Texas Rangers to find and bring back the missing Democrats, but did not have the authority to do so since the legislators were in Oklahoma.
In 1979, 12 Democratic senators fled the State and successfully prevented the Republicans from changing the date of the presidential primaries in Texas to allegedly benefit the former Governor of Texas John Connally.
The Republicans used a camera call, and then Lt. Governor William Hobby Jr. threatened to eliminate legislators absent from the position, The Washington Post reported at that time.
He Texas Tribune He informed that Hobby ordered the state -owned Rangers and soldiers of Texas to find Democratic legislators without success. No senator was arrested, Rottinghaus said.
The senators eventually returned voluntarily after Hobby agreed not to put the measure by changing the main date to a vote again or arrest any of the legislators.
The first instance of the quorum rupture in Texas took place in 1870, when 13 legislators retired from the Senate but remained in the state, according to the Historical Association of the State of Texas. They opposed the legislation of the 15 radical republican members of the Senate.
The Senate made a camera call, which led to the arrest of nine of the 13 legislators. The remaining four were necessary for the quorum, which then allowed the approval of the legislation of the radical Republicans.
