Texas Democrats end their quorum break

[FelineOverlord]

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[a kennedy]

1. DAMN IT.......

[vercetti2021]

2. It was inevitable

Thanks Machin and Simena for protecting our sacred filibuster

[lagomorph777]

15. Thank goodness the Filibuster is intact, though it comes at the cost of our democracy.

[hurl]

3. The fact is

In Texas we have a Republican supermajority and Democrats have very little real leverage. I think Texas Democrats did the best they could to draw national attention to the fact that we need a federal solution.

They will continue to have no more cards to play until enough people in Texas get off their ass to dislodge the GOP. Texas has among the very lowest voter turnout, especially in off-year elections. This widespread voter apathy is allowing Republicans to do whatever they want, and Democratic messaging has not been strong enough to motivate non-voters. Until that changes, Texas won't budge. I wish I had better news.

[catrose]

4. Crying. Just crying.

Thank you for what you did, Democrats. Now the deluge.

[edhopper]

5. This will cost us the House

There are 13 House Dems from Texas that can loose their seats.

[TexasTowelie]

6. The congressional districts were already severely gerrymandered after the 2010 census.

Considering that the white population fell to below 40% of the state and that the population gains were in the DFW, Houston, and San Antonio/Austin corridors, it is going to be extremely difficult to redraw the district lines to add two more districts while maintaining "safe" GOP districts that aren't vulnerable to the occasional upset by Democrats.

That being said, I think that the Democrats that are most vulnerable are the three representatives from the Rio Grande Valley: Cuellar, Gonzalez, and Vela. Vela has announced his retirement and Cuellar is facing another primary battle against Justice Dem Jessica Cisneros. Issues related to immigration are giving a lot of ammunition to conservatives that they will face in the general election.

Of the two seats that Texas will gain due to the census, I expect one will be strongly GOP while the other will "lean" Democratic.

[edhopper]

11. You missed the part

Where they stop non-whites from voting.

[LeftInTX]

7. The State of Texas will redistrict if the legislature won't...

And that's the ugly truth..Five Republicans will draw the maps -Lt Gov, AG, Speaker, Comptroller and Land Commissioner...

Also if Democrats testify at federal court, at least they can say that they tried to prevent the new boundaries.

[FBaggins]

12. That isn't how redistricting works

You can't completely get rid of the opposition.

They'll be able to ensure that both of the state's new congressional seats go red - and perhaps a little farther if they want to risk a blue wave later in the decade - but they can't endanger 13 democrats

There are, for instance, eight democrats who won their districts by 2-1 (or even 3-1). There could be some shuffling if they draw two incumbents into the same new district, but there's no way to turn them red.

[edhopper]

13. Nationally the GOP needs 5 seats to take congress

if they just get 3 in Texas, they will easily get the other 2 elsewhere.

The odds are against us keeping the House.

[FBaggins]

14. Two entirely different things

They are indeed likely to pick up seats from reapportionment and redistricting, but that isn't because Democrats in Texas were unable to sustain a quorum-busting strategy indefinitely. It was clear back in November when we failed to make expected gains in several state legislatures. (There were some who expected us to take TX and make huge gains there in redistricting)

And, yes, the expected loses are enough (all else being equal) to cost us the House.

But all else isn't going to be equal. There are 435 House races, not just three in TX and two elsewhere. A seat that had been blue and went red by two points in 2020 is not guaranteed to stay red in perpetuity. Similarly, we could have a spectacularly fortunate redistricting year and lose zero seats that way... yet still lose the House to normal "president's first midterm" forces.

[edhopper]

16. All true

And I wasn't clear in talking about the 13 seats. I didn't mean we will lose all 13, but we will lose some, and enough for the Congress to go Red. I think the normal out of power Party will be in play.
Which shows the stupidity of American voters.

"They didn't get everything done in 2 years, so I will make sure nothing gets done the next 2."

[andym]

8. Most of the delegation apparently did not know that the three Representatives were returning

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/19/politics/texas-democrats-quorum-voting-bill/index.html
Texas Democrats' effort to freeze voting bill ends
Dianne Gallagher, CNN
8:43 PM ET, Thu August 19, 2021

--snip
...
Democratic Reps. Garnet Coleman, Ana Hernandez and Armando Walle released a joint statement explaining their return to the floor on Thursday, saying they were "proud of the heroic work" accomplished by breaking quorum but "Now, we continue the fight on the House floor." The statement noted the need to manage the Covid-19 surge in the state as behind the decision.

Coleman, who previously broke quorum but did not join others in DC due to a recent leg amputation, gave the invocation Thursday, saying in part, "I pray that we, all of us look inside about where we want this world to go, this state, this House, and look at it from the perspective of trying to find as much common ground as can be found."

At least two members publicly accused their three colleagues of blindsiding them with the decision to return, with Rep. Donna Howard replying to the statement on Twitter, "This could have been shared with Caucus members beforehand."

Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos went further, tweeting that, "we were literally on caucus calls for 2 hours this morning and none of the defecting Democrats mentioned they were planning on helping the Republicans pass voter suppression bills. Guess what the other defecting Democrats have accomplished by going back—NOTHING!..."
---snip

[FoxNewsSucks]

9. They expected republicons to be honest?

Really???

fool me once. . . .

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. For this thread

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