World Insights: Texas Democrats' walkout strategy works, but may only for now

The walkout strategy may prove short-lived and serve more as a bold political protest and a limited delay tactic, rather than a tool capable of altering the final outcome.

HOUSTON, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Texas Democratic lawmakers on Monday blocked the Republican-controlled state legislature from advancing a controversial redistricting plan -- widely criticized as a partisan gerrymander -- by staying out of the state to deny a quorum.

However, the walkout strategy may prove short-lived and serve more as a bold political protest and a limited delay tactic, rather than a tool capable of altering the final outcome -- a redistricting congressional map that would add up to five more Republican congressional seats in the U.S. House, as President Donald Trump is pressing for.

WALKOUT STRATEGY

The Texas House of Representatives, which currently has 88 Republicans, requires 100 members in the room as the minimum number of lawmakers needed to conduct legislative business in the United States' largest red state.

Despite the Democrats' resistance, with a sweeping majority, Texas Republicans may resume business and pass the legislation once Democratic lawmakers return, or are compelled to return.

On Monday, the state House voted 85-6 to arrest more than 50 absent Democrats, with Speaker Dustin Burrows threatening to promptly sign civil warrants to authorize their forced return by sergeants-at-arms and state troopers.

However, Democratic lawmakers who stay out of Texas are beyond the jurisdiction of state authorities, according to a report by The Texas Tribune.

Speaking from the House floor Monday, Burrows slammed absent Democrats for shirking their responsibilities, saying, "If you continue to go down this road, there will be consequences."

Texas Democratic lawmaker Linda Garcia, who is currently in Chicago, said Monday that she is prepared to stay out of Texas for two weeks.

"We are all prepared to fight," she told CNN, adding that she is not bothered by the arrest warrants since taking the quorum break "is within our legal right."

"This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity," state Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement Sunday. Wu accused the Republican move of "using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal."

On Monday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott told Fox News that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled "there is nothing illegal" to enlarge a partisan advantage by redistricting.

The Texas legislature is currently in a 30-day special session that is slated to end on Aug. 19, but the governor can keep calling the Texas legislature back for a special session.

Earlier, Abbott threatened to remove members of the opposition from their seats. In response, Democrats slammed Abbott for using "smoke and mirrors" to assert legal authority he does not have.

POLITICAL RISK

The current congressional map in Texas was drawn in 2021 with Republicans having 25 seats out of Texas's 38. Texas Republicans proposed new congressional lines last week to divide up existing districts in Austin, Houston and Dallas in a bid to garner five more seats.

"If they (Texas Republicans) enact this map and they actually pass this into law, I would expect Democratic governors to put every single option they can on the table to respond in kind," Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said Monday, vowing "a knife to a knife fight" between the two major parties.

In the summer of 2021, Texas Democrats used a similar walkout strategy to resist redistricting, thrusting the issue of gerrymandering and voter suppression into the national spotlight. However, the bill was passed after a delay of nearly 40 days when several Democratic lawmakers returned to the state capitol, allowing for a vote.

"This is often a very effective strategy to delay legislation and shine a spotlight on that legislation," Mark P. Jones, a political science professor at Rice University, told NPR. "But it's not an effective strategy to actually block the legislation."

It also carries political risk. Critics argue that fleeing the state amounts to dereliction of duty, and such moves can alienate moderate voters or energize Republican bases.

The strategy also has no mechanism for enacting structural reform and is doomed to fail to block future gerrymandering, local analysts say.

Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, told NPR that the walkout is happening more often as partisan fights have tightened nationwide, citing similar legislative walkouts in Oregon, Indiana and Minnesota in recent years.

"In the last couple of years, it's become clear that Texas politics is just a reflection of national politics," he said.■