AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The sudden end of Texas Democrats’ 38-day walkout has put Republicans back on a fast track to pass a sweeping voting bill and is causing rifts among some Democrats who said Friday they felt “betrayed” by colleagues who returned to the state Capitol.
Texas is the last big GOP-controlled state that has not passed more restrictive voting laws driven by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. But it is now likely only a matter of weeks after enough Democratic lawmakers ended their holdout Thursday to restore a quorum — by the slimmest of margins — in the state House of Representatives.
It broke a stalemate that brought the Texas Capitol to a standstill, and already Republicans are working fast to advance a sweeping bill to the House floor as early as Monday. The collapse of Democrats’ holdout frustrated a faction that appeared ready to torpedo the bill for a third time in Texas, even though a commanding GOP majority in the Texas statehouse made it unlikely that Democrats could permanently stop the bill from passing.
Nearly three dozen Democrats — which amounts to more than half the group that fled to Washington, D.C., in July — signed onto a statement that did not say whether they would now return but took aim at the few who already did.
