House GOP Goes through Motions
with Lockdown and Posse for Dems
Capitol Inside
August 4, 2025
Texas House Republicans voted on Monday to lock down the chamber and send state authorities on a search for errant Democrats who flew away to other states on Sunday to prevent a vote on the GOP's congressional redistricting plan in the current special session.
Speaker Dustin Burrows announced after a roll call that the House lacked the quorum the Republicans have to have to vote on a U.S. House map that designed to flip five seats to the GOP in 2026. Burrows said the Democrats deserted their duties in an attempt to cozy up to activists and donors before the Republicans approved a motion to place a call on the House on an 86-6 vote in a move that bars members from leaving without formal excuses while the chamber is in session.
The House also voted 85-6 to authorize the civil arrest of missing Democrats in warrants that Burrows signed immediately. The motions are purely for show when considering that the Democrats are out of their reach in other states. The only House members who are adversely affected by the call on the chamber are the Republicans and Democrats who've gone their on their own free will.
Six Democrats who remained in Austin - State Reps. Terry Canales of Edinburg, Oscar Longoria of Mission, Armando Martinez of Weslaco, Joe Moody of El Paso, Sergio Muñoz and Richard Raymond - accounted for all of the opposition to the motions for a call on the House and a posse on the hunt for Democratic colleagues who they can't actually arrest as long as they're not in Texas.
A seventh Democrat - State Rep. Eddie Morales of Eagle Pass - was reportedly en route to the Capitol City and expected to arrive by Tuesday.
All of the Democrats who remained in Austin represent districts on the border. State Rep. Erin Gamez of Brownsville is the only representative from the Rio Grande Valley who's on the road to protest the GOP's bid for five new congressional seats in Texas. The Democrats on the floor on Monday say they're going to have their absent colleagues' backs and keep their eyes out to prevent ghost votes at missing members' desks.
"I stand in solidarity with them," Canales said of 55 Democrats who left the state to block a vote on the map. Canales said the Democrats who returned to the chamber today are keeping lines of communication open with GOP leaders - having met with Burrows before the House convened at 3 p.m.
Burrows said the walkout would not stop the Republicans from passing their priorities. He said it would simply delay the inevitable. The speaker chided Democrats who were MIA for the floor fight on the map in House Bill 4 - and he promised that they'll face consequences for the quorum-breaking stunt.
But Burrows and the Republicans appeared to be going through the motions with predictable moves and rhetoric that lacked the fire and tension that the original walkout triggered in 2003 when House and Senate Democrats blocked votes on the first-ever mid-decade redistricting effort for five months before a holdout ended.
The motions are purely for show given that the Democrats are long gone and way out of any Texas lawman's reach. It would not be a first if the state police nabbed a Democrat who tried to sneak back into the state. But the Democrats have a cushion with three more holdouts than they need to block a quorum and vote on the GOP map.
A call of the House has become a tradition for the Republicans in the west wing in Austin - having voted to do so in 2003 and 2021 when Democrats bolted to prevent a vote on an election security measure aimed at giving the GOP an added advantage in 2022. Such a motion makes no sense because it only affects members who've gone to the floor because they want to be there. A call on the House would only be effective as an element of surprise.
more to come ...
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