GOP Speaker Who Dems Carried to Victory
Says All Options Open for Walkout Payback
Capitol Inside
August 3, 2025
Dozens of Texas House Democrats left Governor Greg Abbott and the Republicans in Austin howling in their wake on Sunday night after fleeing to the friendly confines of Illinois in a move designed to bust a quorum and prevent a vote on a congressional redistricting plan in special session during the next two weeks.
GOP State Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park sought to take the lead in calls for the Democrats who are absent to be punished severely with the loss of vice-chairmanships and their offices at the Capitol. Republican activists demanded swift and merciless retaliation including the ouster of Democrats who break quorum from the Legislature's lower chamber.
Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows sought to mimic Democrats when he parroted a line they'd used increasingly in the past week with threats of walking out if the ruling Republicans pushed forward with the remap effort that they'd initiated with marching orders from President Donald Trump last month.
"The Texas House will be convening at 3:00pm tomorrow," Burrows said in a post on X. "If a quorum is not present then, to borrow the recent talking points from some of my Democrat colleagues, all options will be on the table. . ."
But the Democrats were long passed the point of no return when Burrows rolled out the threatening rhetoric on social media tonight. And the speaker knows that he couldn't have won the gavel in January if Democrats hadn't pushed him over the top. Burrows knows that no speaker in the GOP era has ever claimed the post without most or all of the Democrats in their corner.
He could be putting his chances for a second term in the dais at considerable risk if has the House Republicans seek revenge for a situation they clearly created on an issue on which they think they're entitled by virtue of their status as members of the majority.
Democrats laughed off the ferocious rhetoric from the Republicans on the collective disappearing act - taking shots on flights to Chicago at Trump, Abbott and the entire redistricting effort as a cheap and lazy way to rig an election the GOP members couldn't win on the current playing field.
"There was a time when a Texas governor wouldn't be afraid to tell the president, any president, 'Don't mess with Texas,'" State Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie wrote tonight on his X page. "But Greg Abbott is too subservient and too weak to do that to Donald Trump."
State Rep. John Bucy of Austin was long gone when he sent a warning from the air. "Right now, I’m on a plane to Chicago," Bucy said. "We’re breaking quorum because we refuse to allow Donald Trump and Governor Abbott to rig congressional maps to cling to power. If they’re going to try to cheat — we’re going to make it hurt."
While Democrats ignored the threatening rhetoric, GOP State Rep. Tom Oliverson of Cypress endorsed the speaker's vague threat. "I enthusiastically support this message," Oliverson, who ran for speaker without success, said tonight. "Not our first rodeo either, having learned a lot from 2021. I am confident in Speaker @Burrows4TX ’s leadership that “all options” is a statement that should be taken very seriously by my colleagues!"
more to come ...
| 
