Democrats Coming Back on Own Free Will
for Flood Relief Fight and Shots at Mercy
Capitol Inside
August 13, 2025
The Texas House Democrats are coming back - and now it's official.
Democratic State Rep. Gene Wu of Houston confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that Democrats plans to return from other states for the opening of a new special session that Governor Greg Abbott plans to call to begin the moment the Texas House and Senate drop the curtain on the current gathering five days before it had to fall.
Wu - the Democratic Caucus chair - said the Democrats decided to be on hand for the summer's second special session to fight for disaster preparedness and relief legislation that Abbott and the Republicans relegated to the back burner from the start.
“Today, the Speaker confirmed that a second special session will be called and begin this Friday," Wu said in an email from the caucus. "This could be a reset moment: a chance to finally deliver real solutions for flood victims and fix the broken emergency preparedness system that continues to put every community in Texas at risk.
“It’s been six weeks since the flood, six weeks where working families have waited for relief while Governor Abbott sits on billions in disaster funds, choosing to hold our state hostage for his racist, corrupt redistricting scheme," Wu contended. "Texans are suffering while Greg Abbott chases Donald Trump’s agenda and billionaire donors, ignoring the emergencies facing our neighborhoods."
But the House minority leader raised the specter of a potential olive branch with the Republican governor who's been trying to have him removed from the chamber for his role as the "ringleader" of the walkout that will be ending after 12 days.
“We are ready to fight for flood relief, defend our communities, and invest in the safety Texans deserve," Wu said. "Will the Governor finally work with us for our families in the Second Special Session?”
Abbott was showing no interest in peace talks in an interview with Fox News Digital - saying that the House Democrats who fled the state could face felony bribery charges. But the abrupt decision to pull the plug on the first called session for the sake of starting a second five days sooner may have been a move that was hatched as a way of giving Democrats a path back to save face and escape the extreme punishment that Abbott has vowed to inflict by stripping them of House seats and putting them in prison.
Speaker Dustin Burrows talked tough throughout the walkout but never resorted to the kind of threatening and insulting rhetoric that Abbott aimed repeatedly at the missing Democrats. The speaker who wouldn't have won the gavel without the Democrats refused to respond to several parliamentary inquiries on sanctions for wayward colleagues like stripping them of committee vice-chairmanships and the operating budgets that go with them.
Burrows warned Democrats that they would have to foot the bill for Department of Public Safety overtime expenses for a statewide each that failed to produce a single errant Democrat. The speaker vowed to have DPS agents track down the Democrats and bring them back to Austin with civil arrests warrants. Burrows publicly touted stakeouts at the homes of missing Democrats when they were known to be out of state and posting pictures on Instagram and X to flaunt their defiance.
But there's been nothing at this point to substantiate speculation on behind-the-scene dealings with Democrats that culminated a return to Austin sooner than had been expected.
more to come ...
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