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Update (0930ET): Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has vowed to arrest the Democrat lawmakers who fled the state in an attempt to stop an overhaul of election laws...

“As soon as they come back in the state of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be cabined inside the Texas capitol until they get their job done,” Abbott said.


Texas Democrats fled their state on private jets Monday in order to stop Republicans in the state from passing their voting rights bills through the state legislature.
‘Today, Texas House Democrats stand united in our decision to break quorum and refuse to let the Republican-led legislature force through dangerous legislation that would trample on Texans’ freedom to vote,’ the Texas state House Democratic caucus said in a statement.

At least 58 Democratic lawmakers left Austin to fly to Washington D.C. on two private jets chartered for the occasion and will use the time in the nation’s Capitol to rally support for federal voting legislation.

The Democrats’ departure paralyzed the Texas state house as the legislature requires a quorum of two-thirds of lawmakers be present to conduct business. It’s also akin to a move Democrats used in 2003 when they fled to neighboring Oklahoma to block Republicans‘ plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts.