Texas lawmakers have walked out even before current redistricting battle

Since Sunday, Texas Democratic legislators have been embroiled in a face-off against state Republicans and Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor has threatened to oust and replace the representatives for leaving the state to prevent redrawing Texas congressional maps.

But this is not the first time lawmakers have fled the Texas State Capitol avoid voting on a measure they disagreed with, “breaking quorum” by depriving the statehouse of enough legislators to conduct business. They’ve been doing it since 1870 — more than 150 years ago.

Texas state lawmakers last broke quorum in 2021 when Democratic house representatives fled Texas to prevent measures restricting voting options. The measures eventually passed after internal Democratic fissures led to enough representatives returning to form a quorum.

The legislators first stalled the election bill during the regular session through a last-minute walkout. After Abbot called a special session, 57 Democrats fled to Washington, D.C., prompting Republicans to enact a “call of the House,” a procedure which mandates legislators’ attendance at the statehouse and allows the sergeant-at-arms to arrest members within Texas and bring them there.

When one state representative, Philip Cortez, briefly returned to Austin in late July before rejoining the other quorum-breakers out of state, then-House Speaker Dade Phelan signed a civil warrant for his arrest. By that time, however, Cortez was outside of Texas law enforcement’s jurisdiction.

Democrats ran out the clock on the first special session but were not able to keep members from returning to Texas after Abbott called a second.

While a state district judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent Abbott and Phelan from arresting the Democrats, the Texas Supreme Court quickly temporarily blocked that order, allowing Phelan to sign warrants for the 52 remaining absent Democrats. Law enforcement did not actually arrest or detain any of the legislators.

Lawmakers began to trickle back to the state capital, citing various personal and legislative concerns, such as the looming redistricting process that required maps to be approved before November that year. Eventually, the House reached quorum, ending the 38-day walkout and allowing the bill to pass.

State Rep. James Talarico posted on X at the time that he had come back to “clean up Greg Abbott’s latest messes from COVID to ERCOT [the Electric Reliability Council of Texas].”

Some Democrats who remained in Washington were displeased. U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, then a state representative, accused the legislators who returned of “trying to please the Governor and His OPPRESSIVE Agenda.”

Beyond the financial cost, lawmakers faced few consequences once they returned to the state, besides then-speaker Phelan stripping state Rep. Joe Moody of his title of speaker pro tempore Current House. Speaker Dustin Burrows reappointed Moody in 2025.

Democrats in 2021 did not face the $500-a-day fine, a penalty only implemented in 2023 in an effort to dissuade future quorum breaks.

The Texas Tribune reported that Democrats spent around $10,000 a day on lodging and food during the walkout, paid by the House Democratic Caucus, additional fundraising around the quorum break, and out of lawmakers’ pockets. Powered by People, backed by former U.S. Rep and Texas Senate and gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke, gave $600,000 to support their stay in D.C. — the group is also funding the current walkout, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Some 55 Democratic House members also fled the state in 2003 to prevent another Republican redistricting effort. They returned to Texas after waiting out one special session. When then-Gov. Rick Perry called a second special session, 11 Democratic senators left to break quorum again.

Eventually, then-Sen. John Whitmire was the single Democrat who returned to form a quorum. The redistricting plan passed during a third special session. Whitmire said he returned due to a fear that the two-thirds quorum requirement would not hold during a second session, the need to address other political priorities and the lack of a resolution in sight.

State law enforcement searched for the Democrats. University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus told ABC News the FAA tracked planes that were suspected of taking Democrats out of the state, and no formal punishments were levied once they returned.

The New York Times reported at the time that then-Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick asked Texas Rangers to find and bring back the missing Democrats, but they did not have the authority to do so since the legislators were in Oklahoma.

In 1979, 12 Democratic senators fled the state and successfully prevented Republicans from shifting the date of the presidential primary in Texas to allegedly benefit former Texas Gov. John Connally.

Republicans used a call of the house, and then-Lt. Gov. William Hobby Jr. threatened to remove the absent legislators from office, the Washington Post reported at the time.

The Texas Tribune reported that Hobby ordered Texas Rangers and state troopers to find the Democratic lawmakers without success. No senators were arrested, Rottinghaus said.

The senators eventually all returned willingly after Hobby had agreed not to put the measure shifting the primary date to a vote again or arrest any of the legislators.

The first instance of quorum-breaking in Texas took place in 1870, when 13 legislators withdrew from the Senate but remained in the state, according to the Texas State Historical Association. They opposed legislation from the 15 Radical Republican members of the Senate.

The Senate undertook a call of the house, which led to the arrest of nine of the 13 legislators. The remaining four were necessary for quorum, which then allowed for the passage of the Radical Republicans’ legislation.