AUSTIN — The latest special session of the Texas Legislature could come to a close on Friday without a single law being passed. Gov. Greg Abbott called the session initially under the pretense of sorting out the fine print on an unpopular law doubling down on the state’s THC ban, but an unusual mid-decade redistricting scheme prompted by President Trump has taken up the bulk of legislator’s time and attention.
Democrats in the state House of Representatives have made headlines around the country for leaving the state in protest, using a tool from the Texas Constitution called a quorum break. On Tuesday, state senators followed suit, and a majority of Democrats in the upper chamber walked out in hopes of grinding the redistricting process to a halt.
State Sen. César Blanco of El Paso, who represents the Big Bend, has been vocal in his support of the quorum breakers — and joined in the protest on Tuesday with his colleagues. He was deeply disappointed that Abbott had chosen to make redistricting a priority, rather than addressing urgent flood prevention and emergency preparedness needs laid bare by the deadly July 4 floods in Central Texas. “Texans overwhelmingly want lawmakers focused on flood relief and disaster preparedness first,” Blanco wrote in a statement. “Yet Republicans are spending valuable time on an unpopular scheme to redraw political maps — something voters across Texas don’t see as a priority.”
The Big Bend’s representative in the House, Eddie Morales, echoed his statements from last week’s coverage in The Sentinel — he opposed redistricting, but also didn’t support the quorum breaking tactic, believing that it violated his promise to voters to be a “voice for all.”
“Texans deserve flood relief. Texans deserve property tax relief,” Morales said in a statement. “Texans deserve access to affordable healthcare. Texans deserve to be free from government overreach. Yet, this is not what this ‘emergency’ special session is about, otherwise, these issues would have been the first on the calendar, not this redistricting effort.”