Late on August 22, insects circled lights outside the Texas state capitol as lawmakers milled inside the Senate chamber. At the behest of President Donald Trump, Texas Republicans introduced a mid-decade redistricting bill to redraw the congressional map and likely gain five additional U.S. House seats. More than fifty House Democrats fled the state to delay the vote and draw national attention, then returned to face quick passage by the Republican majority. The plan moved to the state Senate, where strict filibuster rules and a substantial Republican majority shaped Senator Carol Alvarado's last-ditch filibuster effort. Texas women have been notable filibusterers; in 2013 Wendy Davis spoke for nearly thirteen hours attempting to delay legislation.
A few weeks earlier, at the behest of President Donald Trump, Texas Republicans had introduced a mid-decade redistricting bill, redrawing the congressional map to give the party the likelihood of five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Without the proposed changes, Republicans were at an "extreme risk" of losing the House, Ken King, a representative from the Texas Panhandle and the bill's author, said. The bill was a shoo-in in the Republican-dominated Texas legislature.
To protest it, a contingent of more than fifty Democrats in the Texas House had fled the state, delaying the vote and drumming up national interest. After two weeks in Illinois and elsewhere, they returned to Texas, where the Republican majority quickly passed the bill. Yet the Democrats claimed a kind of victory. "The quorum break was beyond our wildest dreams," Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said.
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