East Texas party leaders react to Democrats breaking quorum in State House

TYLER, Texas (KETK) – As Democrats in the Texas State House have left the state in order to prevent the passage of new congressional maps, KETK caught up with East Texas party leaders to get their take on the situation.

On Monday, the Texas House of Representatives was stopped in the midst of a special session as more than fifty Democratic State Representatives left the state to deny the legislature a quorum, or the necessary amount of members for the chamber to meet.

The move was prompted by a Republican-led effort to redraw the state’s map of districts for U.S. House of Representatives members to create an additional five Republican seats in the national legislature.

KETK’s Nolan Hoffman spoke with Smith County Democratic Party Chair Hector Garza on Wednesday. Garza said he supports his fellow Democrats in the Texas State Legislature.

“I support them, I really do. This is a tit for tat. It goes back and forth, Nolan,” Garza said. “If you if you look at the legislative session that just passed, the 89th session, the Republicans have done something very similar. They abruptly ended the session before they could get a final vote on the Epstein files, etc. So one party does it. Why are they so surprised that the other party’s doing it?”

Following the Democrats’ departure, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has asked the Texas Supreme Court to vacate the seat of Texas Democratic House Leader Rep. Gene Wu, a move legal scholars said is unprecedented and lacks legal basis. Garza said the trouble Democrats could face is worth it.

“Just to make the stand, just to say, ‘look, we won’t go quietly into the night,’ just to say ‘we have a voice,’ to try to keep the voice. In the end, we may end up with the inevitable to where a session is called and another session is called, and we may end up with it anyway. Them standing up and saying we won’t take it lying down,” Garza said. “The the black and the Hispanic vote is really, really at stake here and all they’re doing is showing their constituents we’re going to try we’re going to push hard for you. We’re going to make a stand if it costs us money, if it costs us whatever, whatever the outcome may be, it’s worth it to us to show you that we represent you.”

Nolan also spoke with Smith County Republican Party Chair David Stein. Stein compared the Democrats’ departure from the state to a repeat of a sitcom, since quorums have been broken before, most recently in 2021.

“This is like a repeat of an episode from a 1960 sitcom. This is what they do. They’ve done it before. They’ll keep doing it,” Stein said. “Unfortunately, elections have consequences, as we were reminded by Barack Obama in 2008, and when you have a party in power, they can do this when they redistrict. This is something they can do. It’s not illegal. Democrats have done it for years.”

When asked about Abbott’s effort to vacate Wu’s seat, Stein said that he hopes the Democrats will respond to the legal challenge and come back to Texas to continue the legislature’s work.

“I hope that they respond,” Stein said. “They need to come back to Texas and do their job even though they don’t like it. That’s what you do. You come back, you fight as best as you can, and some you’re going to win and some you’re going to lose.”

To watch Nolan’s full interviews with Stein and Garza, check out the respective videos above.