By Roxanne Szal | This week, more than 50 Democratic members of the Texas House made a wrenching decision: They left their homes, their jobs and their families, and fled the state. Their goal is to deny (or at least delay) Republicans the quorum needed to pass a mid‑decade redistricting plan, which they believe would erode minority voting power and engineer additional GOP seats in Congress.
But what may look like a political standoff is, for many of these lawmakers, an act of personal risk, cost and principle.
“I fled the state today alongside my Democratic colleagues,” wrote Texas state Rep. Linda Garcia in a now-viral Instagram post. “I did it for democracy and I did it with my son.”
Garcia, a first-term lawmaker representing Dallas’ House District 107, isn’t alone. Many of the Democrats who left Austin are mothers, fathers, caretakers, community workers and public servants—people like Rep. Donna Howard, a former ICU nurse, or Rep. James Talarico, a former middle school teacher—who also serve their families.
“To be gone from my family, from my state, is not a happy thing for me. But why I am doing this … it’s immoral and disgusting and outrageous,” Talarico said, describing the effort as a stand, not a stunt.
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