Texas Congressional leaders respond to state Democrats leaving

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - Texas elected officials at all levels are reacting to state Democrats leaving Austin to break quorum during the special session.

Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn said he strongly disagrees with state Democrats’ view on voting integrity legislation. Senate Bill 1 covers many issues related to elections in the state, and is one of the main reason state democratic lawmakers fled to Washington, D.C.

“This idea that somehow the Texas election laws are suppressing the rights of people to vote is just simply not borne out by the facts,” said Cornyn during a media call on Thursday.

Cornyn said there is a lot of misinformation about Texas voting reform. He believes the true motives of the Texas Democratic Caucus is not protecting the right to vote but instead political gain.

“What these Texas legislators want to do is to not debate and vote on bills in Austin, but rather ask Chuck Schummer and Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden to have a federal takeover of state elections,” said Cornyn.

U.S. District 17 Representative Pete Sessions, a republican who represents the Brazos Valley in Congress, agrees. He also believes the party is also afraid to make a vote on tough issues.

“They are afraid to make a vote on very tough issues and the Democratic party in Texas is not up for that,” said Sessions.

“They are cowards, and they move away from doing their job to abdicating, so they don’t have to take the vote. "

Both Sessions and Cornyn believe state lawmakers should stay in Austin and work this out.

“I have never believed that you should walk away from your job and walk away from your state,” said Sessions.

“What these legislators need to do is what I have to do, even as a member of the minority in the federal government, is go in and make the best argument I can, cast my vote,” said Cornyn.

“Sometimes, I’m going to lose that vote, but then you can address that issue in the next election and that’s ultimately going to be up to the voters to decide who is on the right side of these issues.”

Texas Democrats said walking out and going to Washington is doing their job as a lawmaker.

“It is within the rules of the house that we can break quorum,” said District 137 Democratic State Representative Gene Wu.

“This is a rule, a procedure, created to protect the minority. This is a rule created to do exactly what we’re doing now.”

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