Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that democratic lawmakers who left the state “will be arrested” upon their return.
As reported by Human Events News, at least 59 Texas House democrats left the state on Monday to deny the republican-controlled legislature the quorum needed to pass voting legislation.
The democrats were set to fly on two chartered planes to Washington D.C, and will have to remain out of state for several weeks to avoid voting during the 30-day special legislative session, called to order by Abbott.
“First of all, I’ll tell you what the House of Representatives can do. What the speaker can do is issue a call to have these members arrested,” Abbott said in an interview, according to Newsweek.
“In addition to that, however, I can and I will continue to call a special session after special session after special session all the way up until the election next year. And so if these people want to be hanging out wherever they’re hanging out on this taxpayer-paid junket, they’re going to have to be prepared to do it for well over a year,” he continued.
“As soon as they come back in the state of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be cabined inside the Texas Capitol until they get their job done,” he added. “Everybody who has a job must show up to do that job, just like your viewers watching right now. State representatives have that same responsibility.”
The agenda for the special session includes 11 bills from the previous session, including a bill which seeks to “reduce the likelihood of fraud in the conduct of elections.”
Similar to the one passed in Georgia, the Texas election law would ban curbside voting, limit dropbox usage and create new requirements for early voting. Additionally, it would ban unsolicited vote-by-mail applications and ballot harvesting.
Other bills include concerns on whether schools can teach critical race theory, and one that would prohibit people from providing “abortion-inducing drugs by mail or delivery service.”
