The major­i­ty of the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus in Texas decamped from the state capi­tol in Austin today to the fed­er­al Dis­trict of Colum­bia in an effort to block Gov­er­nor Greg Abbot­t’s allies in the Texas Leg­is­la­ture from pass­ing a sweep­ing vot­er sup­pres­sion bill that would dis­en­fran­chise mil­lions of Texans.

By walk­ing out, Demo­c­ra­t­ic state rep­re­sen­ta­tives are leav­ing the Texas State House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives with­out a con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly required quo­rum, which means that the House can­not con­duct any floor busi­ness, includ­ing pass­ing the vot­er sup­pres­sion bill that Abbott has demand­ed the Leg­is­la­ture send him.

Democ­rats used char­tered air­craft to trans­port them­selves out of state, pre­sum­ably to ensure a smooth and easy trip to the Dis­trict of Columbia.

There, the Demo­c­ra­t­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tives intend to wait out Abbott and the Repub­li­cans. It could be a long wait, as Abbott might sim­ply call anoth­er spe­cial ses­sion to extend the clock that Democ­rats are try­ing to run out.

“We will not stand by and watch Repub­li­cans slash our right to vote, silence the voic­es of Tex­ans of col­or, and destroy our democ­ra­cy — all to pre­serve their own pow­er,” said Gilber­to Hino­josa, chair­man of the Texas Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, explain­ing why the par­ty’s state rep­re­sen­ta­tives took the action that they did.

Vot­ing rights aren’t all that is at stake. Democ­rats actu­al­ly have the abil­i­ty to block Texas from regress­ing on mul­ti­ple fronts by leav­ing the state.

“Mon­day’s walk­out will endan­ger a host of oth­er con­ser­v­a­tive pri­or­i­ties that Abbott added to the agen­da of the spe­cial ses­sion that began Thurs­day: bor­der secu­ri­ty, trans­gen­der stu­dent-ath­letes, crit­i­cal race the­o­ry, abor­tion reg­u­la­tions and com­plaints that social media com­pa­nies are cen­sor­ing con­ser­v­a­tives,” Nicole Cobler Chuck Lin­dell and John C. Moritz wrote for the Austin Amer­i­can-States­man.

Abbott and top Repub­li­cans react­ed angri­ly to the walk­out, pep­per­ing their com­ments with insults and threats and demand­ing capitulation.

In the com­ing days, we can expect to hear a lot about how awful these Demo­c­ra­t­ic state rep­re­sen­ta­tives are from right wing media fig­ures, with absolute­ly no admis­sion or men­tion of the fact that in Ore­gon, Repub­li­cans have used the exact same tac­tic to block leg­is­la­tion that they do not like. 

You won’t find any nation­al Repub­li­cans con­demn­ing their Ore­gon brethren, of course, because it’s okay if you’re a Repub­li­can (this is known as the IOKIYAR prin­ci­ple for short.) As far as Repub­li­cans are con­cerned, walk­outs are only bad and only con­demnable when done by leg­isla­tive Democrats.

In most states, a minor­i­ty walk­out would actu­al­ly have no real effect on a leg­isla­tive body’s abil­i­ty to func­tion because a quo­rum is a major­i­ty. The par­ty that has the major­i­ty can thus always ful­fill its state con­sti­tu­tion­al quo­rum require­ments. This is the case in Wash­ing­ton, but not in Ore­gon or Texas.

Since Texas has super­ma­jor­i­ty quo­rum require­ments, out­num­bered leg­isla­tive Democ­rats have lever­age. But they can only use their lever­age if they’re not in Texas. If they are in Texas, they risk being arrest­ed and trans­port­ed back to the Capi­tol by the Sergeant-At-Arms or Texas law enforce­ment dep­u­tized by the Sergeant-At-Arms. Out­side of Texas, Abbott, his ally Dade Phe­lan (R‑Beaumont) and Texas law enforce­ment offi­cers lack jurisdiction.

In D.C., Texas House Democ­rats hope to raise aware­ness of what Abbott and Phe­lan are try­ing to do to vot­ing rights in Texas, and lob­by in sup­port of the For The Peo­ple Act, which Sen­ate Repub­li­cans recent­ly filibustered.

Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris con­grat­u­lat­ed the law­mak­ers on their move.

“I applaud them stand­ing for the rights of all Amer­i­cans and all Tex­ans to express their voice through their vote, unen­cum­bered,” she said in com­ments made from Detroit. “They are lead­ers who are march­ing in the path that so many oth­ers before did, when they fought and many died for our right to vote.”

Lever­ag­ing unde­mo­c­ra­t­ic quo­rum require­ments to pro­tect vot­ing rights seems about the best pos­si­ble use of what is essen­tial­ly a fil­i­bus­ter­ing type of tac­tic. Democ­ra­cy in Texas will all but dis­ap­pear if Repub­li­cans suc­ceed in their aim of pre­vent­ing peo­ple who don’t sup­port their agen­da in the Lone Star State from vot­ing in 2022 and future elec­tion cycles.