The runaway Texas Democrats are likely returning home. Or maybe not.
One report from Houston local news media, citing unnamed sources, says the Dems believe they've accomplished their mission by increasing national public awareness of the Texas redistricting effort they walked out of the state Capitol to avoid. However, Democrats have not confirmed the report.
The Texas Legislature was called by Governor Greg Abbott to special session for more than a dozen initiatives, the two most important of which are redistricting and providing relief for victims of Independence Day flooding in the Hill Country.
The Governor set redistricting, the redrawing of maps for national congressional districts, as the top priority, possibly because if he had set flooding relief as first on the agenda, Democrats would walk out when the redistricting debate began.
Indeed, Democrats walked out when the redistricting agenda was set, allowing both sides to complain about partisan politics.
The Democrats' "quorum break" was apparently orchestrated by national party leaders, who arranged for the Texas absconders to take part in photo opportunities with California Governor Gavin Newsom, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, all three of whom may be considered front-runners for the Democrats' presidential primary in 2028.
Governor Abbott has already called for the arrest of the missing Democrats because of their absence the resulting obstruction of official business by the state Legislature.
It remains to be seen if the Democrats are arrested and brought to the Capitol, as Texas Rangers and other law enforcement officials have been ordered to do by state officials.