The Texas House approved a new congressional map on Wednesday that is expected to net Republicans five additional seats in the House of Representatives after the upcoming midterm elections.
The map, which passed with all 88 Republican House members voting in favor, caps a weeks-long saga in which dozens of Democratic lawmakers fled the state to prevent the state legislature from conducting business. The new map will head to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk for a final signature.
Rogue Democrats returned to Texas earlier this week, ending their protest after collectively racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for purposely breaking quorum and leaving the state legislature unable to conduct business.
During their boycott of the legislature, the Democratic lawmakers rallied support for their cause from Democrats in other states. Several Democratic governors have voiced support for gerrymandering their state maps in retribution.
On Monday, Texas Republicans mandated that Democrats who fled must receive passes to leave the House chamber. Each lawmaker would also be assigned an officer from the Texas Department of Public Safety to ensure that they returned to the chamber on time for each session.
A handful of Democratic lawmakers stayed overnight in the House chamber in protest of the new rules. State Rep. Nicole Collier received a call and encouragement from former Vice President Kamala Harris for spending the night on the chamber floor. Texas Democrats later posted a video of the call online.
“You really are inspiring so many people, and I just want you to know that you are among those who history will reveal to have been heroes of this moment,” Harris said. “So, you just stay strong and do what you are doing.”
Republican Rep. Brian Harrison criticized Democratic theatrics around the passage of the new map on Wednesday morning.
“These crocodile tears and bad, bad kabuki theater coming from the Democrats right now is just pathetic,” said Harrison in an interview on Fox News. “Quite frankly, my fourth grader’s production of ‘Shrek’ last year had better acting.”
“These Democrats are pretending they don’t like redrawing maps for partisan political purposes, but the reality is Democrat state after Democrat state has been doing this for decades,” he added. “The dirty little secret is they’re only objecting now because it’s Republican states that are finally doing it.”
