AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Legislature closed the books on the third added special legislative session of the year — marking nearly 10 months of Texas Democrats battling it out against Texas Republicans’ campaign of terror in our Capitol. In this special session, much like the past two, Gov. Greg Abbott spent taxpayer money attacking Texans — doing everything to pander to rightwing voters ahead of a tough primary, and nothing to address the biggest issues facing Texans.
Fixing the grid, getting more people health care, curbing COVID-19 — for the third time in a row, none of these urgent issues made it onto Abbott’s legislative agenda. Instead, here’s what Republicans did over yet another taxpayer-funded extra legislative session:
- Republicans ran a racist redistricting process to once again erode Texans’ ability to fairly choose our representatives. Texas gained two more congressional seats after the 2020 Census — which put 95% of the state’s growth over the last decade within communities of color. Yet the GOP’s backwards redistricting process yielded more majority-white districts, and not a single new competitive district. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) has already filed suit against every single one of these Republican maps.
- Republicans once again attacked children, passing a hateful bill banning trans kids from playing sports on teams that match their gender identity. The bill’s author was not able to point to a single child who benefits from this cruel bill, while kids, parents, and advocates have already testified at length on the harm this bill will do — and the harm already done by the legislature through their transphobic and misinformed debates on the topic. With H.B. 25, Texas Republicans once again legislated hate.
- Republicans went to new lengths of government overreach, with Greg Abbott bowing to both extremist primary voters and despicable Lt. Gov Dan Patrick. Abbott hijacked the legislature by cramming multiple late items into the session’s calendar with just days to go in the session — once again forcing lawmakers to further Abbott’s personal agenda rather than attend to the business of the people.
Texas Democratic Party Co-Executive Director Jamarr Brown issued the following statement:
“For the fourth time this year, Texans are watching their lawmakers wrap up a legislative session that had nothing to do with Texas’ biggest issues and everything to do with advancing Greg Abbott’s political career. Texas Republicans spent the last month making life harder for kids and gerrymandering Black and Brown Texans out of their rightful voting power — because clearly, Republican politicians are perfectly happy to put kids in danger and silence voters if it helps them win elections.
“What’s almost as shocking is what they didn’t do. Republicans didn’t get our power grid fixed in time for winter, they didn’t get health care coverage to the millions of Texans who are going without, and they didn’t make a scrap of progress towards ending this pandemic. For the millionth time this year: Texans deserve better. And with barely a year to go until the November 2022 elections, Texas Democrats are mobilizing our communities now to make sure this year in power is the last for Greg Abbott and his many accomplices.”
