The state lawmakers are searching for suits and hoping any of it will matter.<\/b>
\nOn their first morning in Washington, almost all the Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives walked up Capitol Hill just before 10 a.m. Some had arrived in D.C. on Monday evening; others were fresh off the plane. As the members passed a small crowd of reporters and Texan Hill staffers, Rep. Ramon Romero of Fort Worth raised his hand in a fist. They\u2019d come to D.C. to take the last (and most dramatic) action available to them to stop their home state of Texas from passing sweeping restrictions on voting rights. The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature is ready to pass the bill, so more than 50 Democrats in the Texas House fled to D.C. to withhold the quorum required to pass a bill. They must stay out of the state for the rest of the 30-day special legislative session called by Gov. Greg Abbott. Their plan for their first day included a short press conference, then lobbying senators and members of Congress to pass federal voting rights legislation that would supersede what the Republicans in the Texas Legislature are trying to pass. Before the Democrats could get to their first meetings on the Hill, their Republican colleagues in Austin voted to authorize warrants for their arrest. \u201cI was lightheaded yesterday, and before I even went to bed, I was thinking, you know, this is a lot that we\u2019re risking,\u201d said first-term Rep. Claudia Ordaz Perez, who wore cowboy boots embossed with her name and the seal of El Paso. \u201cSo I\u2019m putting it in perspective, and I do my prayers every night, and I just recognize how important this is.\u201d Rep. Rhetta Bowers of Dallas said she\u2019d been thinking of her children, both of whom are now registered voters. \u201cIf this isn\u2019t standing up and working hard for your constituents, I don\u2019t know what is,\u201d she said. \u201cTo make a sacrifice like this, with uncertainty, and have to truly walk by faith and not by sight, to just truly put your heart out there and say we won\u2019t stand for this.\u201d If they return to Texas in the next month, they risk arrest and a mandated return to the House, at which point Republicans could push the legislation through. Members who spoke at the press conference urged Senate Democrats to suspend the filibuster on the single issue of voting rights, which would allow the passage of the For the People Act, the federal voting rights bill that died by Republican filibuster in June. Rep. Rafael Anch\u00eda of Dallas, the chairman of the Texas House\u2019s Mexican American caucus, told Slate that he\u2019s prepared to do whatever it takes to urge his fellow Democrats to make a bold move: either reauthorizing the parts of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court struck down, as the John Lewis Voting Rights Act would do, or passing the broader For the People Act. \u201cWe can\u2019t go back unless Congress acts. That\u2019s the bottom line,\u201d Anch\u00eda said. \u201cWe came to Washington to really beg them to act. We need their help.\u201d Anch\u00eda, who wore jeans and a sport coat, was set to meet with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer later in the day. But first, he planned to run a few errands. \u201cI need to go to Marshalls and buy some clothes,\u201d he said. \u201cI literally just flew in. I don\u2019t have a proper suit. So I need to go buy a tie, a shirt, and a suit.\u201d When pressed on whether that would be enough for a full month in D.C., he conceded, \u201cOK, fine, underwear and socks.\u201d No matter how dapper Anch\u00eda looks at his meetings, the two Democratic senators standing in the way of suspending the filibuster\u2014Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema\u2014are unlikely to change their minds. But the Texans frame their efforts as a way to buy time for their D.C. counterparts to figure out a way forward, given that Manchin and Sinema nominally support the legislation at hand, if not the means required to pass it. Anch\u00eda hopes these Senate Democrats could assume the role of the civil rights heroes they claim to idolize. As they engage in a kind of civil disobedience to forestall one of the worst of the sets of voting restrictions that have popped up in Republican-controlled legislatures around the country, the Texas Democrats intend to situate their fight in the long history of civil rights battles for the ballot. At their press conference on Tuesday, the members were visibly moved by the statement of Rep. Senfronia Thompson of Houston, who\u2019s served in the Texas House since 1973. She spoke of seeing the new-to-her African American history museum in D.C., which called to mind \u201cthe struggle of my people\u201d to secure the franchise. \u201cThese Republicans in this Legislature may have changed the messiah from Jesus to Trump, but I haven\u2019t,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m gonna make sure that I do everything I can do so that my constituents\u2019 rights will not be stripped from them.\u201d As the press conference wrapped up, Thompson led the members in a rendition of \u201cWe Shall Overcome.\u201d (The song has become a hallmark of the group\u2019s press appearances.) \u201cWe will overcome,\u201d Thompson told Slate. \u201cIt is an inspirational song that we sing to reignite, and to keep the hope within us.\u201d In her 25 terms in the Texas House, Thompson has seen the same efforts to curtail women\u2019s rights and voting rights arise over and over again. New classes of Republican legislators come into office, but the attempts never cease. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit repulsive,\u201d Thompson said, of bearing witness to nearly five decades of Republicans attempting to prevent communities of color from voting. \u201cWhy should I always have to struggle for my rights?\u201d The emotional appeal may be the only route left for Thompson, her colleagues, and other Democrats who see this moment as a turning point for U.S. democracy. Manchin and Sinema already have all the facts. They\u2019ve shown no willingness to budge. Now, they\u2019ll have to tell a crowd of fugitive Texan legislators singing a civil rights protest song that their extreme measures to protect the franchise will be for naught.<\/p>\n