Texas Democratic lawmakers are fleeing the state in a dramatic walkout to block a laundry list of GOP priorities

• Democrats in the Texas House will flee the state en masse to block conservative bills.
• Gov. Greg Abbott convened a special session to pass voting restrictions and other legislation.
• Democrats are now aiming to deny the legislative quorum necessary to move forward on the bills.

Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives have left the state in a dramatic walkout to block a number of conservative priorities from passing in a legislative special session, House Democratic leaders confirmed on Monday.

"Today, Texas House Democrats stand united in our decision to break quorum and refuse to let the Republican-led legislature force through dangerous legislation that would trample on Texans' freedom to vote," leaders of the House Democratic Caucus said in a Monday afternoon statement.

The lawmakers leaving the state on Monday are flying to Washington, DC, on two chartered planes to pressure Congress to pass voting-rights reform bills, the Democratic leaders announced.

Rep. James Talarico posted a photo of himself and Rep. Senfronia Thompson on a tarmac in front of a large airplane on Monday afternoon.

Gov. Greg Abbott convened the special session, which began on July 8, to pass a litany of conservative priorities, including voting reform and legislation targeting abortion access, social-media companies, transgender students participating in school sports, and the teaching of critical race theory in schools.

State House Democrats previously walked out at the end of the last legislative session in order to deny a quorum and run out the clock to pass Senate Bill 7, a bill that included new restrictions on voting and criminal penalties for election officials.

Under the Texas Constitution, a two-thirds majority of lawmakers are required to be present for legislative business to proceed. Texas is one of just a few states where the minority party can leave to deny the quorum necessary to pass legislation.

The lawmakers risked being subject to apprehension by law enforcement, specifically the Texas Rangers, while trying to leave the state.

The last time Texas Democratic lawmakers fled the state to deny a quorum was in 2003, when some legislators went over the border into Oklahoma first in May and then to New Mexico over the summer to try to block the passage of new GOP-drawn congressional maps during a high-stakes fight over redistricting.

A smaller group of Texas Democratic lawmakers went to Congress after the successful walkout to block SB 7 to lobby for the passage of the For the People Act, a sweeping Democratic voting-rights and democracy-reform bill that passed the House but was eventually filibustered in the Senate.

In Texas, Republicans in both chambers passed their proposed election-reform bills out of committee after hearings held over the weekend.

The bills, House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 1, significantly overlap with Senate Bill 7 in adding a new identification requirement for absentee ballots, banning 24-hour and drive-thru voting, prohibiting election officials from sending out unsolicited absentee applications, further criminalizing paid third-party ballot collection, and empowering partisan election observers.

After the walkout, Republicans dropped two of SB 7's controversial provisions from the new bills: one that would have limited early voting hours on Sundays and a measure that would have made it easier for losing candidates to overturn election results.