Texas House Democrats spent weeks on the run in an attempt to derail a GOP mid-decade redistricting plan that would work in Republicans' favor — and now they’re being punished.
“Democrats finally made their way back home from their safe havens of Illinois and New York. And you know, these leftists, they come back with their tail tucked between their legs after just acting like children,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments, annoyed.
“They got upset that Mom and Dad gave a rule that they didn’t like, and they were like, ‘I’m going to pack my bag and I’m going to run away, because I don’t want to listen to your stupid rules,’” she continues.
And in true childlike fashion, the Democrats are now getting upset that as a result of their actions, they’re being treated like children.
“One of the very little things — the very few things — that the speaker of the House, Dustin Burrows here in the state of Texas, did was to implement a rule for these Democrats that they would only be allowed to leave the chamber under certain circumstances,” Gonzales explains.
“You want to be children? We’ll treat you like children. So just like at school, you need a hall pass. Okay? You need a permission slip that is signed, and then and only then, you can be surveilled by a Department of Public Safety officer,” she continues.
“Go do whatever you need to do. That’s fine. They won’t go in the bathroom stall with you. Okay?" she continues. "But they’re going to be watching you and make sure that you don’t go off and pull the stunt that you just proved that you have no problem pulling."
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Texas House Democrats fled the Lone Star State earlier this month to deny their colleagues the necessary number of bodies for a quorum, thereby temporarily preventing Republicans from passing new congressional lines and gaining five more congressional pickup opportunities ahead of the midterm elections.
Following the Democratic lawmakers' departure, Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) signed arrest warrants for the absentee legislators and Gov. Greg Abbott (R) ordered their arrests by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
State Democrats — having likely recognized the futility of their flight — finally slunk back to Texas this week.
'You are among those who history will reveal to have been heroes of this moment.'
To leave the Texas Capitol building on Monday, Democrats apparently had to obtain written permission from Burrows and agree to be escorted by a DPS trooper. Rather than agree to the safeguard, some Democrats decided instead to engage in what Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison (R) referred to as "crocodile tears and bad, bad Kabuki theater" — throwing fits, tearing up their permission slips in front of reporters, and camping out in the statehouse.
State Rep. Nicole Collier really made a show of her sleepover — telling CBS News she refuses "to comply with this unreasonable, un-American, and unnecessary request" and sharing a photo online of her snug in a chair in the state House with a pillow, a sleep mask, and a blanket.
These theatrics attracted the attention of twice-failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who called to paint Collier's sleepover as heroic.
"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," said Harris. "So you just stay strong and do what you are doing. You have the right instinct. You are talented, and you are principled."
Harris noted further in a tweet, "Nicole, we are all in that chamber with you."
Taking the lead from Collier, Democratic Texas Rep. Mihaela Plesa and a handful of other Democrats returned to the chamber to virtue-signal and tear up their permission slips.
On Wednesday, another failed Democratic presidential candidate piped up in support of the sleepover Democrats.
Hillary Clinton stated, "I stand with state Rep. Nicole Collier and other Texas Democrats on the front lines of protecting American democracy. In a free country, state lawmakers don't get held hostage by the opposition."
Clinton's suggestion that the Democrats were protecting democracy misses the point of the confinement and police escort — namely that the Texas Democrats have been trying to thwart the democratic process and the people's will.
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Don’t threaten me with a good time, Texas.
If you are going to issue arrest warrants for the Democrat traitors, then somebody better get arrested. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
If we don’t fight for the good, the true, and the beautiful, we risk far more than elections
We’re not just living through political dysfunction — we’re slogging through a cold civil war. And it’s time we started acting like it. Just war theory demands it.
Augustine developed the theory for a Christianized Roman empire that needed to distinguish the rules of the “City of God” from those of the city of man. Today, America must reclaim that tradition — not to excuse evil for the sake of good, but to return to our foundational, God-ordained principles.
To what degree can we become the shining city on a hill that the founders intended while being mere sinners? Since the values that defined such a city existed long before the American experiment was ever tried, we were clearly meant to rely on the rigorous application of self-evident truths — not to reinvent the wheel.
We have a duty to defend the integrity of our worldview — contrary to what your sweater-vested beta-male pastor may have told you. When the laws of nature and nature’s God are under attack, we are biblically called to offer up reasons for the hope that is in us.
When we don’t, we don’t just forfeit hope; we invite its opposite — despair — which has so often been the case in recent years. We must choose: the way of men or the way of cowards.
Yes, Trump won in 2024, and life is indeed better than it was a very short while ago. But make no mistake: We are still under attack.
That’s why we need a renewed just war theory for America’s current plight.
Whereas the spirit of the age — via its primary political vehicle, the Democratic Party — has willfully broken the social compact that once bound us together as a people;
And whereas that same spirit has made clear through both policy and rhetoric that it has no interest in restoring that compact;
Therefore, we no longer owe deference to any tradition, legal fiction, or gesture toward comity that no longer binds us. To pretend otherwise is to either lose the cold civil war or start a hot one that our children will be forced to fight.
We won’t do that to them. We will do the hard things now so that they may live free.
Therefore, our new rules of engagement are as follows: We will do everything it takes to win, other than what the ultimate judge of our fates explicitly forbids in his word. But short of that, we will do everything else to the greatest degree and with maximum prejudice when necessary.
We prefer cold civil wars when our side wins and the other side loses.
No more furrowed-brow “nicer-than-God” poses from the Mike Pence school of surrender. No more ackshuallys. No more arguing like the earth is flat.
Our domestic enemies hate us. They want to enslave our children. We must defeat them — without apology.
Remember that iconic line from “Independence Day”?
You will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution — but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist. … We will not go quietly into the night!
If the fictional American president played by Bill Pullman in “Independence Day” could get us out of our seats with such a message, maybe it’s time we recommit ourselves to such a message possibility in real life.
That’s the prime directive. And after taking a bullet to the face and rising to shout “Fight, fight, fight!” it’s one that Donald Trump has recommitted to — body and soul.
Every tactic and strategy must now be filtered through that lens.
Because if we don’t fight for the good, the true, and the beautiful, we risk far more than elections. We risk our eternal souls.
RELATED: What Texas Dems are now saying after arrest warrants were issued for fleeing the state
Our enemies are deadly wolves, and they know what they are doing. Elizabeth Warren didn’t just accidentally find herself next to a foreign-born, communist, Islamic rainbow jihadist in New York and decide to brand him as the new face of her party.
She did it because she is making plans for your destruction.
So yes, we need to start arresting traitors in Texas. And that should only be the beginning of what we’re prepared to do because we love God, our children, and our future.
In a bold move, some Texas Democratic state representatives have fled the state in order to block a vote on a congressional map that would redraw Texas voting districts to create five more areas likely to elect Republicans. Despite Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's threats of arrests and removal from office, all but two Democrats have remained in other states, specifically Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts, claiming that the redistricting vote is full of Republican gerrymandering.
To find out what can be done about the Texas Democrats' refusal to return for the redistricting vote, Glenn Beck invited Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) to “The Glenn Beck Program.”
“It's pretty ironic that they're going to Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts – three of the most liberal states and some of the most gerrymandered states in the country,” says Paxton.
His preference would have been for Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) to “shut the doors” and force a vote. “Once the doors are locked, you can't get out, and you spend the night there, and you vote,” Paxton tells Glenn.
But now that that ship has sailed, Texas is forced to choose from inferior options.
Option one is “arrest them,” but this poses complications as Texas is “not going to get help from jurisdictions like Illinois [or] Boston.”
“So arresting them is not a likely scenario until they come back,” says Paxton.
Option two, which Paxton says has proved successful in the past, is to “[wait] them out.”
“Ultimately, many of them have to come back. They have jobs, they have families. They're not going to live in Illinois,” he says.
“So they come back, and we vote, and every time we've ultimately been successful.”
Option three is to employ something called quo warranto, which is a legal action used to challenge someone's right to hold a public office or position.
“It might be a way to take existing members out of their positions if they fail to show up to perform their duties,” says Paxton.
“[If] you take them out of the positions ... then there has to be a special election, so you can't go right to vote, right?” asks Glenn.
Paxton confirms that this would likely delay voting, as the quorum – the minimum number of people needed to be present for a vote to take place – would change.
There’s a chance Gov. Abbott, however, could make special appointments to fill the vacant seats until a special election is arranged, says Paxton.
“It's definitely not a fast process, although we're trying to figure out a way to fast-track it,” he tells Glenn.
“Either way, in the end, we know how this is going to turn out because Governor Abbott is not going to back down, and he'll just keep calling them back until they show up.”
To hear more of the conversation, watch the full interview above.
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
One day after a bill passed that would dramatically redraw Texas’ congressional maps, at least 51 Texas House Democrats left the state.
This is known as “breaking quorum” and brings the House to a standstill — preventing any consideration of House Bill 4 by the full chamber.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was not pleased.
“Real Texans do not run from a fight, but that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did. Rather than doing their job and voting on urgent legislation affecting the lives of all Texans, they have fled Texas to deprive the House of the quorum necessary to meet and conduct business,” Abbott said in a statement.
“The truancy ends now. The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, August 4, 2025,” he continued, before threatening, “For any member who fails to do so, I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House.”
Abbott also reminded the Democrats that they “may also have committed felonies.”
“Many absentee Democrats are soliciting funds to evade the fines they will incur under House rules. Any Democrat who ‘solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept’ such funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have violated bribery laws,” Abbott said.
“The same could be true for any other person who ‘offers, confers, or agrees to confer’ such funds to fleeing Democrat House members,” he added.
“And then he goes on to say that he will work with DPS to extradite the Texas Democrats who skipped the session,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales explains on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”
Gonzales, who historically hasn’t been a fan of Abbott, may be changing her tune.
“Fines will be issued and arrest warrants will be issued to bring the Texas Democrats back and conduct the business that they were sent to the Capitol to do. And if they follow through on this, damn it, Greg, I don’t like you very much, but you’re going to force me to like you if you do that,” Gonzales says.
BlazeTV contributor Matthew Marsden is on the same page.
“When I read that earlier today, I was like, same thing. Don’t you dare make me like you, Greg Abbott, because this is awesome,” he says, adding, “I mean, it was a brilliantly worded statement.”
To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
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