History Tells Us How the Texas Democrats’ Walkout Will Likely End

There is a lot of bluffing and braggadocio happening among both Democrats and Republicans right now about the attempt of Democratic state lawmakers to stall the passage of Trump’s mid-decade gerrymandering scheme. Most of it is safe to ignore. A quorum break has power because it sits outside the normal rules of Texas politics. But it is invoked often enough—this is the fourth quorum break in a half century, the latest of which came in 2021—that it has its own rules and traditions, one of which is to engage in loud brinkmanship.

The Democrats who fled are talking a big game in the press and on social media, one that doesn’t reflect the private thinking of House members. Their news releases argue that this is a smash-glass-in-case-of-emergency moment—that the future of the republic is on th