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When Texas House Democrats returned to the Capitol after walking out over the GOP’s new congressional map, they were cheered by supporters as bulwarks of democracy — then promptly bulldozed by Republicans fed up with their protest and intent on further marginalizing the minority party.

“They will be lucky if they get out of this special session without it being a whole lot worse than it would have been had they just stuck around,” Rep. Tom Oliverson of Cypress and chair of the House Republican Caucus, said last week. “If they had any leverage at the start of the last special session, it’s all gone.”

Democratic lawmakers cast their two-week walkout as a victory

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