00:00Chairman Wu put out a statement that said Texas Democrats will issue demands for a second legislative session on Friday.
00:07I know you probably can't share specifics. What what does that what does your delegation want out of a second special session?
00:14We want to make sure that the Hill Country folks that have suffered so much and lost children, everything that they are prioritized.
00:26That was our ask from the very first session. And I know certainly that that is going to be our demand in going into this second session is making sure that they are prioritized.
00:36Is a quorum break on the table for a second legislative session or are you committing to staying in Texas and fighting it the best you can from the chamber?
00:48As of right now, our caucus feels confident in what we have been able to achieve and that we have achieved what we were hoping to achieve.
00:55Truly been a sacrifice for so many of our members who have sick children or family members back home who have been, quite frankly, gone away from work because we literally just got out of our session just to jump into another special session and now be over here.
02:43optimal time frame that they need in order to bring this to the court system. So there's a
02:49whole bunch of different factors that we are considering and making sure that as far as what
02:55the best path forward is. But I can tell you as of right now, as a caucus, we feel very confident
03:01that at least what we were hoping to accomplish, which was the buy-in from other states to be able
03:08to dilute whatever Texas potentially could put out was our number one priority. And also just
03:14making sure that the American people were aware of the power grab that Donald Trump was attempting
03:19to do in our state, because ultimately it was not going to be just our state. And we're seeing that
03:24right now, but we're happy that we have gotten here. We're glad that other states are now in the
03:29position to essentially take the baton whenever we're ready to pass it on to them, but we will
03:35not give up this fight. Whether we end up going back to Texas and we go on that house floor,
03:41we still have more tools in our toolbox that we have the ability to be able to do, and we will
03:47fight it until the very end. Could you give me an example of one of those tools in your toolbox?
03:53Sure, absolutely. So in our legislature, we have things like point of orders where you can kill a bill
03:59or potentially an amendment that may get added to the bill. We could also potentially
04:05propose amendments to the bill as well. And so all of those things are things that we essentially
04:12have available to us whenever there is a particular bill of concern. We've done it in the past.
04:18This was a, the session that we just had was a brutal session that we utilized so much of those
04:25particular tools on issues that we felt would hurt Texans. And so this is obviously one of those
04:32situations as well. If ultimately you do have to go back and you give a quorum and, and the most you
04:38can do is vote no against the maps. What do you hope the message would be after leaving the state?
04:44Because then it kind of just comes down to the fact that you delayed, but didn't stop the process. So,
04:50so what's the message there? If it's just ends up being a delay, it would be naive to think that,
04:56um, you know, that somehow we were going to potentially, um, stop the passing of the maps
05:04in Texas. Will we continue to keep fighting in ways that we can? What was most important to us
05:09was making sure that we got out and spread the word and had other states get in this fight with us.
05:16Because ultimately, like I said, you know, us as Democrats do not have the numbers in the Texas
05:22legislature course. There's, there's a lot of reasons for that, including gerrymandering districts
05:27as well within the state of Texas for house seats, um, as well as obviously, uh, voter turnout. But
05:33the most important thing was making sure that there was, um, essentially people outside of Texas that
05:39were also involved in part of this process. We've been able to accomplish that. Um, we had our press
05:45conference with some of our colleagues from Indiana that are seeing the pressure just, um, recently from
05:50vice president JD Vance to go over there and pressure them to do, uh, mid decade redistricting.
05:55Um, so there is obviously we have, we have created enough of a PR machine and, and getting the word
06:03out to voters, um, to constituents all over the nation that we need to fight this. We can't allow it to
06:11just happen and not do anything about it. And so the fact that we see California now moving forward,
06:17uh, my understanding is they should be revealing those maps on Friday, ultimately convening their
06:23legislature on Monday, um, to go ahead and start going, you know, uh, preparing essentially for
06:30their mid decade redistricting with support, um, from all of their folks in putting it to the voters
06:37and allowing them to approve that. Um, I, I do not believe, um, that we would have seen this much
06:44traction and buy-in from other states if it wasn't for our efforts in stepping out and, and,
06:51and giving essentially people time to take a look at their and talk with their elected officials in
06:57their states to figure out whether their states in fact could potentially override any potential
07:03districts that Texas could carve up to give to Donald Trump. A judge in Adams County, Illinois,
07:10just this afternoon said the Illinois circuit court does not have the power to direct Illinois law
07:15enforcement officers to X, uh, to execute the civil warrants against you that were issued in Texas.
07:23So I know you're an attorney, so I'd love to get your reaction to that as a lawyer, but also does that
07:28factor into your group's decision about how long to stay us in the legal field, um, have a saying that,
07:34you know, you've been bench slapped by the court. And that was essentially what this court did to Ken
07:41Paxton and letting him know that he was, um, essentially stepping out of his lane and dictating
07:48to, um, the courts and authorities here, um, in this state to essentially do what he wants to do when
07:56we return to Texas. So we weren't surprised that they came down. We weren't necessarily aware that it
08:02was going to come, come down today. Um, but I can tell you amongst all of my colleagues, once we
08:07learned about it, um, we were not surprised, um, and we were happy to hear the news, um, and to
08:13deal another blow, uh, to our leadership in just showing this is the type of leadership that we have
08:19in the state of Texas that we have to deal with, uh, individuals who essentially filing lawsuits that
08:24have no basis in law, wasting taxpayer money, um, just so they can participate in political theater,
08:31uh, just in particular, our attorney general is currently running for office. And so he has been
08:38pulling all the tricks, um, you know, that he can and essentially continuing to keep himself relevant.
08:45Attorney General Paxton is seeking the arrest of Beto O'Rourke for fundraising for your group.
08:50Uh, when we spoke the other day, you said you plan to pay all fines and expenses yourself.
08:55So has O'Rourke's group powered by people paid any of your delegation's expenses?
09:00I have not received any particular funds from Beto either individually or from anything affiliated
09:07with Helm. But like I said, the last time we spoke, I did tell you that, you know, one of the
09:13considerations and things that we had taken, you know, and discussed in anticipation that we might
09:20likely have to do this, um, was if, whether we have the ability to take on those fines personally,
09:27and I do have the ability to do that. And so, yes, I personally will be covering my fines that are,
09:33are, you know, whatever it is that they end up ultimately being, because of course, um, not only
09:39do we get fined per day, but we also, depending on what resources were used, um, to potentially
09:47find us can also be levied against us as well.
09:50And how about some things like, uh, hotels and meals and such?
09:54I'll give you an example. Like we had a press conference today and we have transportation that
09:58will transport, transport us from where we're at to, um, wherever it is that we're going to go.
10:03I'm not personally aware as far as other than obviously HDC, uh, is able to cover that our
10:09caucus and our caucus has, uh, funds that we pay into it as do members, um, individually.
10:17And so to what level that they're utilizing those particular, um, uh, you know, monies for these
10:23efforts is most likely what they're doing. Um, but I'm not, I'm not personally aware of anything
10:30other than obviously outside of our HDC, that's covering our expenses.
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