Texas Governor Goes Full Karen, Threatens to Arrest House Democrats Who Fled the State to Fight for Voting Rights

 Democratic lawmakers in Texas are not here for the fuckshit.

While Gov. Greg Abbott is trying to push voting restrictions in the Lone Star State, at least 50 House Democrats said, “Fuck this, we out” and hopped on a plane to Washington, D.C., to ensure that the required two-thirds attendance level needed to conduct legislative business wouldn’t be met.

And, get this, the Texas Democrats are willing to stay in D.C. until Aug. 7 when the 30-day special session called by Abbott to try and jam these bullshit voting laws down Texans throats is set to end.

What does all of this mean? Well, if you are the owner of a bar-b-que food truck in D.C., it means you need to find out where these Texans are staying and park out front because you are about to get paid. It also means that Gov. Abbott has gone full Karen after threatening to arrest House Democrats upon return.

So what did House Democrats have to say about all of this once they touched down at Dulles International Airport?

“We are determined to kill this bill,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Chris Turner told the Washington Post.

They also noted that since they are in town, they might as well push Congress to make some things happen.

“We are now taking the fight to our nation’s Capitol. We are living on borrowed time in Texas,” Turner and four other top Democrats said in the statement, the Post reports. “We need Congress to act now to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to protect Texans — and all Americans — from the Trump Republicans’ nationwide war on democracy.”

Texas Karen (not to be confused with that watered down ketchup, Texas Pete) noted on Monday that Democrats “could face arrest for the quorum-busting maneuver when they return to the state, adding that he plans to continue to call new special sessions until the legislature takes up the voting bills and other measures.”

“So if these people want to be hanging out wherever they’re hanging out on this taxpayer-paid junket, they’re going to have to be prepared to do it for well over a year,” the governor told Austin’s KVUE-TV. “As soon as they come back in the state of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be cabined inside the Texas Capitol until they get their job done.”

Texas Republicans, of course, were annoyed with Democrats for having agency over their own lives and their push to ensure that everyone has equal access to voting.

“The work of the people of Texas needs to get done,” State Sen. Charles Schwertner said. “They need to come back. They need to argue these very important issues in their respective chambers, vigorously argue it. But in the end, it needs to be settled here, where they are elected to serve.”

For the TL;DR crowd, he basically said Dems need to come back so we can shove this racist shit down Texas’ throat because Republicans have majorities in both chambers, a point that Democratic state Sen. Royce West conceded.

“We’re buying time right now, that’s what we’re doing,” West told the Post. “We’re hoping that something gets done at the national level.”