After leaving Texas for Illinois to prevent a legislative vote on a Republican redistricting plan, state House Democratic leader Gene Wu needed a means to project his voice — and viewpoints — to a national audience. So he tapped his campaign account to buy a microphone for news conferences.
When it came to covering the hefty hotel bill for Wu and his roughly 50 colleagues, the lawmaker said he relied on money from his chamber's Democratic Caucus.
Now Texas Democrats are pleading for donations to help finance what could be a walkout of weeks — if not months — in a high-stakes attempt to prevent the Republican majority from passing a plan sought by President Donald Trump. The president is urging Texas and other GOP-controlled states to redraw their congressional districts to help Republicans maintain control of the U.S. House in next year's midterm elections.
“We’re getting a lot of small-dollar donations,” Wu told The Associated Press, "and that’s going to be used to help keep this thing going.”
A political group led by Beto O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman who ran unsuccessfully for governor and Senate, gave money to the Texas House Democratic Caucus to help cover the up-front costs, according to a spokesperson for the group, Powered by People. O’Rourke this week has been holding events in red states to fire up Democrats and encourage donations.
Powered by People has not disclosed how much it contributed. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, said Wednesday he's launching an investigation into whether O'Rourke's group has committed bribery by a “financial influence scheme” benefiting Democrats who left Texas.
In response, O'Rourke said he would be undeterred by the threat of an investigation and used it as a fundraising opportunity.
Lawmakers face travel costs and potentially huge fines
By departing the state, Democratic lawmakers have prevented Republicans from obtaining the quorum needed to conduct business. Democrats hope to run out the clock on a special legislative session that ends Aug. 19. But Republican Gov. Greg Abbott could immediately call another session, raising the prospect of a prolonged and an expensive holdout.
Not only could Texas Democrats face thousands of dollars in out-of-state lodging and dining costs, they also could eventually face fines of $500 for each day they are absent, which under House rules cannot be paid from their office budgets or political contributions.
Texas has a part-time Legislature where lawmakers receive $600 a month, plus an additional $221 for expenses each day they are in session.
On Wednesday, state Sen. Jose Menendez joined Democrats from other states at a rally in Boston, where he noted that the potential daily fine for quorum-breaking lawmakers is nearly as large as their entire monthly legislative salary.
“They need your prayers, they need your thoughts and they need you to get behind them,” he said.
Some Democrats in the Texas Senate have traveled out of state this week to support their House colleagues, but lawmakers in that chamber are not leaving the state to hold up legislative business.
‘This fight is for the people’
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat and billionaire, has welcomed the Texas lawmakers to his state but said he has not financially supported them. Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who has built a national following in recent weeks, said the lawmakers told Pritzker they didn’t want him to fund their trip.
“We’ve already been inundated with donations from across the state of Texas, from across the country, just regular people donating $5, $10, $15,” Talarico said this week. “And that’s appropriate, because this fight is for the people and it should be funded by the people. We don’t have billionaires who are funding this operation.”
The House Democratic Caucus has set up a website seeking donations of between $25 and $2,500 — with a default amount of $250.
Earlier this week, Abbott asked the state's highest court to remove Wu from office and ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate possible bribery charges related to how Democrats are paying for the walkout, alleging anyone who financially helped them could be culpable.
Wu, a former prosecutor from Houston, said the bribery suggestion is “monstrously stupid.”
“No member is leaving because they might get a campaign contribution that might restore some of the money that they’re spending,” he said.
How left-leaning groups are helping
Before Democrats decided to leave Texas, Wu said he called potential allies for assurance “that there would be resources that would come to our assistance.” But he said that's no different from an aspiring candidate asking others for support before officially launching a campaign.
Wu, who is chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said he has participated in online sessions with representatives of dozens of Democratic, progressive and redistricting-oriented groups. Not all are financial supporters. Some are providing help in other ways, such as by coordinating publicity.
The Democratic National Committee has helped with communications and organizing, as well as providing help from a data analytics team, Chair Ken Martin said.
Texas Democrats aren’t worried that they'll be forced to return home in the near future because of a lack of money, said Luke Warford, founder of Agave Democratic Infrastructure Fund, a Texas fundraising and organizing group. He said longtime Democratic funders understand the high cost of competing in tougher U.S. House races if Republicans succeed in redrawing the map.
"Of course having most of the delegation out of the state is going to rack up a bill,” Warford said. But "when you think about it in the context of what Donald Trump has to gain and what Democrats might lose in the short term, it’s just not even close to the cost of trying to win back either these races or a bunch of other races in the country.”
The Democratic lawmakers have been holed up at a hotel and conference center outside Chicago that was evacuated Wednesday after an unfounded bomb threat. Many lawmakers have been dining and meeting together, and are prepared to keep doing so.
Democratic state Rep. John Bucy III, speaking by phone from the hotel, said he isn't concerned about how the costs ultimately get covered.
“There’s too much at stake here to be worried about those things,” Bucy said. "Our hotel bills seem so minor compared to what we’re trying to do — to protect democracy.”
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Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Washington, Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, John O'Connor in Springfield, Illinois, and Leah Willingham in Boston contributed to this report.
David A. Lieb And Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press
