Sen. Carol Alvarado
State Sen. Carol Alvarado of Houston plans to filibuster the House-passed redistricting map during floor debate on Friday in a last-ditch effort to delay passage of the plan to create five new winnable seats for the GOP.
Alvarado, the Democratic caucus chair, informed Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Friday of her intent to hold the floor for as long as possible. Other senators and staffers confirmed to Hearst Newspapers that her Democratic colleagues will assist Alvarado by questioning her on the dais.
“Republicans think they can walk all over us. Today I’m going to kick back,” Alvarado wrote in a social media post Friday that featured her gray, yellow and blue sneakers. “Going to be a long night.”
The maneuver is not expected to prevent the map from passing: Alvarado would need to speak, without taking bathroom breaks, eating or drinking, until the ongoing special session times out in two weeks. The state Senate is the final step before the map, which was requested by President Donald Trump ahead of next year’s midterms, goes to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.
On Friday, members of the Senate’s Democratic caucus questioned Republican senators on the bill during its initial reading, aiming to gather material for a future court challenge of the maps. Alvarado plans to begin her speech before the final vote. A spokesperson for state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, said she had compiled 12 hours of remarks on the new map from people across Texas and that she plans to read them aloud while questioning Alvarado. Eckhardt and state Sen. Molly Cook of Houston were both wearing sneakers in the lower chamber Friday morning.
The odds are good that by the time you read this she will be done – those of us who remember Wendy Davis’ filibuster in 2013 know how hard it is to maintain these things. It will not – it cannot – prevent the bill from passing, it will just take up time and annoy the Republicans. But it will also remind Democratic voters and people who don’t like this naked attempt to rig the map for Donald Trump but aren’t partisan Dems that Democratic elected officials are fighting for what they believe in. There’s been plenty of complaints about Dems not doing or not doing enough of that. Here’s a counterexample, to go with the quorum busting. Good on you, Sen. Alvarado. The Trib has more.
UPDATE: And they’re done.
The Texas Senate voted to send President Donald Trump’s requested mid-decade redistricting map to the governor’s desk shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday after Republicans crushed Democratic state Sen. Carol Alvarado’s bid to filibuster the bill.
GOP senators used a procedural move to force a final vote on the proposed map, cutting off Democrats’ last avenue to delay the plan to carve out five new winnable GOP congressional seats ahead of the 2026 midterms. The upper chamber then voted 18-8 along party lines to pass the measure.
In calling the motion for previous question, state Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, accused Alvarado of using the filibuster to raise campaign funds. He told his colleagues that Alvarado sent out an email at 3 p.m. that day “to promote her filibuster as a campaign fundraising event.”
Alvarado’s plan “effectively holds hostage the entire Senate and forces employees to assist and participate in her campaign,” Perry said. “It’s disrespectful. It violates the decorum of the Senate, and personally, I’m offended by it.”
Well, we can’t have that, obviously.