First, Texas House Democrats refused to meet in their legislative chamber in an act of resistance. Now, one of them won't leave.
State Rep. Nicole Collier of Fort Worth said in an interview Tuesday she would sleep on the House floor until Labor Day if she had to. Since Monday, Collier has entered a new existence, eating, sleeping and working from the locked chamber after she refused to acquiesce to Republican demands that Democrats agree to around-the-clock security escorts to be released from the building.
Now she's the subject of an around-the-clock live video feed, at her own party's choosing. Tuesday afternoon, more of Collier's colleagues returned to the statehouse to stand with her in solidarity.
"At what point, what is it going to take for us to say, 'Enough is enough?' Yesterday was my moment. Enough is enough," Collier said Tuesday. "I see it. The writing is on the wall. They want power at all costs. And you're not taking it from me without a fight."
It’s another dramatic turn in the two-week saga involving Texas House Democrats who fled to other states this month, with most of them taking refuge in Illinois, out of the jurisdiction of law enforcement efforts to compel their attendance in Texas. The plan denied a quorum for Republicans to move forward during a special legislative session with a redrawing of Texas’ congressional map, an act aimed at padding the GOP’s U.S. House majority.
The redistricting issue has blown up nationally, as California Democrats now are taking steps to counter Texas' move, while other Republican-controlled states consider mid-decade redistricting of their own.
The state House reconvenes Wednesday morning, but Collier said that unless the rules change, freeing Democratic lawmakers of a security escort, she won’t budge.
As Collier talked to NBC News, someone brought out a mattress to the House floor, where, she said, she intended to sleep. She spent the previous night sleeping in a chair. Fellow lawmakers brought her food and snacks, and she has access to facilities, except a shower. She washed up in a sink, she said, and planned to steam some clothes after someone dropped off a steamer.
She said her daughters, who are all adults, were tracking her over a livestream and grew concerned when it stopped.
"When they took down the livestream, they were like: 'Mama, we can't see you. We can't see you.' And so luckily, [Democratic House Chair Gene Wu] brought in another livestream so that my family can be able to see," she said.
Collier described her decision not to agree to have a law enforcement escort to be released from the chamber after Monday's session.
"I guess I'm being stubborn, like they are. But I'm not signing the piece of paper to make them feel good so they can have something in their hand as evidence of their control," she said.
She acknowledged she voted in favor of the chamber rules, which laid out conditions of a potential detainment if one failed to agree to the escort.
Collier said Republicans don't have to use that power, calling it an overreach after Democrats returned to the state and gave the House a quorum Monday.
"It's like, you turn off somebody’s lights, and then, because you can, you turn off the water," she said. "I mean, you don’t have to keep going in."
Collier announced her actions Monday, calling herself a "political prisoner" for refusing Republican "surveillance protocol."
Speaker Dustin Burrows outlined Monday that Democrats who had arrest warrants issued against them — who included Collier — couldn’t leave the chamber unless they agreed to move into the custody of a Department of Public Safety officer.
“Rep. Collier’s choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules,” he said in a statement Tuesday. "I am choosing to spend my time focused on moving the important legislation on the call to overhaul camp safety, provide property tax reform and eliminate the STAAR test — the results Texans care about.”
Collier is a seven-term Democratic lawmaker and former chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus who also represents a majority-minority district. Democrats have charged that the redrawn congressional maps would tear up those districts, stripping their voters of their voices.
