A Texas district judge on Friday temporarily barred former Rep. Beto O’Rourke and his political group from helping to fund the Democratic legislators who have left the state to prevent Republicans from pressing forward with a redistricting plan aimed at expanding the GOP’s narrow majority in the U.S. House.
The ruling is a victory, albeit potentially a temporary one, for Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who sought the temporary restraining order accusing O’Rourke and his group of a bribery scheme, accusations the Democrat has vigorously denied. And it could deal a significant financial blow to the state Democratic lawmakers, who are facing financial penalties and other costs related to their “quorum break.”
Tarrant County District Court Judge Megan Fahey, who was appointed in 2019 by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and has since won re-election (Texas elects its judges), wrote in Friday’s order that she believes O’Rourke and his group “have and will continue to engage in unlawful fundraising practices and utilization of political funds” that either violates or causes the Democrats to violate state law and House rules.
Evoking the almost 200-year-old Texas refrain “Come and Take It,” Paxton celebrated the ruling in a statement.
“Today, I stopped his deceptive financial influence scheme that attempted to deceive donors and subvert our constitutional process. They told me to ‘come and take it,’ so I did,’” said Paxton, who is challenging U.S. Sen. John Cornyn for his Senate seat in next year’s GOP primary.
O’Rourke, who said earlier he would sue Paxton in state court, denounced the judge’s decision in a statement, arguing that the attorney general is going after his group “because our volunteers fight for voting rights and free elections … the kind of work that threatens the hold that Paxton, Trump, and Abbott have on power in Texas.”
“He wants to silence me and stop me from leading this organization. He wants to stop us from fighting Trump’s attempt to steal the five congressional seats he needs to hang on to power. But I’m not going anywhere,” he added.
O’Rourke has been a vocal ally of the more than 50 Democrats who have refused to show up to the Capitol in Austin this week in a bid to deny Republicans the minimum number of lawmakers required to move forward with legislative business, what’s known as “quorum.”
Democrats have framed their actions as a last resort, but a necessary one because they believe Republicans, by aiming to push through a rare mid-decade redistricting that could allow Republicans to net up to five more seats in next year’s midterm elections, are acting unconstitutionally.
Republicans like Paxton and Abbott however, are turning the screws on the Democrats with a flurry of legal filings aiming to boot the lawmakers from office, disrupt their funding streams, grant Texas law enforcement the ability to track them down in other states and otherwise complicate their ability to manage their legislative offices from outside of the state.
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