Texas House Speaker Removes Democrat on the Run Joe Moody From Leadership Position

In response to the decision to flee the state to Washington D.C. by Texas House Democratic Rep. Joe Moody, the Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan removed Moody from his position as speaker pro tempore.

Moody joined a number of his colleagues in a move designed to avoid a vote on legislation that would ensure greater integrity surrounding elections in the state.

The group is meeting with federal lawmakers while in the nation’s capital to push for national voting legislation that could thwart the Texas voting bill.

Texas House Democratic state Sen. Royce West told the Washington Post the Texas Democrats are “buying time” by leaving the state while “hoping that something gets done at the national level.”

Moody attempted to downplay the decision, tweeting that “The most important titles in my life will never change: Dad, Husband, El Pasoan.”

“Nothing political has ever even cracked the top three, so nothing has changed about who I am or what my values are,” Moody claimed.

The most important titles in my life will never change: Dad, Husband, El Pasoan. Nothing political has ever even cracked the top three, so nothing has changed about who I am or what my values are. #txlege https://t.co/RQ8mozCdwT

— Joe Moody (@moodyforelpaso) July 15, 2021

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott plans to continue to call special sessions of the state legislature until the legislation is passed.

Democrats would have to stay out of Texas for “well over a year” to ultimately block the legislation, Abbott told KVUE because he “will continue to call a special session after special session after special session all the way up until election next year.”

Abbott added that the Democrats “will be arrested” and “cabined inside the Texas Capitol until they get their job done” as soon as they return to the state.