Texas Democrat Nicole Collier slams GOP in interview from state House floor

Desmond Milligan · August 19

A Democratic Texas state lawmaker who spent the night on the Texas House floor rather than accept a police escort slammed the GOP in an interview as Republicans try to move forward with their plan to redistrict the Lone Star State.

Texas Rep. Nicole Collier was one of the Democratic state legislators who fled earlier this month to break quorum and stall the plan, before returning to the Lone Star State on Monday after a two-week standoff. She opted to spend the night in the state House rather than let law enforcement surveil her as part of Republicans’ effort to ensure lawmakers would return to the state Capitol, The Associated Press reported.

“At the moment that the directive was issued, I felt like it was wrong. It’s just wrong to require grown people to get a permission slip to roam about freely. So I resisted. I objected, in the only way I knew how, and that’s to resist,” Collier told MSNBC’s Ali Vitali in an interview from the state House floor, when asked why she wouldn’t sign on to the law enforcement escort.

Collier, who has been on the floor for nearly 24 hours, vowed to stay “as long as it takes.”

“This is the fight that all of us have in resisting the end of our democracy, basically,” she said.

She slammed Texas Republicans for putting “politics over people” as the redistricting fight dwarfs conversations about disaster relief for Texans affected by recent floods.

More than 50 Democrats left Texas in early August to deprive the state House of the numbers it needed to function, putting a pause on the redistricting plan that could net five GOP House seats.

After their conditions were met, enough Democrats returned to Austin on Monday to reach quorum. The maps are expected to move quickly through the Republican-controlled state Legislature.

Meanwhile, California is expected to charge ahead with a plan to redistrict in response to the Texas changes.

“Typically they say, take that high road. Well, you know, that high road has crumbled. We’re on a dirt road, and we’re going to meet them on that dirt road and get down and dirty, just like they are,” Collier said.

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