[ad_1]
This isn’t Chris Turner’s first quorum bust. Or even his second.
Turner, a six-year-old state official from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, made national headlines Monday when he led more than 50 of his Democratic counterparts from Texas to Washington, DC to block a measure they say that they have barriers to the ballot box for people of color.
As chairman of the Democratic Caucus of the Texas House, beaten by Republicans 83-67, Turner is the face of the strike that took most of the Austin Party’s lawmakers to the nation’s capital to break the impasse of the U.S. Senate national laws protecting voting rights.
More: Texas Democrats vs. Governor Greg Abbott: Who Will Blink First? Abbott could have the upper hand
But in 2003, Turner was posted to Ardmore, Oklahoma, as an advisor to then-US MP Chet Edwards, D-Waco, to help members of the Texas state house who fled Austin with Republican-backed reorganization plans Block congressional district boundaries.
The House Democrats returned to Austin and the redistribution efforts died in the regular session. And if then-Gov. Rick Perry called a special session to resume efforts, the state Democrats in the Senate fled to New Mexico, and Turner joined them for the six-week absence to shut down business in the legislature.
“I believe Chris Turner is the only person who has spent each day of the two quorum breaks – both the House quorum break and the Senate quorum break – with members,” said veteran Texas policy advisor Matt Angle, a longtime friend and collaborator from Turners associate.
“Our goal is to kill the bill”
In an interview with Washington on Thursday, Turner said his experience as a staff member 18 years ago is paying off as he tries to keep the Democrats in the house focused on their mission and administer a remote field operation.
“There are only a million logistics to think through,” said Turner. “It’s kind of a controlled chaos at all times. Sometimes you’re just trying to go six hours straight.”
More:Beto O’Rourke: Biden, the National Democrats must do more to protect the right to vote
As in 2003, Texas Democrats are focused on getting their message across to a national audience in hopes of shaping public opinion that could then force action by Congress, said 48-year-old Turner, who runs a communications and consulting firm in North Texas.
“Our goal is pretty simple,” he said. “It’s about killing the bill for this particular special session. But (also) to use this time and platform, we have to beg the Senate to pass the federal voting bill, whatever it requires.”
However simple, Turner’s goal remains stubbornly elusive. He and the other Texas Democrats spent their time in Washington doing the rounds – and making their minds about the key players who could get the 50-50 Senate to join the Democratic House if federal law is passed.
Several Democrats met with Conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia on Thursday in hopes of getting him on their side. Manchin told them he supported efforts to protect voting rights at the national level but would not commit to voting to break the Senate filibuster, which requires 60 votes to put the measure on the ballot.
With the Republicans united in their opposition, the electoral measure in the Upper Chamber appears to have stalled. And with Republican governor of Texas Greg Abbott vowing to keep lawmakers in Austin until the GOP electoral law is passed, the state Democrats have an even better chance of getting their way.
Both Angle and Edwards, a Democrat who represented a Waco-anchored district for 20 years until he lost his re-election in 2010, said Turner was uniquely qualified to lead the House of Representatives’ diverse and sometimes divided Democratic caucus. You attribute his experience as a behind-the-scenes political agent in his twenties and thirties and knowledge of the inner workings of the legislature in recent years as an elected official.
Edwards said he relied on Turner for both his organizational skills and his ability to think three moves ahead on the political chessboard.
More:Luci Baines Johnson sees the struggle for the right to vote as a daughter who honors her father
“Chris is one of the most talented civil servants I’ve ever met – state or national,” said Edwards. “This is what makes him so unique: He is a rare combination of a strong, strategic thinker and an excellent organizer.”
When Edwards was in Congress, he proposed a centrist course that linked rural and military-minded Conservatives from the Fort Hood area with more liberal voters in some urban areas of the district. Turner was comfortable and able in both camps, Edwards said.
Turner, who grew up in Dallas and earned a bachelor’s degree in government from the University of Texas, was both Edwards’ campaign manager and one of his senior legislative aides who joined the Texas congressman after being recruited by Angle to help Head of Tarrant County Democratic Party.
Anchored by the metropolitan areas of Fort Worth and Arlington and surrounded by rapidly growing suburbs, Tarrant County was a Republican stronghold at the time.
Election victories and defeats
Turner first sought electoral office in 2008 when he removed a Republican MP in a swing district of Tarrant County. His margin of victory, supported by the excitement of the Democrats over Barack Obama’s victorious presidential campaign, was 4.8 percentage points.
In the midterm elections two years later, after Obama’s star power in Texas had declined significantly, Turner lost his re-election offer to the same Republican opponent with the same 4.8-point margin.
More:One word to describe the partisan special session of the Texan legislature: Ugly
After redrawing the state’s political maps for the 2012 election cycle, Turner returned to the House of Representatives in a district that has remained largely democratic since then. Last year he won his sixth term without a dissenting vote.
Former US Democratic MP Martin Frost, who represented parts of Dallas-Fort Worth from 1979 to 2003, left him a district that a Democrat couldn’t win, said Turner deserves credit for steadily increasing the party’s power in the Texas house.
When Turner was first elected Democratic leader during the 2017 legislature, his party controlled only 55 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives. The Democrats now have 67 members as the party consistently put up strong challengers in a recent election in a suburb of Texas that has long been considered Republican strongholds.
“The Republicans play hardball in our state and there is no reason why the Democrats shouldn’t play hardball,” said Frost. “As we’ve said over the years, politics in Texas is a contact sport.”
More:Photos: The Texas Democrats 2021 strike
On his campaign website, Turner counts on his list of legislative achievements to help raise more than $ 120 million for Texas military veterans through a special lottery scratch game and draft the state’s constitutional amendment, the surviving spouses of military personnel, which is in the line of duty a 100 percent exemption from property tax.
“A smart guy who is a hard worker”
In 2019, then-Republican House Speaker Dennis Bonnen said he elected Turner to chair its college committee because of his legislative skills, even while chairing the opposition party.
“I took him to a place where it was all about hard work and intelligence and his desire to get the best out of Texas,” said Bonnen. “And I trusted him to do that because I knew there weren’t any political games there. Not that I thought he would. It was a serious problem and he is a smart guy who works hard and knows how to “embrace these issues and be successful.”
Bonnen, who was an ordinary member of the House of Representatives when the Democrats left in 2003, said that decision-making should not be used as a legislative tactic. But, he added, it is the group chairman’s job to guide the group members in the direction they want to go.
“There was a movement within your group that has reached a turning point, and its task is to follow the wishes of his colleagues, as wrong as I think they are,” said Bonnen, who did not seek re-election in 2020. But he has to stick with where his caucus is going, and I think that’s what he did. “
State Representative Tan Parker, a North Texas Republican who presided over the House of Representatives Republican Parliament during Turner’s first two terms at the top of the Democrats, said he agreed with Bonnen’s assessment of Turner.
“Historically, he has taken his job seriously,” said Parker, who plans to run for the Texas Senate next year. “I want him to take his job seriously now and come back to Texas.”
Although Turner is affiliated with the party’s liberal wing, Edwards said he took an inclusive approach to governance.
“He’s a progressive Democrat who treats others with respect,” said Edwards. “But he has an iron resolve when it comes to fundamental values like voting rights and inequality. So you would underestimate Chris at your own risk.”
John C. Moritz reports on the government and politics of Texas for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at jmoritz@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.
[ad_2]
