Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives boarded chartered airplanes and flew to Washington, D.C., on Monday in a bid to block Republican-backed voter suppression legislation. The extraordinary move denied Republicans a quorum in the Texas House, where Republican Governor Greg Abbott has convened a special session to pass legislation that, among other things, would ban 24-hour polling places and drop boxes, and stop drive-thru voting. Texas Democrats flew from Austin to the U.S. capital to demand Congress pass the sweeping federal voting rights bill, the For the People Act. This is Texas state Representative Joe Moody of El Paso.

Rep. Joe Moody: “The voter suppression going on in Texas is just the tip of the iceberg. The clock is literally ticking on Congress to act to protect voters in Texas and all across the country.”

Today President Biden is delivering his first major speech on voting rights since Republicans deployed the filibuster to stall the For the People Act.