Sixth Texas Democrat in DC tests positive for COVID, and boycott isn’t going quite as planned
Dallas Morning News ^ | 7/19/21
Posted on 7/19/2021, 5:39:27 PM by Tipllub
By Todd J. Gillman
9:41 AM on Jul 19, 2021 CDT — Updated 46 minutes ago
Updated at 3:30 p.m. with news of 6th positive test.
WASHINGTON – With COVID-19 hitting more than 10% of the Texas Democrats who fled Austin to stymie a GOP elections bill, the runaways spent Monday strategizing ways to prod Congress for new voting rights protections without being able to lobby in person.
A sixth member of the Texas House tested positive on Monday, according to state Rep. Rhetta Bowers of Dallas, adding that she and others have brought food to those quarantining in their rooms.
“It definitely is not stopping our work,” she said. “We’re just having to be a whole lot more careful.”
At the White House a few blocks from their hotel hideaway, press secretary Jen Psaki shrugged aside concerns that Vice President Kamala Harris could have caught the coronavirus from the Texans, or may now be putting President Joe Biden at risk. Harris spent an hour with them last Tuesday, three days before one lawmaker developed cold-like symptoms and then tested positive.
“There haven’t been additional precautions taken,” Psaki said after noting that Harris has since tested negative, and insisting that her visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Sunday was routine and previously scheduled.
But with six of the 55 fugitives testing positive since Friday, the Texans’ hopes of meeting with Biden this week dimmed substantially.
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