A Texas state senator inserted a catheter as part of a desperate attempt to draw attention to her state GOP’s plan to redraw congressional districts in its favor.
Carol Alvarado planned to filibuster through the night on Friday, talking for hours on end inside the Texas Capitol. She told The Washington Post she knew the filibuster was unlikely to stop the planned redistricting, but she had to do something.
Alvarado, 57, prepped for days. The Post reports she “got an IV infusion, inserted a catheter with a urine bag attached, bought a long, blue, flowered dress to hide the bag,” and “also limbered up with hot yoga and selected comfortable running shoes.”
The Houston native, who now represents her hometown, had her staff put together binders of speaking material for her to read, including complaints from Texans who opposed the Republican Party’s attempt to draw new districts in a non-Census year.
However, it was Alvarado’s last bit of preparation—to fundraise off the act—that would ultimately provide a route for Republicans to blow the whole plan up.
The Texas state Senate reconvened at 12:30 a.m. Saturday. Alvarado was ready to replicate her last filibuster, when she spoke for over 15 hours in 2021, but Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, allowed one of his partymates to speak first.
Republican Sen. Charles Perry took to the dais. The Post reported that he accused Alvarado of violating Senate rules by sending a fundraising email for her campaign before the filibuster that said, “MAGA will come after me for this.”
“Using the entire Senate, its employees, and support for Senator Alvarado’s campaign effectively holds the entire Senate hostage,” Perry alleged, according to the Post. “It’s disrespectful, it violates the decorum of the Senate, and personally, I’m offended by it.”
Perry added that the email was “potentially unlawful, at least unethical, using state resources for a campaign purpose.”
Lt. Gov. Patrick found the complaint to be valid and reportedly ignored the objection of a Democrat. A vote was called, and senators voted 18-11 on party lines to block the filibuster before it ever got started.
It was yet another defeat for Texas Democrats, who have gone to extreme measures, like outright fleeing the state for two weeks, as they try to stop—or at least slow—the state legislature’s GOP majority from instigating a nationwide redistricting arms race.
Alvarado condemned the blocking of her big moment as well as the “unfounded claims made against me on the Senate floor.”
“This was an unprecedented effort to silence the voices of thousands of people who only wanted fair representation,” she said afterward, according to the Post.
Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, a Democrat from Austin, called out Patrick specifically.
“That is not democracy,” she said. “Where there is no dissent, there is no democracy. That lieutenant governor will not tolerate dissent.”
Comments