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Fifty-one fugitive Democratic lawmakers declared victory Thursday in their scheme to scuttle a GOP redistricting effort and returned to Texas from self-imposed exile in Oklahoma.
The Democrats who walked out in protest of the measure began their 270-mile trip from Ardmore, Okla., to Austin late Thursday. Forty-seven were aboard two charter buses; the rest drove back or flew.
As the first bus rolled across the bridge over the Red River, Rep. Pete Gallego announced to cheers, “It is 11:16 and we are in the state of Texas.”
After Thursday, according to the legislature’s rules, the only measures the House can consider without a two-thirds vote will be Senate bills. The Senate redistricting plan appeared unlikely to pass.
