The GOP voting restrictions push that left the Texas House scrambling to round up absent Democrats also shut down work in the Texas Senate Wednesday evening as state Sen. Carol Alvarado launched into a filibuster against the GOP’s priority voting bill.

In 2003, the last time Texas House Democrats left the state to break quorum, State Representative Garnet Coleman was leading the charge.

On Wednesday, a State Representative from San Antonio, Philip Cortez, spoke out about why he decided to return to Texas after heading to Washington D.C. with a group of Democrats protesting the passage of House Bill 3.

Houston area political leaders weighed in Tuesday on Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives leaving the state for Washington D.C., in an attempt to block a quorum needed to vote on a Republican-backed bill on election reform.