Lina Hidalgo

Beto O`Rourke has said today that this is a result of Governor Abbott`s policies. This situation in Texas that enables an 18-year-old like this to be able to do this. It is a direct result of Republican policies.

It`s not the NRA anymore, because the Republican Party has completely internalized, as its own ethic, that NRA ideal of making sure that mass murderers have the very best equipment that anyone can buy the very best equivalent of murder at…

If the NRA had any heart, it would cancel this convention.

I`m old enough to remember when the Republican Party was opposed to regulating businesses.

What Governor Abbott is doing is akin to taking the water away from firefighters.

It`s a race to the bottom on who can sort of out-trump Trump and who can catch the eye of the former president and who can win the primary.

Sling politics with the integrity of elections threatens our democracy.

This should be another call to action that we`ve got the writing on the wall.

The reality of it is that Texas is being run from Mar-a-Lago. And that is dangerous. And it`s not appropriate.

We have to call that for what it is. And we have to make sure we don`t create some sort of false equivalency.

It is an irresponsible political trick. It is a sham. It is a cavalier and a dangerous assault on voters and on democracy.

But you do have to ask yourself, what is the point of banning masks in public schools? What is the point? There is certainly no medical reason for it. It has to be purely political. And we were just hearing -- you know, there seems to be a…

Well, it`s clear they`re trying to create fear. There is a difference between massive voter fraud which does not exist, and innocent mistakes. But look, fundamentally what they`re doing is tearing down our democracy, making up…

As a Texan, I feel a responsibility to continue the legacy of Lyndon B. Johnson who passed the Voting Rights Acts. But as Americans, all of us need to feel the responsibility to protect a democracy that people died for.

This is not just a partisan, political fight this needs to be able to stay above partisanship because it is about our ability to have a democracy and we can’t weaken it by making policy based on a lie.

The simple idea that they are making policy based on a lie that there was election fraud on a massive scale, that in and of itself lends freedom to that lie to the point where it weakens our own voters’ faith in our democracy and it…

It`s voter suppression.

They are attacking my constituents, my community, the community that this chamber, and these businesses are meant to represent.

There is a group, sticking out like a sore thumb, for failing to speak up at a time of enormous consequence.

This is about are you willing to stand up, for and fight for American democracy? Do you believe in American democracy?

we invested in a voting expansion that led to the largest turnout in 30 years, in third-largest county in the nation, largest county in Texas.

We did that here in Houston with Mayor Turner and the county judge, Lina Hidalgo, creating a lot of sites especially in some of the low-income neighborhoods which are pharmacy deserts.

We have to acknowledge the good news and being down to 22,000 homes without power is great. But I also am not in the business of raising false hope.

The challenge was that the state agency, this ERCOT, did not have enough power generation to sustain the crisis.