GOP Rep. Malliotakis Slams Texas Dems Who Fled State Then Tested Positive for COVID
New York City GOP Representative Nicole Malliotakis ridiculed the Texas House Democrats for leaving the state this past week in order to dodge or delay crucial votes towards issues, including voter requirements and transgender high school athletics.
Malliotakis defeated Democrat Max Rose in last year's election and returned one of the few "red areas" of New York City back into Republican Party hands after Rose's single term. Malliotakis echoed her campaign criticisms against the so-called Radical Left and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by saying Washington Democrats encouraged and potentially funded the Texas Democrats' departure from the state. On Saturday, it was announced that three of those Texas Democrats, who were fully vaccinated, tested positive for COVID while in Washington, D.C.
Unable to reach quorum to hold the votes in Austin, Texas, Republicans have joined the New York GOP lawmaker in blasting the Texas Democrats for "running from the votes" they would lose in Texas.
"Obviously they think this is all fun and games, but the people of Texas elected them for a reason, and that is to show up to work," Malliotakis told Fox News this weekend.
"You don't run from a vote, you don't run from a debate, you go and show up in the chamber and debate something on its merits and then you vote," she continued, saying a majority of Americans have been shown in recent polls to support increased restrictions on who and how people vote.
"I don't know what they're running from, they should just show up and go to work," she said, arguing that at the very least, elected lawmakers should be voting in legislative matters.
The Texas Democrats are not the first set of partisan lawmakers to flee a state in order to avoid quorum and thus delay a vote. Republicans in Oregon and Democrats in Michigan used the same tactic within recent years in order to avoid votes that they knew they'd likely lose.
Malliotakis went on to say that African-American and Hispanic voters are among the largest constituencies who are asking for increased voter ID laws at polling places for future elections.
The congresswoman's district largely covers Staten Island and the very bottom tip of Brooklyn, traditionally one of the city's few conservative bastions.
Newsweek reached out to Malliotakis' office as well as that of former Rep. Rose on Sunday morning for comment.
