Houston, TX. – Tennessee House Republicans expelled two democratic state lawmakers after they took part in a gun violence protest on the chamber floor. Under the state’s law, it’s allowed so long as two-thirds of the chamber votes for it.
Texas has a similar law. The exact same component exists in the Texas Constitution that allows the House and Senate to expel one of it’s members so long as there’s a two-thirds vote. But Texas is not Tennessee. In Texas, the dynamics are different.
“Texas legislation including our Constitution draws a lot from Tennessee, that’s where Sam Houston came from,” said Prof. Mark Jones, Rice University. Jones, a political science professor at Rice University, said while Texas and Tennessee allow the House and Senate to expel one of it’s members with a two-thirds vote, in Tennessee 75 of the 99 representatives are Republican , giving well over the two-thirds majority needed to expel a member. In Texas, 86 of the 150 representatives are Republican. “So even if every Republican would vote for it, which I don’t think would be the case in Texas, Republicans in Texas wouldn’t have the votes to expel any Democrat without democratic support,’ Jones said.
Jones added that without Democratic support, Texas Republican lawmakers wouldn’t be able to expel one of it’s members. He went on to say that he believes in most cases, most state legislatures would not expel members for a single incident such as a protest , calling the response by Republican lawmakers in Tennessee extreme. “I don’t think most people would consider this to be a justified response to someone engaging in a protest after a mass shooting,” Jones said.