38-day Texas House standoff ends after Democrats' return

State of play: Most have continued to avoid the state Capitol, but the few who returned to the Texas House justified the move by claiming their work with Congress was done.

• They also noted the state's rapidly rising COVID case count and argued they could better fight the GOP's elections bill "from the inside," according to the Corpus Christi Caller Times.
• "Now, we continue the fight on the House Floor," Democratic state Reps. Garnet Coleman, Ana Hernandez and Armando Walle said in a joint statement on Thursday.
• Other Texas Democrats criticized their actions. "[W]e were literally on caucus calls for 2 hours this morning and none of the defecting Democrats mentioned they were planning on helping the Republicans pass voter suppression bills," state Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos tweeted.
• "Guess what the other defecting Democrats have accomplished by going back—NOTHING!"

Worth noting: The federal voting rights protections they lobbied for in D.C. are unlikely to avoid GOP challenges in Congress.

What to watch: Republicans will aim to pass restrictive voting legislation before the current special session ends on Sept. 5. Critics say it will disproportionately impact voters of color.

• More than 16 million people are registered to vote in Texas, per AP.