Texas Democrats Face Covid Outbreak and a Stalled Voting Rights Push

After at least six state lawmakers tested positive for the coronavirus, the group is now confined to a Washington hotel, holding virtual meetings and making little headway in its persuasion campaign.

WASHINGTON — Democratic state lawmakers from Texas arrived in Washington last week with plans to apply unending pressure on the Senate to pass voting rights protections that would help counteract a Republican election overhaul bill back home. Then a Covid-19 outbreak stalled their progress. The entire delegation from Texas is now stuck at a Washington hotel after six of the Democratic state representatives tested positive for the coronavirus, and an official from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office who met with them has also tested positive. All of those who have tested positive are fully vaccinated, but nobody in the capital is now particularly eager to meet in person with the group, which has resorted to virtual meetings.