Texas House Democrats that fled to Washington, D.C. to stop the passage of a rather mundane election integrity bill are seeing the move blow up in their faces. We now have a sixth member of the French caucus that has tested positive for COVID despite being vaccinated.

Remember all those times the media claimed a Republican event was a “super-spreader” event? Well, now we actually have one, though, the response is obviously far different.

This per The Dallas Morning News.

WASHINGTON – With COVID-19 hitting more than 10% of the Texas Democrats who fled Austin to stymie a GOP elections bill, the runaways spent Monday strategizing ways to prod Congress for new voting rights protections without being able to lobby in person.

A sixth member of the Texas House tested positive on Monday, according to state Rep. Rhetta Bowers of Dallas, adding that she and others have brought food to those quarantining in their rooms.

It gets worse, though. They’ve also now infected a member of the White House and a Nancy Pelosi staffer. The latter helped lead the fugitives around the Capitol Building while both positives were in attendance at the reception held early on for the runaways.

The sightseeing @TexasHDC has now spread COVID to the White House and Speaker Pelosi’s team. https://t.co/7uTMjEsP0I

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) July 20, 2021

Had these lumps of government malaise simply stayed in Texas, none of this would have happened. Instead, they “filibustered” by denying a quorum in order to fly a private charter to Washington to demand Democrats blow up the filibuster in order to undermine the rights of the state they supposedly represent. That’s a bit jumbled to have to type out, but the absurdity is the point.

Meanwhile, their pathetic stunt isn’t paying dividends. Kyrsten Sinema reiterated that she would not vote to get rid of the filibuster last week, and because so many of the Texas Democrats are COVID-positive, there’s little chance they’ll get their big face-to-face meeting with Joe Biden now. That was being banked on to provide the cherry-on-top for their big trip.

Back in Texas, the House, with the support of Gov. Greg Abbott, has already voted to arrest the MIA Democrats the moment they re-enter the state (if they don’t voluntarily do the jobs they are legally bound to perform). Once that happens, they’ll be forced back onto the floor and the votes will take place. All of this nonsense of running away to Washington will have been for nothing.

By and large, Texans do not support their representatives prioritizing backslaps from MSNBC while hob-nobbing in the one city they most despise. Because of that, I expect this entire ordeal to cause blowback and lead to even stronger Republican majorities in the state. This was a bad miscalculation on the part of both Texas and national Democrats. In the end, they will pay the price.