Georgia Roth wasn’t planning on making the two-and-a-half hour drive to the state capitol building in Austin on Tuesday. But when she saw dozens of Democrats in the legislature abruptly leave the state on Monday, blocking Republicans’ plan to enact new legislation to restrict voting access, the 74-year-old hopped into her car and drove east.

“​​I think it kicked ass,” Roth, who is from Hunt in the Texas Hill Country. “At least they have to listen to us and understand they have to represent everybody.”

On Tuesday morning, Roth was among hundreds of Texans who filled a cavernous underground conference room in the state capitol. They had come from all over the state, some driving hours, to meet with lawmakers and urge them to reject the bills. It was a lobbying day planned before the walkout, but took on new energy after it. When an organizer mentioned that Texas Democrats had brought the session to a halt by leaving the state, the room broke out into rapturous applause.

The moment underscored the jolt of energy Democrats in the state house of representatives injected into the fight over voting rights this week by choosing to fly to Washington DC. Amid a months-long attack by Republican legislatures on voting access, Texas has quickly emerged as a kind of Alamo – a Hail Mary stand against a nakedly political effort to make it harder to vote in a state that saw its highest turnout in decades in 2020 and little evidence of voter fraud.

Many of the provisions in the bill are aimed at Harris county, home of Houston and the state’s most populous, which has grown to be one of the most diverse in the state in recent decades. In Houston, 45% of the population is Latinx, 22.6% is Black, and nearly 7% is Asian, according to census estimates. Officials in the county took creative steps in 2020 to expand voting access, including allowing drive-thru as well as 24-hour voting. Republicans unsuccessfully sought to invalidate the votes of 127,000 people who used drive-thru voting last year.

The lawmakers who left the state plan on remaining in the nation’s capitol until at least 6 August, denying the GOP-led legislature the quorum needed to proceed with legislation. Unfazed by threats of arrest from the legislature and Governor Greg Abbott, they’ve spent recent days lobbying Democrats in Congress to pass two significant federal voting rights bills, making the case that voting rights bills should be exempt from the filibuster, the Senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance legislation. The rule has allowed Republicans to stymie Democratic efforts to pass federal legislation so far.

Texas Republicans have vowed that they will call a new special session to pass the voting bill if this one fails. But even if they eventually succeed in enacting new restrictions, the Texas Democrats have energized voters who have watched Republicans both in Texas and across the US ram through voting restrictions over the objections of Democrats.

“I am so happy they finally grew some balls,” said Michelle Anderson, 51, who traveled to Austin from Dallas to meet with lawmakers. “For somebody to stand up for me and risk going to jail so that I can vote. It sends a strong message.”

After the walkout, many saw federal voting legislation from Washington as the last hope for Texas. Senate Democrats are trying to pass two separate significant bills: one would require states with a history of voting discrimination, like Texas, to get voting changes approved before they go into effect. The second would implement sweeping changes to voting policy, including requiring states to offer mail-in voting to everyone, as well as requiring automatic, same day and online voter registration (Texas has none of the three).

“Those have to be enacted to stop the shenanigans that are happening in our state. I believe that’s our only hope,” said Joy Davis, 45, who came to the state capitol from Houston.

That’s the hope of Texas lawmakers who are camped out in Washington, too.

“Breaking quorum has been important in elevating voting rights to the national conversation once again,” said Rafael Anchía, a Democrat from Dallas who chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said in an interview. “We are hopeful that the Senate will provide Texas with a federal backstop because the state legislature has proven repeatedly that it’s willing to discriminate against the freedom to vote.”

While the Texas house stalled on Tuesday, business under the pink limestone of the Texas capitol continued normally, with tourists flowing in and out of the building, pausing to take pictures.

But the Texas senate, which, unlike the house, still had a quorum, passed its own version of the new voting restrictions. The bill requires identification for mail-in ballots, prohibits local election officials from proactively sending out mail-in applications for voters and bans 24-hour and drive-thru voting.

Rita Robles, a 51-year-old from Houston, was one of several people who called out the bans on 24-hour and drive-thru voting as the most alarming in the bill. “It’s taking away from people, like I said, who are blue collar. They can’t go to the polls on regular business days, business hours. They’re working, providing for their families, and they just don’t have the time,” she said. More than half of the voters who used both drive-thru and extended voting hours in Harris county last year were Black, Hispanic, or Asian, according to an analysis by the Texas Civil Rights Project.

It’s not yet clear how the fight in Texas will end. Democrats may be able to use the leverage from their walkout to try to negotiate a more acceptable bill. Republicans may dig in and refuse to compromise. Federal reform from Washington could come and significantly change the bills. Or it could not.

Regardless of the outcome, Texas Democrats have sent a clear message at a moment when there is heightened fears that nothing can be done to stop an unprecedented effort to restrict the right to vote.

Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democrat from San Antonio, said he was sitting in the hallway of his hotel in Washington late Tuesday evening when he realized he had traveled to Washington, met with several United States senators, and spent more than an hour with the vice president of the United States, all in a little more than 24 hours.

“That just shows the level of interest and the attention that Texas Democrats are bringing to the nation’s capitol asking for a national voting standard,” he said.

“I can tell you we are here for the long haul.”