Ten days after fleeing the state to break the legislature’s quorum, Texas’s Democratic lawmakers are considering their options to return, ABC 13 Houston first reported. The lawmakers have nearly run out the clock on the special legislative session, which will expire on August 19. Texas Democrats fled the state to prevent Republicans from redrawing the state’s congressional districts, but they have little hope to finally block the new map.

Last month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) called a special legislative session, which convened on July 21, to address 18 agenda items, including flood relief, tax cuts, and protecting unborn children, human trafficking victims, and privacy in women’s spaces.

The special session was also allowed to address redistricting, after Trump’s Department of Justice threatened to sue Texas over racially gerrymandered districts. When a House Committee approved a map tilting five congressional seats in the GOP’s favor, most of the state’s Democratic representatives skedaddled. Their absence left the House without the quorum needed to conduct business.

The absent Democrats visited like-minded safe havens such as New York and, ironically, Illinois. Democrats in these states (plus California) openly threatened to gerrymander their own state maps even further if Texas followed through on its redistricting plan.

Threats of arrests, fines, and removal from office did not convince the absent lawmakers to return. On Tuesday, Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) said the House will adjourn the special session on Friday if it still lacks a quorum (the special session can technically continue until next Tuesday, but there is no point in continuing if the House does not have enough members present to conduct business).

Texas Democrats are trying to spin this delay tactic — exhausting the special session — as a victory. But their delay may not ultimately block the redistricting bill because the Texas governor has the authority to call the legislature for as many month-long special sessions as he wants. Would they really plan to vacation in Chicago indefinitely?

In fact, Governor Abbott plans to use that authority immediately. “With the Texas House and Senate today announcing they are prepared to sine die on Friday, I will call the Texas Legislature back immediately for Special Session #2,” he announced on Tuesday. “The Special Session #2 agenda will have the exact same agenda, with the potential to add more items critical to Texans. There will be no reprieve for the derelict Democrats who fled the state and abandoned their duty to the people who elected them. I will continue to call special session after special session until we get this Texas first agenda passed.”

In the second special session, Texas Republicans will begin their drive with the redistricting ball already placed at midfield. The Texas Senate already passed the redistricting bill on Tuesday, and the bill has already passed out of the House committee. It now only needs approval on the House floor before it can be sent to Governor Abbott for his signature.

“From the get-go, [Texas House Democrats] knew they were never going to stay out of Texas forever,” admitted a Democratic aide to NBC News. “People didn’t expect them to. The goal that the smartest among them set was: We need to bring national attention to this issue so other states are ready to counter if Republicans really do this. They’ve done that.”

“This is a communications battle,” the aide explained. “When you’re in the minority, what you have is a bullhorn and an ability to draw attention to issues. Eventually, the majority will vote. That’s democracy.” As used here, the word “democracy” stands for any form of representative government.

In bowing to reality, this aide inadvertently admitted that Texas House Democrats behaved contrary to the principles of representative government. When a minority takes extra-legal action to prevent the majority from exercising their will, that’s — well, to use the same word, that’s the opposite of “democracy.”

Yet Texas Democrats believe they can force Republicans to pay the political price for their antics by blaming Republicans for delaying flood relief legislation. “If and when Texas House Democrats breaking quorum decide to go home is squarely dependent on the actions the Governor, Speaker, and Texas Republicans in charge make with regard to prioritizing flood victims over redistricting that hurts Texans,” said the Texas Democratic Caucus.

The flaw in this strategy is that it assumes voters are stupid. Most voters can connect the dots necessary to conclude that the party going out of its way to obstruct the legislative session is, in fact, the party delaying flood relief legislation from passing. The logic is similar to that at play in a government shutdown, and the political consequences are similar, too.

Texas Republicans have shown themselves just as adept at this messaging war. “Every hour you remain away is time stolen from those Texans in need,” declared Burrows. “Each one of you knows that eventually you will come back, and we will pass the priorities of the special session. But with each passing day, the political cost of your absence is rising, and it will be paid in full.”

Political culpability may not be the only price absent Democrats have to pay. On August 5, Abbott asked the Supreme Court of Texas to remove House Minority Leader Gene Wu (D) and others from office for their role in vacating their positions. “Representative Wu and the other Texas House Democrats have shown a willful refusal to return, and their absence for an indefinite period of time deprives the House of the quorum needed to meet and conduct business on behalf of Texans,” he announced. “Texas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans, and there must be consequences.”

On Tuesday, the Texas Supreme Court set an expedited briefing schedule, requiring both parties to file all briefs by September 4. “My lawsuit in the Texas Supreme Court against the ring leader of the derelict Democrats in the Texas House goes to the next level,” insisted Abbott. “Closer to consequences for Texas Democrats running away from their duties and spending the summer in California and Illinois.”

This same Tuesday, coincidentally, is the same day when the Senate passed the redistricting bill, and when ABC 13 first reported that Texas Democrats were considering their return. Perhaps they chose to return before a potentially adverse court ruling both cost them their seats and set a precedent that would ruin Texas Democrats’ freedom to pull similar stunts in the future.

Texas Democrats always knew they would have to return eventually, and that they couldn’t stop the Republican majority from passing a redistricting bill. Having made their messaging point, their absence only served to increase their own legal jeopardy. It turns out that a legislative minority cannot obstruct a legislative majority after all.