GOP tried to shut down Oregon’s legislature to protest a trans bill. They got what’s coming to them

The 10 Republican Oregon state senators who walked out of the legislature for six weeks last year can’t run for reelection, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled this week. The senators had walked out to stall progress on hundreds of bills, including ones on transgender healthcare, abortion, and firearm reform.

Last year, Oregon’s Secretary of State ruled that the senators weren’t allowed to run for re-election due to Measure 113, a 2022 voter-approved law that disqualifies legislators with more than 10 absences from being re-elected after their current term ends, the Associated Press reported.

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Five of the senators sued and argued to the high court that the law’s wording allows them to run for another term, since re-elections are held in November 2024, two months before their current terms officially end in January 2025. The parties in the lawsuit all wanted the court to rule before the March 2024 filing deadline for candidates seeking election.

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“We obviously disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling,” said state Sen. Tim Knopp (R) of the state Supreme Court’s decision. Knopp was of the five senators who sued. “But more importantly, we are deeply disturbed by the chilling impact this decision will have to crush dissent,” he added.

The 10 Republican senators began their walkout on May 3, 2023, leaving only two members of the Republican Senate caucus present. Their absence left the state’s 30-member senate unable to achieve a quorum, the minimum vote needed to conduct business. Their 43-day walkout was the longest in state history.

The bills the Republicans sought to stall included HB 2002, a bill expanding the gender-affirming services covered by Medicaid and private insurance to include laser hair removal and facial feminization surgery. The bill also shields patients and medical providers from lawsuits originating in states where gender-affirming care and abortions have been criminalized and allows minors of any age to get an abortion without parental consent.

Democrats said the bill would protect patients’ privacy rights, increase access to medical care across the state, and protect doctors who perform the procedures. Republicans said it would be costly to taxpayers and endanger young patients.

The Democrat-led Senate ultimately passed the bill among hundreds of others in just eight days at the end of the legislative session in June 2023.

Republican legislators in Oregon held similar walkout protests in 2019, 2020 and 2021; leading voters to pass the 2022 law punishing such absences in a 68% to 32% vote.