AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Midnight was coming fast. Any moment now, the Texas House of Representatives would sign off on one of the most restrictive new voting laws in America.

It was 10:35 p.m. Suddenly, every Democrat still on the floor got a text message.

Members, take your key and leave the chamber discreetly. Do not go to the gallery. Leave the building.

The walkout was a go, and minutes later, Senate Bill 7 was dead. Left without enough House members to conduct business under the rules before a midnight deadline Sunday, Texas Republicans were forced to abandon for now an elections overhaul they had crammed with previously unseen restrictions during closed-door negotiations, including one prohibiting Sunday morning early voting a time widely used by Black churchgoers in souls to the polls campaigns.

It was a dramatic, last-ditch revolt: One by one, Democrats headed for the exits and disappeared down corridors. The voting machines on their abandoned desks were locked. In the unlikely event of a call of the House an extreme remedy to secure a quorum, mobilizing state troopers to forcibly bring absent members back Democrats chose a hideout that was unmistakable in meaning: Mt. Zion Baptist Church, a Black house of worship more than 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) away.

The rebellion gave Democrats and voting rights allies nationwide a morale-raising moment after months of racking up losses in GOP-controlled statehouses, where Republicans have rushed to enact a wave of strict voting laws in response to former President Donald Trump s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

But the walkout in Texas is likely only a fleeting victory: Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who had declared new voting laws a priority in Texas, barely waited for every Democrat to flee the House floor before declaring that he would order a special session to finish the job. And hes already begun punishing lawmakers, saying Monday that he would veto the part of the state budget that funds legislators salaries.

No pay for those who abandon their responsibilities, Abbott tweeted.

He has not said when he will drag lawmakers back to work.

I understand why they were doing it, said Republican state Rep. Briscoe Cain, who carried the bill in the House. But we all took an oath to Texans that we would be here to do our jobs.