AUSTIN, Texas — It is the waning days of the Texas legislative session and tensions are flaring. Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for a June special session after a few of his priority bills failed to pass a House deadline.

Some Republicans are joining the push to address these conservative issues next month. There is already going to be a special session in the fall for redistricting, but they now want an additional one. Meanwhile, Texas Democrats are disappointed, arguing there are other priority issues to reconvene the legislature.

Tuesday night, the minority party did everything they could to delay consideration of those controversial Republican-led bills, which included one that would force student athletes to play for teams matching their biological sex. One prohibited local governments from hiring outside lobbyists and another would have punished social media companies for "censoring" Texans.

When the clock struck midnight and the House did not get to those bills, lawmakers were either disappointed or relieved.

“There's so many issues that we really need to be fixing in Texas, and we [have] barely touched [them].  We have spent more time on just drama bills," said Rep. Michelle Beckley, D-Carrollton. Beckley was among a group of Democrats waving transgender pride flags after the deadline was reached.

Less than 12 hours later, Patrick sent out his tweet calling for an immediate special session, because a few of his divisive red meat bills were effectively defeated by that House deadline.

“It will affect us negatively, if we don't pass the things we just talked about. I mean, this is, this is not my priority. This is not just the Freedom Caucus’s priority. This is our voters' priorities," Rep. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, told Capital Tonight. "We're the voice of conservatives in their state capital."

In a statement, sent a couple of hours after Patrick's tweet, Gov. Abbott responded saying, "Some are trying to end the game before the time clock has run out. There’s still time remaining for the House and Senate to work together to get important conservative legislation to my desk. Members in both chambers need to be spending every minute of every day to accomplish that mission."

Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser said he is convinced national politics remain the major driver during elections and believes it will be the case during next year's midterms. But Steinhauser said this session had the "most conservative agenda of any legislature" he could remember in a long time and would not be surprised if these issues come up during the campaign season. He pointed to bills that would allow the permitless carry of handguns and ban abortions at six weeks.

“You'll see Gov. Abbott talk about them in his primary campaign. I think you'll see other members of the Texas House and Senate point to these things and say, 'You elected us, you sent us to Austin, and here's how we delivered,'" Steinhauser said.

​He mentioned how GOP members have been "emboldened" after not losing a single seat in the state legislature and congressional delegation.

It is possible for Republicans to tack on provisions into proposed legislation that were able to advance. But Middleton, chair of the House Freedom Caucus, said because of the priority of these bills he believes there needs to be a special session. He said the group stands behind what the lieutenant governor has asked for.

“This is what our voters want to see happen, and the Republican primary voters in the general election voters have spoken. We have a Republican majority in this building.” Middleton said. "They said Republicans are going to lose their majority of the Texas House. Guess what we did? We still have 83 [members]."

Beckley wants to remind her colleagues she flipped the House seat that belonged to the author of the 2017 bill that targeted transgender Texans. The "bathroom bill" would have required Texans to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender on their birth certificate. Beckley's seat, which was GOP-held for more than 20 years, was one of a dozen Democrats picked up from Republicans in 2018.

"People do not like being attacked, and attacking a minority is just horrific, so I think that we will keep fighting, and we're prepared to keep fighting," Beckley said.