HOUSTON — As the Republican Party of Texas Convention began last week, signs of unity appeared everywhere. But by the end of the three-day biennial gathering, it was not clear how strong that harmony would remain.
Thousands of delegates saw it on the walls of the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, where digital posters for the governor professed that “unity drives victory.” They heard the same message in speech after speech, when every speaker encouraged them to put aside differences after a brutal primary season and band together to defeat “radical” Democrats in the fall’s midterm elections.
“Sometimes in primaries, the differences feel massive,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who will be the state’s senior senator, told delegates. “Until you look to November and see the differences with the other side, there are very real differences on the ballot.”
Speaking at the conference for the first time since 2018, Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to demolish Democrats — but urged those gathered to stick together to accomplish the task. His once-foe former state Sen. Don Huffines, the GOP nominee for comptroller of public accounts, said he endorsed all Republicans on the ticket and told the same crowd that they had to “crush the atheists and the leftists.”
However, the unity showed signs of fracturing throughout the week.
Delegates ousted their party chair, shaking up the top of the Texas GOP months before a crucial election. They booed the first sitting Texas House leader to address the convention, even after he oversaw Republicans claim a wish list of socially conservative victories in the Legislature. Some lamented what they described as poor attendance at the convention, despite a slate of top elected officials on the schedule. Meanwhile, it became apparent that some age-old fights, like disagreements over tort reform, remain far from settled.
At risk is the unity that, according to party leaders and elected officials, will be imperative to ensuring Texas remains ruby red as the party braces for a bruising midterm cycle in which Democrats hope to claim a statewide victory for the first time since 1994. But some of the same GOP leaders professing unity did not always practice it during the convention.
In his Friday speech, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick suggested that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn was a “sore loser” after being defeated in his primary runoff by Attorney General Ken Paxton. He chastised Cornyn for making “bad comments” after the May 26 race and not backing Paxton.
“Patrick is worried about losing in November,” Cornyn said Saturday. “He should be.”
To be sure, Patrick also called for GOP solidarity, which he has been advocating for. Before the primary between Cornyn and Paxton, he warned that the Republicans will have a difficult time maintaining control of the Texas House. He trained his fire during his speech more pointedly at Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate who will face Paxton.
Still, despite such warnings about the threat Democrats present as they tap into anti-Trump sentiment, the Texas GOP proceeded with pursuing a hard right agenda that will seek to further crack down on various immigrant populations in the state, secure its control over elections and erase the ever-thinning line between church and state.
No issue received more attention in party committees, panel discussions over lunch and platform deliberations than anti-Islam sentiment, a threat identified by Republicans who have vowed to halt the “Islamification” of Texas.
”This is a crisis, this is an emergency,” one woman told a group tasked with drafting the party’s legislative priorities, pleading they stop Sharia law. “I need your help.”
Lack of unity
Republican Party of Texas Chair Abraham George started the convention with an assortment of endorsements for his reelection, including one from Paxton, whose grassroots support helped propel him to become the GOP nominee for Senate.
Neither the public backing nor the party’s legislative accomplishments last year could save George from being canned by delegates.
George continued to preside over general sessions after conceding defeat to his former running mate, D’Rinda Randall, whose campaign knocked George’s leadership even though she served as his vice chair for the last two years.
The one-term chair had faced criticism for the party’s finances and struggles to engage members.
Nevertheless, George tried to ease any differences with his concession statement, writing that “our mission continues” and calling for unity as his shocked supporters pledged to keep their new leader accountable.
One of the more contentious displays of friction occurred at a booth for the new “Sharia-Free Texas Caucus,” around the corner from a pair of giant cowboy boots where attendees stopped to pose for photos.
Delegates Amjad Muhtaseb, Samar Halabi and Tarek Hussein got into a heated exchange with Rep. Brent Money of Greenville, who founded the caucus, over religion. The party tried to remove Muhtaseb and Hussein as delegates for their ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights group that has been declared a terrorist organization by the governor. The convention could not remove them under party rules.
Hussein is the founder and former president of the group’s Houston chapter, while Muhtaseb attended a CAIR press conference in solidarity with the organization after the governor’s designation.
George encouraged them to depart the GOP.
“You know where the entire body stands,” he said from the lectern in the main ballroom at one point. “I would strongly advise you to leave our caucus. There is a Democrat convention happening in a couple of weeks. Join them.”
On Friday, House Speaker Dustin Burrows made history by taking the stage to address delegates, which no sitting speaker had previously done. Immediately, jeers emerged from some areas. When he said he would keep his speech short, someone shouted “thank you!”
In a conference room up a set of stairs, a few dozen people gathered for a presentation by a group that opposes Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the biggest donor in Texas politics that advocates for tort reform measures. The new organization, called Republicans Against TLR, focused on the contributions Texans for Lawsuit Reform had made to Democrats over the years and critiqued legislation boosted by the group.
During the question portion of the presentation, a man noted that the lieutenant governor’s son, Ryan Patrick, who had received his own share of boos during a speech earlier in the day, was the new chief executive of Texans for Lawsuit Reform.
“Do you think he sold out?” the man asked. “Is he a reformer or what?”
Behind the man in the back of the room, Ryan Patrick stood watching.
Hard right
The week began with members of the public raising their biggest worries, which extended from stopping Sharia law in its tracks to stopping data centers from invading quieter parts of Texas.
Party delegates, it appeared, listened.
Rep. Cody Vasut of Angleton said at a data centers panel discussion that he intends to work on legislation that would expand local counties’ authority to regulate the development of data centers. Such proposals have long caused disagreement between lawmakers who want to curtail local government’s power and members of the Legislature who want to be attuned to residents’ worries and concerns.
But the conflict is reaching a boiling point in the current interim as residents across Texas learn about plans for massive data centers near their homes, sometimes through open information requests not from developers. Furious and worried, many have taken to testifying at county commissioners’ hearings to beg their local officials to stop the plans, but most have been unsuccessful.
Taking on data centers might also place the state in the rare position of being at odds with President Trump, who is championing data centers and has said he does not want state-level regulations.
“It matters that Texas is able to maintain its ability to pass legislation that you want us to pass,” state Sen. Angela Paxton of McKinney said during another panel discussion on the hot topic. “I understand the idea of regulatory consistency in the United States.”
But, she added, “we don’t want what is done at the federal level to be weaker than what we are doing in Texas.”
After years of lurching ever to the right, it appeared the party that has controlled state government for a generation will continue that trajectory.
Delegates edited the party platform its statement of beliefs, to support the expansion of school vouchers, challenging court precedent that grants undocumented students the right to free public education and a variety of proposed solutions to Republican concerns about Islam.
The platform now states that: public schools should teach that Sharia law is incompatible with the U.S. Constitution; schools and businesses should be stopped from being required to provide time for prayer multiple times a day; and no laws should be passed requiring schools to serve halal food or other cuisines that are in accordance with other religious dietary standards.
At the same time, the platform was amended to reaffirm conservative Christian values that have defined some of the Texas GOP’s biggest victories in recent years, like displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools and allowing for prayer time for Christian students.
For instance, the party principles now state that the party recognizes the “historic and continuing influence of Christianity in securing our rights and liberties as endowed by our Creator.”
In his speech, Dan Patrick — a champion of Christian conservative values — embraced the Christian nationalist label he said Democrats want to stick on him.
“To me, that means I love God and I love America,” he said to a roar of approval. “If that’s what a Christian nationalist is, here I am. That means that they’re anti-Christian, anti-country.”
Disclosure: Texans for Lawsuit Reform has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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