Texas GOP convention updates: Texas Republican convention wraps up
The Texas Republican Convention in Houston wrapped up Saturday, with the finalized platform and legislative priorities of the party to come.
Delegates from across the state voted on various items, with the final lists being released in coming days.
Here are the legislative priorities that were voted on. Delegates picked eight.
- Protect our elections
- Ban Democrat Chairs
- Abolish abortion in Texas
- Eliminate property tax
- Stop sexualizing Texas kids
- Protect electric grid
- Ban gender modification of children
- Secure border and protect Texans
- Parental rights and education freedom
- Protect medical freedom
- Defend our gun rights
- Ban taxpayer-funded lobbying
- Stop Executive overreach
- Convention of States
- Save women sports
There are 275 platform proposals for delegates to decide on.
Delegates also passed on voice votes a resolution rejecting the results of the 2020 election where President Joe Biden was elected, declaring that there was voter fraud, though there’s been no evidence of widespread fraud, and a resolution rejecting the bipartisan gun legislation being negotiated by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and the Republican senators working on it.
Sid Miller says Joe Biden is growing Republican party
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller was among the speakers to address delegates on Sunday before they began their day’s work finalizing legislative priorities and the party platform.
Miller used much of his speaking slot to criticize policies under the Biden administration — a common theme during the convention. But Miller, introduced as “Trump’s man in Texas,” pitched to the crowd that President Joe Biden as the person “who’s doing more to grow the Republican Party and the conservative movement than anyone I know.”
“You thought I was going to talk about Donald Trump,” Miller said. “He’s been great, but let’s give credit where credit is due. Don’t laugh, hear me out.”
He said Biden is causing defection to the Republican Party every day.
“Who ordered the border wide open? Joe Biden.” Miller said. “$5 gasoline, say it: Joe Biden. Increased inflation: Joe Biden. Increased electricity costs: Joe Biden. Critical race theory in schools: Joe Biden.”
He continued on a bit longer before declaring “all these woke policies are driving more and more Republicans and Independents and Democrats to the Party every day.”
Miller also took issue with a Department of Agriculture policy that, according to the Argus Leader, could lead to schools losing federal dollars for free-and-reduced meals if they don’t follow federal LGBTQ inclusivity rules.
Delegates’ work was still underway around 4:20 p.m.
Texas AG Ken Paxton stands by lawsuit challenging 2020 election results
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he’d file his lawsuit challenging the election results in four battleground states “all over again.”
He made the remarks during Friday’s afternoon general meeting of delegates at the Texas Republican convention. During the speech, Paxton — who is seeking reelection promoted the unfounded idea that there was fraud in the 2020 election.
Following the November 2020 election, Paxton filed a lawsuit against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the U.S. Supreme Court, the merits of which was disputed by the states and law experts.
“It was a firestorm,” Paxton said. “We were attacked, even by Republicans in our own state. They threatened to disbar me. They’re still trying to disbar me. We were called every bad day in the book. But we knew what was right, and we did it.”
The Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit in December 2020.
“To this day, people hate us for what we did,” Paxton said. “But I can tell you...that if I had to do it all over again, I’d do it just the way we did it.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick took the stage shortly after Paxton. Much of his speech focused on former President Donald Trump and uniting the Republican Party after the primaries to beat Democrats.
“We cannot have that Beto O’Rourke win,” Patrick said. “If he were to win, every statewide Republican will lose, every Supreme Court Justice would lose, and that would be the end of America, because we are the only state standing that’s leading this country. We cannot have Beto O’Rourke and the social leftist, gun taking, abortion funding, tax hiking, thug hugging, police defunding, Green New Dealing and fossil fuels squealing, drag queen promoting and border opening, bunch of idiots running the state of Texas. They can’t solve a complex problem because they can’t even define what a woman is.”
Cornyn booed as he talks gun bill at Republican Convention
Sen. John Cornyn, the negotiator of potential gun legislation in the wake of the shooting in Uvlade, told convention-goers that policies on the table include support for schools, mental health resources and making sure that violent criminals and the mentally ill cannot buy firearms.
“I will not under any circumstances support new restrictions for law abiding gun owners,” Cornyn said. “That will always be my red line, and despite what some of you may have heard, the framework that we are working on is consistent with that red line.”
His speech before a room of delegates were met by boos from the crowd, including as he took the stage, according to a tweet from a reporter with NPR’s The Texas Newsroom.
Cornyn said Democrats pushed for an assault weapons ban and tried to get a three week mandatory waiting period for all gun purchases, and said he said “no.” Cornyn said he also opposed universal background checks, magazine bans and licensing requirements.
Cornyn said his guiding principle is making sure good people have guns and bad people don’t. Cornyn said he’s passionate about the constitution and takes seriously the right to bear arms. What happened in Uvalde reflected the “callousness of a human heart” not flaws of the constitution, he said.
“If we’re going to change anything in this country, it should not be the right of law abiding Americans to keep and bear arms,” he said. “That’s what I made clear to my fellow senators who approached me asking me to work on mental health and school safety legislation.”
During the speech Cornyn expressed interest in enforcing laws that are already on the books.
Senator Ted Cruz says taking away guns ‘won’t make people safer’
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said the shooting at an elementary school shooting in Uvalde last month was horrific, but pushed back against restrictions on access to guns.
His appearance at the Texas Republican Convention on Thursday comes as senators negotiate a bipartisan gun bill. Cruz’s Texas colleague Sen. Johns Cornyn is the lead negotiator.
“If we lived in a sane rational world, we be coming together saying, ‘How do we stop violent crime?’ We go after the criminals. We go after the felons. We go after the fugitives. We go after those with serious mental illness trying to illegally buy guns,” Cruz said.
He said Democrats want to take away law abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
“It doesn’t make people safer, and it is contrary to the Constitution,” Cruz said.
Cruz recently spoke at the NRA convention in Houston days after the shooting, which he said he was proud to do.
Cruz painted the picture of an America in “crisis,” condemning “chaos” on the U.S.-Mexico border and COVID-19 policies that were implemented earlier in the pandemic to curb the spread of the virus. He joked that airplane peanuts cure COVID, which is why they can be eaten without a mask on.
“Now somewhere in the back, there’s some reporter pulling out his notepad saying, ‘There you go again. Misinformation. He’s saying peanuts cure COVID,’ “ Cruz said. “No you numbskulls, I’m saying this was this was garbage, and it was always garbage, and everyone knew it was garbage.”
The line was met with standing applause from some in the audience.
He also mentioned Disney, which has been a target of Republican criticism. Cruz’s focus of rebukes Friday was the animated movie “Lightyear,” which includes a kiss between two lesbian characters. And he criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent remarks on “Ru Paul’s Drag Race All Stars” where she said “your freedom of expression of yourselves in drag is what America is all about,” according to The Hill.
What do TX Republican Convention-goers think of new Senate District 10?
State Rep. Phil King, who is poised to become the next representative of Senate District 10, said infrastructure of different kinds will likely be a major policy issue in the newly-drawn district.
He hosted a breakfast Friday morning for Senate District 10 delegates who are in Houston for the Texas Republican convention.
The district was drawn to stretch into more rural areas of the state and in a way that makes it more likely to elect a Republican. The North Texas seat has flipped between being represented by Democrats and Republicans in the past.
It had fallen within Tarrant County, but now includes party of Tarrant and Parker counties, as well as all of Johnson, Palo Pinto, Stephens, Shackelford, Callahan and Brown counties.
In the fast-growing parts of the district, issues like transportation and wastewater management will be areas of focus, along with managing growth, he said.
“I told somebody the other day, I said, ‘I think for the rest of my legislative career, I’m gonna be spending a ton of time on transportation and just basic infrastructure’ because... we got to be able to move,” King said.
King said it will also be important to maintain the cultures of the distinct communities in the area.
“You want people to have that culture for their community, so they’re engaged in the community and that’s home, not just, ‘I’m in the Metroplex,” King said.
In the more rural parts of the district, one issue will be working on broadband access, he said.
Sen. Beverly Powell, who currently represents the district and has argued it was redistricted in a way that is racially discriminatory, announced in April she was dropping out of the race for reelection, setting up King, a Weatherford Republican, to represent the district.
Some at the delegate breakfast had concerns about the district now splitting Parker County.
“It’s divided our county,” said said Rachael Watson a delegate who’s involved with Parker County Republican Women. “Having two different leaders is great, right, but when you come together as a body, you can’t really come together as a body because your leaders are taking care of different things.”
Others were happy with the new boundaries.
It’s nice to get to know and work with people from other counties at the convention, said Susan Valliant of Arlington. And it’s not unusual for a seat to include both rural and urban areas, said former State Rep. Bill Zedler, who serves as a delegate.
Chaplain Rich Stoglin, who is president of the Fredrick Douglass Republicans of Tarrant County, said it’s important the rural areas be incorporated with the urban areas because often rural citizens are left out.
“I believe if executed correctly, you will see a vast change and how rural people and urban people communicate better with each other rather than isolating each other and everybody’s in their own smokestack, so to speak, and we don’t need that,” said Stoglin.
Abbott goes after Biden, Beto at convention reception
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott hammered his November opponent Beto O’Rourke and the Biden administration as he addressed a crowd of Texas Republican Convention attendees Thursday evening.
“The Biden administration has been punitive to the people of the United States and punitive to our values,” Abbott said. “The only thing worse would be the Biden combination with Beto in the state of Texas. It would destroy the state that we love.”
He gave the remarks at an outdoor bar in walking distance of the Houston convention center where the state convention is being held through Saturday.
Some there wore Donald Trump hats. Others were adorned with Texas or U.S. flags. Many snacked on chips and queso or sipped a beer in the humid Houston weather.
Abbott spoke on issues like the economy, police funding and school safety.
“Let me be clear, we will not tolerate what happened in Uvalde, Texas,” Abbott said, noting steps he’s taken to start addressing school safety in the weeks since the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.
He did not address potential changes to state gun laws when discussing the shooting.
Abbott said parents “have the right to choose a school that is best for their child.”
His first policy area to touch on was border security, after being introduced by Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council. Abbott took the stage soon after the introduction and chanted “Let’s Go Brandon” as he began his remarks, adding “Wouldn’t you know the president of the Border Patrol Council would be named Brandon.”
He called the border under Biden a “disaster” — criticizing President Joe Biden and his November opponent throughout the speech.
Parked at the event was an ambulance fashioned as the “Beto truth response unit.” He said it would be following O’Rourke around, “exposing all of the lies that he tells.” Abbott also said his campaign had a related website accusing O’Rourke of telling lies, at betolies.com.
O’Rourke’s campaign pushed back, criticizing Abbott’s response to the Uvalde shooting and the governor’s account of what happened in a news conference soon after the shooting where he said “it could have been worse” were it not for the way law enforcement responded. Abbott later said he was “misled” and was relaying information that had been told to him.
“Abbott should call a special session and finally stop blocking popular, bipartisan, and commonsense solutions that will keep Texans safe,” said O’Rourke campaign spokesperson Chris Evans.
Republican elections in Texas were also the subject of remarks by House Speaker Dade Phelan, who spoke at an event hosted by the Texas Republican County Chairmen’s Association.
“We now have a group of battle tested Republicans,” he said, adding that between policies from the Biden administration and redistricting, Republicans “have a solid path forward this cycle.”
He said there are opportunities for Republicans in South Texas, pointing to Mayra Flores’ recent win in the 34th Congressional District as an example, and Phelan expressed a desire to get more women, Hispanic and Black Texans in elected office.
He criticized Democratic Chair Gilberto Hinojosa for saying the congressional seat would “rightfully return to Democratic hands” in January 2023.
“The arrogance of Democrats to assume that a seat belongs to them. That an area of the state belongs to them. That Hispanics belong to them, and African Americans belong to them,” Phelan said. “I hope they keep that attitude going through November because they’re gonna wake up with the biggest hangover the day after election they’ve ever seen in the history of the state of Texas.”
Phelan also pushed back against removing Democrats from committee chair positions.
“Give me a Republican priority that died because of a Democrat chair,” Phelan said.
Speakers address delegates at Republican convention
The Texas Republican Party chairman offered a rebuke of the Biden administration as speakers took the stage at the Texas Democratic convention on Thursday.
Chairman Matt Rinaldi, Texas Rep. Briscoe Cain, candidate for Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham and Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears were among those to address a hall of delegates as the convention’s main programming started in Houston.
As attendees listened on, many were wearing bright red — the color of the Republican Party. Outside the ballroom were elephant statues, the animal that represents the party: one painted with a Texas flag and another wearing a cowboy hat reading “Texans for Trump.”
Rinaldi described a “a fight to save the American we love” and called on Republicans to “take the fight directly to the left and go on offense” by taking steps like not appointing Democrats to committee chair positions in the Texas House of Representatives.
He criticized Biden and Democratic leadership for “destroying” the economy, open borders and “forcing vaccines” and “depriving our children of a normal childhood.” They want the government to have more power and want to “destroy the Western nuclear family as the centerpiece of society,” he said.
“They believe natural rights, due process and color blindness and equality before the law are tools of systemic racism,” Rinaldi told a ballroom of delegates, who during the afternoon will attend committee meetings and other convention events. “And that the government should engage in wealth redistribution and racial discrimination against so-called privileged classes to ensure an equal outcome. And if you don’t buy into their plan, they’ll come after your kids and turn them against you.”
Placed on the rows of chairs in the convention hall were fliers from Conservative Republican of Texans founded by Houston GOP activist Steve Hotze, including one headlined “Be Alert and Aware of the Homosexual Agenda.” Another flier, the distributor of which is unclear, opposes a pride coalition announced by the Republican National Convention — a move rejected by the state party. A spokesperson for the party said it did not distribute the fliers.
In another convention hall area, booths were set up promoting Republican candidates and conservative organizations, including Patriot Mobile, a Grapevine cellphone company that calls itself “America’s only Christian conservative wireless service provider.” The company backed candidates in local school board races and has a large presence at the convention.
A booth sold hats promoting former President Donald Trump for election in 2024. Another for Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller’s reelection had a pinned in area for a cow with long horns.
Texas Republican Party Convention begins
The Texas Republican Party convention is bringing GOP leaders from across the state to Houston.
The bulk of the convention’s programming starts Thursday and runs through Sunday, though some meetings have taken place since Monday.
The convention falls in gubernatorial election year with high profile races, like the contest between Gov. Greg Abbott and Democrat Beto O’Rourke on the ticket. In a Wednesday campaign email, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — who is also up for reelection — said those attending the three day event will come together with a common goal: “Keeping Texas red this November and for generations to come!”
Patrick and Abbott are among those expected to make appearances at the convention, but the governor is not expected to speak to delegates from a main stage where other politicians and party leaders had already begun giving speeches Monday morning.
Patrick said he’ll speak to delegates early Friday afternoon. Abbott is scheduled to host a welcome reception Thursday evening where a spokesperson said he’ll be giving remarks.
“Governor Abbott and First Lady Abbott are excited to join the delegates and look forward to hosting a kickoff to what will be the beginning of a great Republican wave growing across the state,” Spokesperson Renae Eze said in a statement.
Other speakers include U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz — who’s visit comes as the Senate negotiates a bipartisan gun bill, on which Cornyn has taken the lead, following last month’s mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school.
Party chair person, vice chair person and the Republican Party’s platform will also be selected during the convention.
Texas Democrats are holding their convention from July 14-16 in Dallas
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 10:49 AM.
