As part of its official party platform, the Republican Party in Texas made a series of far-right declarations over the weekend. These included the assertion that President Biden was not legitimately elected, the issuing of a “rebuke” to Senator John Cornyn for his work on bipartisan gun legislation.
At the convention of the state party, which came to a close in Houston on Saturday, delegates cast their votes on the platform.
According to James Wesolek, who serves as the communications director for the Republican Party of Texas, the resolutions against Mr. Biden and Mr. Cornyn were accepted by the delegates via the use of a voice vote. Paper ballots were used by the larger group of convention delegates to vote on more than 270 platform planks, including the statements about homosexuality and additional stances on abortion that called for students to “learn about the Humanity of the Preborn Child.” These planks were among the more than 270 that were approved by a platform committee and then voted on by the larger group. On Sunday, the outcomes of those votes were not yet available; nonetheless, Mr. Wesolek said that it was very unlikely for a plank to be rejected by the whole convention after receiving approval from the committee.
The most recent examples of Texas Republicans moving further to the right in recent months are the resolutions and other declarations that adopted the false claims that former President Donald J. Trump was the victim of a stolen election in 2020. These resolutions and other declarations were the latest examples. In a primary runoff in May, Republicans renominated the Trump-backed candidate for state attorney general over a member of the Bush family. Republicans control both chambers of the legislature, the governor’s mansion, and every other statewide office. They have used their dominance to advance stringent anti-abortion legislation, create supply-chain problems by temporarily adding additional state inspections at the border, and renominate the Trump-backed candidate for attorney general.
Mr. Wesolek pushed back against the suggestion that the disclosures were connected to the rightward shift of the state party. Mr. Wesolek said this on Sunday, stating that “it was the will of the body.” We take great satisfaction in the fact that we are a grassroots party.
Conventions of state parties in Texas have, on occasion, served as forums for the public airing of disagreements within the parties. When Governor Rick Perry announced at the state Republican convention in 2012 that he would support the strong lieutenant governor over Ted Cruz in a disputed primary for the Senate seat, he was heartily booed by the convention attendees. On Friday, attendees at the convention heckled Mr. Cornyn, a major negotiator in the gun discussions with Democrats. During his address, Mr. Cornyn attempted to reassure Republicans that the new legislation would not infringe on the rights of gun owners. However, the convention attendees did not believe him.
In the resolution that the state party passed endorsing the unsubstantiated assertions that the 2020 election was stolen, it was alleged that “serious election fraud in important urban areas considerably altered the outcome in five crucial states in favour of” Mr. Biden. According to the continuation of the resolution, the state party does not recognise “the official results of the 2020 Presidential election, and we believe that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not properly elected by the people of the United States.”
The resolution exhorted Republicans to “turn up to vote” in November, and it also urged them to “bring your friends and family, volunteer for your local Republicans, and overwhelm any conceivable fraud.”
State Representative Steve Toth, a Republican who represents part of Montgomery County, a suburb of Houston, said that he left the convention before voting on the resolutions, although he indicated support for them. Toth is elected to represent the area since he lives in the area. He said that he had high hopes that the Biden resolution would “push Republicans and Democrats to join together and to ask for a forensic analysis” of the next election in 2020.
The text that read “show up to vote” was included in the Biden resolution, and Jason Vaughn, a Republican delegate from Houston who is 38 years old, took responsibility for inserting it.
Mary Lowe, a delegate from the suburbs of Fort Worth who was focused on education issues at the convention, said that she was shocked that the Republican colleagues she works with are paying attention to the outcome of the 2020 election.
Ms. Lowe, who is the head of the Tarrant County chapter of an organisation called Moms for Liberty, said that she was one of the delegates who publicly criticised Mr. Cornyn. However, she continued by saying that she was ashamed by the booing and that she did not take part in it.
Jamie Haynes, 47, a Republican delegate who lives in the Texas Panhandle with her husband and who says that together they own “a lot of guns,” stated that the boos that were directed at Mr. Cornyn showed that there was a “resounding strong opinion that Republicans do not want their gun rights shaved — not just taken away — but even just shaved in any form.” She added that this opinion showed that Republicans do not want their gun rights shaved in any
The resolution that was voted at the convention and which rebuked Mr. Cornyn condemned red flag legislation, which are laws that permit the seizure of weapons from those who are believed to be dangerous.