Republicans who are censured by their county party leaders may be blocked from the primary ballot under a new party rule passed last year, that is expected to be tested by the courts.
The executive committee of the Republican Party of Texas was in Austin on Saturday to finalize its first-ever legislative review, outlining a list of censurable offenses that some within the Texas GOP want to use to block certain House Republicans from the 2026 primary ballot.
Those Republicans, made up of delegates chosen by county parties, want to use the list to hold their elected officials to the state party’s priorities. But others see it as an illegal effort to deny officials from the primary ballot if they don’t follow the most fervent conservative activists’ aims 100% of the time.
Texas GOP Chair Abraham George told The Blast that he and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, who spoke to members of the SREC at a separate meeting with Gov. Greg Abbott earlier Saturday morning, have not discussed the party’s censure effort, a new “accountability” mechanism the state party approved at its 2024 convention. Still, Burrows likely knew the SREC members would be approving a hit list that could be used to keep “RINOs” from the ballot.
Earlier this year Burrows and the state party were at odds with one another.
The Texas GOP has spent money in Burrows’ district with ads opposing his speakership.
At the time, Burrows dismissed George’s critiques that the House was letting GOP priority bills stall in the House in an interview with Spectrum News’ James Barragán published May 7.
“I don’t respond to him. He’s not worth responding to,” Burrows said of George.
But the political environment in Texas has shifted drastically since then. George told The Blast on Saturday that Democrats breaking quorum has brought every Republican together in a way that’s been good for the party and the “grassroots,” referring to the Texas GOP’s leadership and activists.
“We have an open line with the speaker,” George said. “You don’t have to agree all the time. We probably are still going to have some disagreements. That’s part of the process.”
State Rep. Mitch Little, R-Lewisville, who has previously been critical of Burrows, likened it to “a new day of mutual respect and courtesy and cooperation between the party and the speaker.”
List of Grievances
The State Republican Executive Committee, or SREC, hunkered down in the Capitol auditorium and outlined censurable offenses that would apply to a majority of the GOP caucus, particularly Burrows’ top committee chairs.
The report itself doesn’t censure lawmakers. It’s a list of transgressions that county parties can use to censure their representatives and ask to bar them from the March primary ballot.
State Affairs Chair Ken King of Canadian, whose committee was a bottleneck for several GOP priority bills, was the subject of numerous censurable offenses. Even Public Education Chair Brad Buckley of Salado — who quarterbacked Gov. Greg Abbott’s No. 1 priority, school vouchers, across the finish line — was mentioned for not advancing a bill to deny public education to K-12 students who are in the country illegally, House Bill 4707.
The list of offenses include bills that failed to pass in the regular session that Abbott has added to the call for the special session.
A common theme throughout the meeting was that the report needs to be airtight because they may have to defend it in court, as George noted. Eric Opiela, an attorney helping several House Republicans with pending censures, was in the audience.
Source: Renzo Downey, The Texas Tribune
Photo Credit: Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune
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