Republican Party of Texas
Republican Party of Texas | |
---|---|
Chairman | Abraham George |
Governor | Greg Abbott |
Lieutenant Governor | Dan Patrick |
House Speaker | Dade Phelan |
Founded | 1867 |
Headquarters | PO Box 2206 Austin, Texas 78768 |
Ideology | Conservatism |
National affiliation | Republican Party |
Colors | Red |
State House | 86 / 150 |
State Senate | 19 / 31 |
Statewide Executive Offices | 9 / 9 |
Board of Education | 10 / 15 |
U.S. House | 25 / 38 |
U.S. Senate | 2 / 2 |
State Supreme Court | 9 / 9 |
Website | |
www.texasgop.org | |
The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in the state of Texas. It is currently chaired by Abraham George, succeeding Matt Rinaldi who finished his term in 2024.[1] The party is headquartered in Austin, and is legally considered to be a political action committee. It is currently the state's ruling party, controlling the majority of Texas's U.S. House seats, both U.S. Senate seats, both houses of the state legislature, and all statewide executive offices.
History
A majority of the 600 delegates to the 1867 convention were black, but white delegates controlled the important positions.[2]
The Republican Party developed dramatically in Texas during the
In 1870, Edmund J. Davis was elected Governor but was soundly defeated in 1874. In the year 1876, Republicans had made gradual gains in Texas, earning nearly one-third of the statewide vote and electing a small number of candidates to the State Legislature (including several African Americans).
After the
Between the departing of Robert B. Hawley from his second U.S. House term in 1901 and the seating of Bruce Alger in 1954, the sole Republican to represent Texas in Congress was Harry M. Wurzbach, a politician from the German Texan community in the Hill Country who served in the U.S. House for most of the 1920s and left office in 1931.[4] The first Republican statewide primary was held in 1926, but drew only 15,239 voters. By contrast, the Democratic primary in the same year drew 821,234 voters, as disfranchisement was well established, and Texas was essentially a one-party, white-only voting state. Only two more Republican primaries were run in the next thirty-four years.[5]
1960–present
In 1961, James A. Leonard became the first
In 1966, two Republicans were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, including future President George H. W. Bush, for the first time since Reconstruction. That same year, three Republicans were elected to the Texas House of Representatives, and the first Republican was elected to the Texas Senate in 39 years. By 1972, Texas Republicans had increased their gains to 17 members of the Texas House and 3 members of the Texas Senate.[5]
The true turning point for Texas Republicans occurred in the May 1976 primary, when
104 years after the most recent previous Republican governor,
Since 1994, every statewide elected office has been held by a Republican. Both houses of the Texas Legislature feature Republican majorities. The last time Texas was carried by a Democratic presidential candidate was in 1976, when the state voted for Jimmy Carter.
George H. W. Bush (41st) and his son George W. Bush (43rd) are the only Republican Presidents from Texas.
-
President George H. W. Bush (1989–1993)
-
President George W. Bush (2001–2009)
In 2020, the party adopted the slogan "We are the storm", a phrase also used by believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory, which party chair Allen West[8][9] identified as a quotation from an unspecified poem.[10][11][12]
The party opposes LGBT rights, including the right to same-sex marriage.[13][14] The party's platform calls gay people "abnormal" and opposes "all efforts to validate transgender identity."[13] In 2022, all Texas Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives except Anthony Gonzalez voted against codifying the right to same-sex marriage into federal law.[14]
The 2024 State Convention adopted a rule to
2022 convention and reaction
Some 5,100 delegates and alternates attended the party's June 2022 convention in Houston, its first in three years. The
Former president Donald Trump praised the platform, saying that "they know that a Country cannot survive without Free and Fair Elections."[27] The resolutions were described by The Washington Post as embracing far-right rhetoric[28] and as a far-right platform by The New York Times.[29] Reason called the "LGBT component" of the platform "a weird throwback" that is "reminiscent of how conservatives used to talk about gay marriage back in the 1990s."[21] The decision to exclude the Log Cabin Republicans from the convention was criticized by Donald Trump Jr., who said in a statement to Breitbart News that it amounted to “canceling a group of gay conservatives who are standing in the breach with us”.[28] The American Conservative described the platform as showing a turn "toward a conservation of the spirit of Christendom, even if it means departing from the Union." that "gives the RNC much to ponder."[30] According to the Houston Chronicle, "Measures adopted to the party's platform at the convention are not set laws, rather they act as a 'mission statement' of sorts for the party over the next two years",[31] and according to the National Public Radio "It remains an open question as to how closely the priorities outlined in the 2022 platform reflect the views of regular Republicans in Texas".[20] Party platforms in Texas are non-binding on elected officials, a frequent source of frustration for the most hardcore partisan activists.[18]
Current elected officials
Texas Republicans currently control all elected statewide offices, a majority in the Texas Senate, and a majority in the Texas House of Representatives. Republicans also hold both of the state's U.S. Senate seats and 25 of the state's 38 U.S. House seats.
Members of Congress
U.S. Senate
Republicans have controlled both of Texas's seats in the U.S. Senate since 1993:
-
Senior U.S. Senator John Cornyn
-
Junior U.S. Senator Ted Cruz
U.S. House of Representatives
Out of the 38 seats Texas is apportioned in the U.S. House of Representatives, 25 are currently held by Republicans, making it the largest Republican delegation in the U.S. House:
- TX-01: Nathaniel Moran
- TX-02: Dan Crenshaw
- TX-03: Keith Self
- TX-04: Pat Fallon
- TX-05: Lance Gooden
- TX-06: Jake Ellzey
- TX-08: Morgan Luttrell
- TX-10: Michael McCaul
- TX-11: August Pfluger
- TX-12: Kay Granger
- TX-13: Ronny Jackson
- TX-14: Randy Weber
- TX-15: Monica De La Cruz
- TX-17: Pete Sessions
- TX-19: Jodey Arrington
- TX-21: Chip Roy
- TX-22: Troy Nehls
- TX-23: Tony Gonzales
- TX-24: Beth Van Duyne
- TX-25: Roger Williams
- TX-26: Michael C. Burgess
- TX-27: Michael Cloud
- TX-31: John Carter
- TX-36: Brian Babin
- TX-38: Wesley Hunt
Statewide officials
Republicans control all nine of the elected statewide offices:
State legislative leaders
State Republican Executive Committee Members
Biannually, in even-numbered years, delegates at the Texas GOP State Convention elect a man and a woman from each of the thirty-one State Senatorial districts to serve a two-year term on the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC). The State Republican Executive Committee along with the elected State Chair and State Vice Chair manage the affairs of the Republican Party of Texas between state conventions.[32]
List of state party chairs
- John L. Haynes (1867–?)
- Edmund J. Davis (1875–1883)
- Norris Wright Cuney (1886–1896)
- William Madison McDonald (1897–1898)
- Henry Clay Ferguson (1898–1900)
- Cecil A. Lyon (1900–1916)
- Rentfro Creager (1920–50)
- Orville Bullington (1951–1952)
- Carlos Watson (1952)
- Thad Hutcheson (1957–1960)
- Tad Smith (1961–1962)
- State Party Chairmen since 1962
- Peter O'Donnell(1962–1969)
- William Steger (1969–1971)
- Missing (1971–1976)
- Ray Hutchison – (1976–1977)
- Ray Barnhart – (1977–1979)
- Chet Upham – (1979–1983)
- George Strake Jr. – (1983–1988)
- Fred Meyer – (1988–1994)
- Tom Pauken – (1994–1997)
- Susan Weddington – (1997–2003)
- Tina Benkiser – (2003–2009)
- Cathie Adams – (2009–2010)
- Steve Munisteri – (2010–2015)
- Tom Mechler – (2015–2017)
- James Dickey – (2017– 2020)
- Allen West – (2020–2021)
- Matt Rinaldi – (2021–2024)
- Abraham George – (2024–present)
Auxiliary and partner organizations
The party has a number of partner and auxiliary organizations,[33] including the Texas Federation of College Republicans,[34] the High School Republicans of Texas, the Texas Federation of Republican Women (TFRW),[35] Texas Republican County Chairmen's Association,[36] the Texas Republican Assembly,[37] 150 Black Men of Texas, the Juan Seguin Society,[38] the Young Republicans of Texas,[39] the Texas Asian Republican Assembly,[40] the MLK Association, the National Federation of Pachyderms - Texas Chapter, and the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas.
Electoral history
State legislature
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References
- The Texan, May 24, 2024.
- ^ Abbott 1986, p. 131-132.
- ^ African-American Pioneers of Texas: From the Old West to the New Frontiers (Teacher's Manual) (PDF). Museum of Texas Tech University: Education Division. p. 25. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 5, 2007.
- San Antonio.
- ^ a b c "History of the Republican Party of Texas". texasgop.org. Archived from the original on April 22, 2011. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
- ^ Republican strategist Leonard helped mold GOP in Texas (Austin American Statesman)
- ^ "Ronald Reagan: How he changed Texas Politics Forever". chron.com. February 6, 2011. Retrieved February 6, 2011.
- ^ Svitek, Patrick (June 4, 2021). "Allen West resigns as chair of Texas Republican Party, says he's mulling statewide run". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
- ^ Svitek, Patrick (July 4, 2021). "Allen West announces he is running against Gov. Greg Abbott in Republican primary". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
- ^ Smith, David (January 31, 2021). "'It's endemic': state-level Republican groups lead party's drift to extremism". The Guardian. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
- ^ Rosenberg, Matthew (August 22, 2020). "Texas Republicans Say New Slogan Was Inspired by Poem, Not QAnon". The New York Times. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
- ^ Rosenthal, Abigail (January 25, 2021). "Texas GOP denies its slogan links to QAnon after online criticism resurges". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
- ^ a b "Texas GOP's new platform calls gay people 'abnormal' and rejects trans identities". NBC News. June 21, 2022. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
- ^ a b Neugeboren, By Eric (July 19, 2022). "Only one Texas Republican in Congress voted to protect marriage equality". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
- ^ a b "Texas Republican convention approves closed primary, selects new leader". Dallas News. May 25, 2024. Retrieved May 28, 2024.
- ^ Mendez, Maria; Schumaker, Yuriko (January 15, 2024). "Here's how to vote in Texas' March 5 primary elections". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved May 28, 2024.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Neugeboren, Eric (June 18, 2022). "Fed up and fired up: Texas Republicans meet in a climate of mistrust, conspiracy and victimhood". Texas Tribune.
- ^ a b Sewell Chan; Eric Neugeboren (June 18, 2022). "Texas Republican Convention calls Biden win illegitimate and rebukes Cornyn over gun talks". The Texas Tribune.
- ^ Dress, Brad (June 19, 2022). "Texas GOP party adopts anti-LGBTQ platform, refers to being gay as 'abnormal'".
- ^ a b Chappell, Bill (June 20, 2022). "Texas GOP's new platform says Biden didn't really win. It also calls for secession". National Public Radio.
- ^ a b Shackford, Scott (June 20, 2022). "As Pride Month Nears End, LGBT Political Culture Warring Escalates". Reason. Retrieved June 21, 2022.
- ^ McGee, Kate (June 19, 2022). "Texas GOP platform calls for ban on teaching "sexual matters," while requiring students to learn about "dignity of the preborn human"". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
- ^ Naughtie, Andrew (June 20, 2022). "Five shocking proposals from the Texas GOP's radical new platform". The Independent. Retrieved June 24, 2022.
- ^ Blest, Paul (June 21, 2022). "Texas GOP Calls Being Gay 'Abnormal,' Bans Gay Conservative Group From Convention". Vice News. Retrieved June 24, 2022.
- ^ [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]
- ^ Brower, Mac (August 3, 2022). "Why Texas Republicans Want a State Electoral College". Democracy Docket.
- U.S. News. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
- ^ a b Helderman, Rosalind S. (June 19, 2022). "At Texas GOP convention, loyalists embrace far-right, anti-gay rhetoric". The Washington Post.
- ^ Azi Paybarah; David Montgomery (June 21, 2022). "Texas Republicans Approve Far-Right Platform Declaring Biden's Election Illegitimate". The New York Times.
- ^ Veillon, Micah P. (June 21, 2022). "Texas GOP Pulls No Punches". The American Conservative. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
- ^ "GOP wants Texans to vote on secession from U.S. — plus 6 other takeaways from the party's convention". Houston Chronicle. June 20, 2022.
- ^ "State Republican Executive Committee – Republican Party of Texas". Republican Party of Texas. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
- ^ "Partnerships & Auxiliaries". Republican Party of Texas. Retrieved June 2, 2024.
- ^ "Texas College Republicans – The Official Home of the Texas College Republicans". txcollegerepublicans.com. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
- ^ "TFRW Home Page". tfrw.org. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
- ^ "Texas Republican County Chairmans Association". trcca.org. Archived from the original on August 18, 2010. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
- ^ "Texas Republican Assembly – The Republican Wing of the Republican Party". texasra.org. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
- ^ "JUAN SEGUIN SOCIETY". Retrieved June 2, 2024.
- ^ "Young Republicans of Texas -". Retrieved June 2, 2024.
- ^ "Texas Asian Republican Assembly". Retrieved June 2, 2024.
- ^ a b Moreland, Steed & Baker 1991, p. 222.
Works cited
- Abbott, Richard (1986). The Republican Party and the South, 1855-1877: The First Southern Strategy. ISBN 0807816809.
- Moreland, Laurence; Steed, Robert; Baker, Tod, eds. (1991). The 1988 Presidential Election in the South: Continuity Amidst Change in Southern Party Politics. ISBN 0275931455.