Business people need to vote in primary
“The last legislative session demonstrated that the Republican majority really has strong anti-business winds blowing within the majority.” Jeff Moseley, CEO of the Texas Association of Business
AUSTIN — Not enough people, especially business people, are getting involved in the most important election in Texas: the one that happens in March, not November.
The Republican and Democratic primaries will take place on March 6, with early voting to begin Feb. 20. In a polarized, one-party state like Texas, the most important vote anyone can cast is in the Republican primary, at least until Texas Democrats prove they can compete statewide.
Unfortunately, voter apathy has allowed a small band of extremists to control the Republican primary, and the result has been bad for business.
“It was easy and convenient to make an assumption that if the Republican Party nominated somebody, that was a pro-business person, and we could all just vote one time in the general election,” said Jeff Moseley, CEO of the Texas Association of Business. “We know now those days are gone.”
Whether it’s eliminating property tax breaks for capital investments, slashing public education, underfunding transportation or heedlessly pandering to social conservatives on LGBT rights, Moseley said business leaders are not making their voices heard when it matters the most, and some Republicans feel free to ignore them.
“The last legislative session demonstrated that the Republican majority really has strong anti-business winds blowing within the majority,” he added. “There is real value in alerting
the Texas business community about the value of going to the primary.”
Speaker Joe Straus, whom business leaders consider a hero for blocking the anti-transgender bathroom bill and stopping the repeal of a key economic incentive program, said business leaders finally stepped up during the 2017 special session. But they need to do more.
“I think there is evidence that a very small, committed group of ideologues can have more influence than they deserve,” Straus, who is retiring, told me in an interview. “Some want to keep the primary turnout as low as possible so that they can control the outcome. But I want more voices to be heard, particularly from the business community, but also from other Texans.”
In the 2014 general election, when only a third of registered voters cast ballots, more than 2.7 million Texans elected Republican Greg Abbott as governor in a landslide over Democrat Wendy Davis. Only 1.3 million people, though, voted in the Republican primary that year.
Since Democrats have not won a statewide election since 1994, that means 650,000 Republican primary voters, or just 2.4 percent of Texans, decided who would govern a state of 28 million people.
“A lot of Republicans are not making their voices heard where it means the most,” Straus said. “There is no doubt that the conversation in our primaries is too often unbalanced in favor of social issues. The message I get from the business community is that we need to focus more on the challenges that directly relate to the economy of a state that is growing as fast as we are.”
The growing pains are severe, and they can’t be solved with sloganeering. A growing population needs smart investments in roads, bridges, schools and rail. The state must hire better teachers, educate more doctors and attract more businesses to keep our workforce and economy strong and healthy.
“We’re not worried about R’s and D’s, we’re looking for J’s and P’s: jobs and paychecks,” Moseley said. “We have a lot of wonderful Texans, but we need to find a way to give them the skills to get into those jobs. And then we might not have enough, which is why we are supportive of a robust discussion on guest workers.”
The Texas Association of Business, the statewide chamber of commerce, has launched a scorecard that tracks how lawmakers vote. It has also started what it calls the E-to-E Program to help employers educate employees on business issues and encourage them to vote in the primaries.
“Our members are being shown how to communicate with employees about the core values of entrepreneurship and what a pro-business candidate looks like, without saying this is the person we’re endorsing,” Moseley said. More information is available at votes.txbiz.org.
The association, like most Texas businesses, is bipartisan and focused on solutions, not ideological purity. Pragmatism is valued in board rooms, and if more people vote in primaries, it will become the watchword again in politics.
Democrats also suffer from their fair share of true believers hijacking the primaries, which has contributed to the longest statewide losing streak in the nation. Democrats have a difficult time simply assembling a full slate of candidates.
Texas consistently has some of the lowest voter turnouts in the country, with only 7 percent of the voting age population casting ballots in the 2014 primaries. If you want to change the state’s politics, the best place to start is in the primary races, beginning now.