GOP’s roll to populism should worry voters
There was a time when business leaders held real, and sometimes critical, influence over the Republican Party of Texas.
It would be hard to argue that time is over, given that state leaders continue to treat the private sector with mysterious deference when it comes to, for example, reforming the state’s power sector in the wake of the winter freeze that left millions without electricity and nearly 200 Texans dead.
But the relationship between the Texas GOP and the state’s business community is strained, at the moment, now that some business leaders are joining Democrats and civic and faith leaders in speaking out against clear efforts at voter suppression in Georgia, Texas and other GOP-led states.
At issue here are Senate Bill 7 and its companion, House Bill 6. The Texas Senate passed the former last week in the wee hours of the morning. Always a good look, if you’re trying
to create the impression that an “election reform” bill is about securing the integrity of the process, rather than making elections less accessible to the average Texan.
Similar measures have been put forward in a number of states this year — a year that began, lest we forget, with a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, perpetrated by supporters of former President Donald Trump who falsely alleged that the 2020 election was stolen.
National attention has focused on Georgia, where Republican Gov. Brian Kemp last month signed a measure that passed the state legislature on a partyline vote. Critics have dubbed it “Jim Crow 2.0” because it would, among other things, shrink the window in which voters may request absentee ballots and make it a misdemeanor to distribute food or water to voters waiting in line. The bill was criticized by Peach State-based behemoths Coca-Cola and Delta, and prompted Major League Baseball to announce that it would move this year’s All Star Game out of Atlanta.
That has lessons for Texas, argued Nathan Ryan, the CEO of Blue Sky Ventures, at a press conference Monday convened by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat.
“We all saw what happened in Georgia, and now we’re seeing the consequences they’re facing,” Ryan said. “I say to our state lawmakers, let’s not end up like Georgia. Let’s strengthen our economy by strengthening our democracy.”
That’s a common view among the business leaders that have weighed in thus far on the measures at hand. Fort Worth-based American Airlines, for example, said in a statement Thursday it was strongly opposed to SB7 “and others like it.”
“Any legislation dealing with how elections are conducted must ensure ballot integrity and security while making it easier to vote, not harder,” said the airline. “At American, we believe we should break down barriers to diversity, equity and inclusion in our society — not create them.”
Other companies that have expressed opposition to the legislation at hand include Apple, Amazon, Dell, Microsoft and Verizon, according to Secure Democracy, a nonprofit organization focused on election integrity.
Unfortunately, our Republican state leaders seem to have taken a good look at the fallout in Georgia and decided they wanted a piece of the action.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick described himself as “stunned” by American Airlines’ decision to speak up.
“We heard these same outcries claiming voter suppression in 2011 when Texas passed the photo voter ID bill,” Patrick scoffed in a statement. “In fact, just the opposite occurred. Voter turnout in Texas soared from 7,993,851 in 2012 to 11,144,040 in 2020, a 39 percent increase.”
That’s an interesting way to read the data. The increase in voter turnout in Texas between 2012 and 2020 is partly due to the growth of the electorate during that time. But Patrick is ignoring the possibility that voter turnout is also increasing because Texas voters, for so long content with the GOP’s hegemonic control of state government, have been put off by the party’s lurch from business-friendly pragmatism to belligerent populism.
Gov. Greg Abbott followed Patrick’s lead on Monday, announced that he was rescinding his decision to throw out the first pitch at the Texas Rangers’ home opener. It was a little ironic, given that Abbott’s lifting of COVID-19 restrictions cleared the way for a sellout crowd amid an ongoing pandemic.
Abbott’s announcement earned himself a chance to make a different kind of pitch, on Fox News.
The governor reeled off a list of Texas-based companies — American Airlines, AT&T, and Dell, among others — that have taken issue with the proposed legislation.
“They need to stay out of politics, especially when they have no clue what they're talking about,” the Republican governor declared.
The bills in question would tweak the Texas Election Code in a number of ways.
The legislation would, for example, ban drivethrough voting, which was introduced in Texas by Chris Hollins, then the Harris County Clerk, during the 2020 election as a safe alternative to entering a crowded polling place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It would create a slew of new criminal offenses — an ominous idea, given that so many examples of alleged voter misconduct now fall clearly into the category of innocent paperwork errors. Consider the case of Crystal Mason, the Tarrant County woman who was sentenced to five years in prison after casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election — a ballot that was never even counted, after she was deemed ineligible, as she knew she might.
The legislation would also impose new burdens on Texans with disabilities who wish to vote by mail on that basis. Such voters would have to provide written documentation of those disabilities from the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veteran Affairs, or a licensed physician, chiropractor or accredited Christian Science Practitioner.
Norma Crosby, who serves on the board of directors for the National Federation of the Blind, summarized this provision aptly at Turner’s press conference Monday.
“People with disabilities will be forced to jump through hoops that nobody else has to jump through to vote,” she said.
Crosby, who has been legally blind since birth, said there’s an element of insult as well as injury to this idea: “They’re going to make us offer proof of our disabilities, written proof, because our word isn’t good enough.”
Some Texans would no doubt consider that a reasonable demand. But those Texans might not say the same of proposals to, for example, require universal background checks before a citizen can purchase a firearm — and they may well have bridled when Abbott issued a statewide mask mandate last summer.
There’s certainly a discussion to be had about the power that corporations wield in state politics. But Republicans such as Abbott and Patrick should engage with business leaders on their concerns rather than simply telling them to shut up.
“Governments should ensure citizens have their voices heard,” tweeted Dell founder Michael Dell, announcing his company’s opposition to HB 6 and its ilk.
Microsoft, in its statement, specified several concerns about the legislation at hand: it could criminalize honest mistakes made by poll workers, for example, “which would give us pause before encouraging our employees to volunteer and serve in those roles.”
Texas’ Republican leaders might not want to listen to us, but perhaps they’ll be more receptive to the men and women who employ thousands of Texans — and write plenty of checks.