GOP Texans take on foes of voter rules
Abbott declines honor after MLB targets Georgia
As businesses and professional sports organizations boycott states that adopt restrictive voting legislation, Republicans in Texas are fighting back.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that he turned down an invitation to throw out the Texas Rangers’ first pitch at their home opener on the same day — a punishment for Major League Baseball’s decision to move its annual All-star Game out of Atlanta over statehouse changes to voting rules in Georgia. And the homeless All-star Game won’t be welcome in Texas, Abbott says.
Meanwhile U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-texas, announced that he’s “working hard” on legislation in Congress to attack MLB’S antitrust protections.
No major businesses or sports leagues have called for boycotts of Texas, where Republicans in Austin last week advanced voting restrictions similar to those at issue in Georgia and other states.
But in recent days, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has slammed Fort Worth-based American Airlines for coming out against the legislation proposed in Texas.
Texas would have much to lose if the sports leagues were to take it a step further.
While MLB hasn’t held an All-star Game in Texas since 2004, the state has long been a major attrac
tion for big games. The Dallas Metroplex and Houston have hosted Super Bowls and NBA Allstar Games since 2011. Over the same period, the NCAA brought the Men’s Final Four to Texas four times.
Texas is scheduled to host the 2023 NCAA basketball Final Four for both men and women, in Houston and Dallas, respectively. In 2025, San Antonio will host the men’s Final Four again. And the College Football Playoff championship game is scheduled for Houston in January 2024.
Already, groups are putting pressure on the NCAA to come out against the Texas legislation.
“The NCAA can join American Airlines, Dell, Microsoft and Southwest Airlines and send a message to Texas lawmakers: We won’t stand for voter suppression,” said Ed Espinoza, executive director at Progress Texas, a left-leaning advocacy group based in Austin.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner blasted Abbott for opting not to throw out the first pitch in Arlington and said the governor was “wrong” to accuse MLB of “perpetuating false political narratives” by moving its All-star Game.
“Find somebody else,” Turner said. “There are a whole lot of people that can throw out that ball.”
Patrick fires back
Texas Republicans are working on a pair of bills they say are aimed at preventing voter fraud. Under Senate Bill 7, which passed the Senate last week, the state would reduce early voting hours, days and polling locations. The bill includes new rules for people who drive disabled voters to the polls and allows partisan poll watchers to have video and recording devices inside polling locations.
The bill has drawn comparisons to Georgia’s recently approved election law that puts in new restrictions for absentee ballots and could reduce early voting hours in parts of that state. That bill goes so far as to bar people from giving water to voters standing in line waiting to vote — a provision that is not in the Texas bills.
State Sen. Bryan Hughes, Rmineola, the author of SB 7, said some of the bill’s anti-fraud measures are being lost in the “national narrative” about it. He pointed to improved signature verification rules to make sure absentee ballots are thrown out when they don’t match. Another provision would allow people to track their absentee ballots so they can see that they arrived and were counted.
Still, critics have focused on how the legislation will end drivethru voting and 24-hour early voting locations, both of which were popular in Harris County during the 2020 election, which saw record turnout statewide.
One of those businesses trying to make itself heard is American Airlines.
“To make American’s stance clear: We are strongly opposed to this bill and others like it,” the carrier said in a statement released Friday.
Patrick fired back a short time later.
“Texans are fed up with corporations that don’t share our values trying to dictate public policy,” Patrick said. “The majority of Texans support maintaining the integrity of our elections, which is why I made it a priority this legislative session. Senate Bill 7 includes comprehensive reforms that will ensure voting in Texas is consistent statewide and secure.”
Patrick is scheduled to hold a news conference today to further defend the election reform bill against such criticism.
Hughes said he’s willing to listen to the business leaders upset with the bill, but he said many haven’t been clear about exactly what they want changed in the legislation.
“They haven’t told us what about the bill they don’t like,” Hughes said.
Boycotts in the past
Texas has been here before. In 2017, American joined dozens of other major Texas employers in coming out strongly against the so-called bathroom bill, which would have barred transgender children and adults from using bathrooms and changing facilities they are most comfortable with.
Apple, AT&T, Southwest Airlines and Texas Instruments were among the businesses that helped put pressure on lawmakers, who eventually killed the legislation.
Likewise, the NCAA has shown its willingness to issue boycotts against legislation that conflicts with its values. In 2017, the NCAA issued a boycott of North Carolina after the Legislature enacted a similar bathroom bill. It wasn’t until North Carolina amended that law that the NCAA finally lifted the ban, but by then, early rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament had already been moved out of the state.
This year, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, announced that she was opposing portions of a bill to bar transgender women from competing in women’s sports after pressure from the NCAA.
“If South Dakota passes a law that’s against their policy, they will likely take punitive action against us,” said Noem, who is set to address the Harris County Republican Party on Thursday. “That means they can pull their tournaments from the state of South Dakota, they could pull their home games, they could even prevent our athletes from playing in their league.”
That kind of pressure is exactly what advocacy groups opposed to the Texas election bills want to see here.
“The NCAA should take a stand and hold Texas legislators accountable if SB 7 or HB 6 becomes a law,” said Charlie Bonner, communications director for MOVE Texas, a voter advocacy group created in San Antonio in 2013. “This is bigger than politics. This is the difference between right and wrong and whether or not the NCAA supports the right to vote for many of its own athletes.”
HB 6 refers to House Bill 6, legislation similar to SB 7, in the Texas House.
MLB released a statement Friday announcing the decision to pull the All-star Game from Atlanta.
“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said.
That move brought praise from Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker.
“My opinion is it’s a positive move by Major League Baseball to support voting rights,” Baker said. “That was a pretty big and bold move by baseball. I’m proud of the fact that they stood by the voting rights of people.”
Former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, a San Antonio Republican, has been warning the Texas GOP to listen to major employers and sports leagues.
“Major Texas employers are stepping up and speaking out against voter suppression, and for good reason,” he said. “Texas should not go down the same path as Georgia. It’s bad for business and, more importantly, it’s bad for our citizens.”
But former President Donald Trump is calling for Republicans to take on those businesses and ignore the opposition.
“Boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with Free and Fair Elections,” Trump wrote in a statement to the media. “Are you listening Coke, Delta, and all!”
Meanwhile some Republicans, such as state Rep. Lyle Larson of San Antonio, are warning that GOP legislators are pushing bills that might actually end up hurting the party’s voters. On his social media accounts, Larson said 64 percent of Texas Republicans voted through early voting and absentee balloting. And 91 percent of Republican voters over age 55 voted by mail last year, he said.
“Are we trying to make it harder for Republican voters to vote?” Larson asked.