San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
GOP leadership underscores voting in races to beat Dems
The political winds are at the backs of Texas Republicans as they head to the midterm elections later this year, but some of the biggest names in GOP politics are warning that trouble is looming on the horizon if they cannot iron out their internal divisions.
For most of the six-day state Republican Party convention that closed in Houston on Saturday, the GOP faithful heard pep rally-like optimism in speeches from politicians about how, thanks to President Joe Biden’s poor approval ratings, they are going to take back the majorities in the U.S. House and Senate and send liberal politicians packing.
While Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick had some of the same feel in his speech, the Houston Republican spent a large portion of his address to the more than 8,000 delegates imploring them to get over past political divisions — particularly in the governor’s race — because infighting could hand a win to Democrat Beto O’Rourke.
“We cannot take November for granted in Texas,” he said.
More specifically, Patrick addressed a pervasive concern in the party that some of the base, upset with the primary results, might skip the election or not vote at all, giving O’Rourke a chance to capitalize in the governor’s race.
“We have to beat the Democrats and we can’t stay home because our candidate that we voted for didn’t win,” Patrick said. “We can not have Beto O’Rourke win.”
Although Abbott won his primary with 66 percent of the vote, he’s had trouble with some of the leadership within the GOP for how he’s handled the pandemic and other legislative issues. Allen West, the former chairman of the party, ran against him in the Republican primary in March. Matt Rinaldi, the current chair who was elected to a twoyear term during the convention this week, had endorsed former state Sen. Don Huffines over Ab
bott in the primary initially before later rescinding that to appear neutral in the race.
It led to an odd dynamic this week, with Abbott skipping out on speaking at the official convention meetings for the first time during his two terms as governor. The governor held an informal reception nearby and hasn't had advertising around the convention like he did at past conventions.
Huffines, who was more of a presence at the convention, is adding to the concern among Republicans that some could skip the race. In an interview, he refused to say he's voting for Abbott in the fall.
“We're tired of having to hold our nose to vote for people who don't do what we want,” Huffines said.
In the Republican primary, Huffines and West each got about 12 percent of the vote.
During his speech, Patrick warned that if O'Rourke wins, it has a down-ballot effect that could knock out other statewide Republicans on the ballot.
“If he were to win, every statewide Republican would lose,” Patrick predicted. “Every (Texas) Supreme Court justice would lose.”
That fear is based on recent election data. In 2018, when O'Rourke came within 3 percentage points of defeating U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, nearly every statewide Republican had the closest re-election of their career, even against dramatically underfunded Democratic opponents with little name recognition.
Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller all won their reelections with just 51 percent of the vote in 2018, when four years earlier without O'Rourke at the top of the ticket they were all near 60 percent.
State Comptroller Glenn Hegar and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn also used portions of their convention speeches to push the party faithful to unify to assure victory in November.
“If we're going to build on President (Donald) Trump's momentum and continue to make inroads in places like the Rio Grande Valley and all across Texas, we need to work together in November,” Cornyn said.
But in some ways, Cornyn, who has been a senator for 20 years, illustrates the division in the party better than anyone. He was heavily booed during his appearance for his work on gun safety legislation in Congress, even as he called for unity. Many delegates are convinced Cornyn is compromising too much with Democrats, even though he said he would do nothing to infringe on their Second Amendment rights.
But booing and frustration with fellow Republicans doesn't mean the rank-and-file members for the GOP want to see it lead to Democrats getting elected, said Michael Walton, a delegate from Spring. He said if Cornyn is the nominee again in 2026 — the next time he's on the ballot — he'd vote for him to ensure Democrats don't take the seat.
“If he's the nominee, we're voting for him,” Walton said. “But he needed to hear what he heard yesterday.”
Walton said the delegates at conventions always fight among themselves over differing issues in such a big state.
“Sometimes you want to send a message, but not voting at his point is not an option,” Walton said. “When you don't vote, you end up getting a Democrat.”