This is a Bad Move, Texas GOP

Censuring member of Congress over gun safety, same-sex marriage is intolerant, shortsighted

The Republican Party in Texas demonstrated again this past weekend that it prefers to operate in a private echo chamber instead of an inclusive big tent. And that’s not a recipe for conservative governing coalition.

On Saturday, the Texas GOP’S executive committee overwhelmingly voted to censure U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-san Antonio, a thoughtful, steady conservative lawmaker who is being punished for breaking with party orthodoxy.

The executive committee lambasted Gonzales for favoring legal protections for same-sex marriages and for supporting the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that, ironically, Sen. John Cornyn helped broker. The executive committee’s bill of particulars also found fault with Gonzales for opposing a controversial package of House rules and a border security bill.

Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush built the modern GOP around conservative governing, not ideological litmus tests to cancel independence. The party’s transformation in the past decade has forced moderate Republicans to retire or endure extreme partisan competition in party primaries. Gonzales is hardly the first target of the state Republican Party’s increasingly extreme political apparatus. In 2018, the state party censured Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, a moderate from San Antonio, after accusing him of breaking with the party’s conservative agenda.

Governing requires growing support from the middle out, adding and multiplying support instead of dividing and subtracting from the ranks. Nationwide and in Texas, the GOP should be embracing, not ostracizing, thoughtful conservatives like Gonzales who believe in core conservative principles like limited government, lower taxes and modest regulation. The gun issue is particularly of importance to Gonzales, whose congressional district along the U.s.mexico border includes Uvalde, the site of a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School last year. However, Gonzales’ political independence on a handful of issues was enough for the party to turn on him and open the door to supporting a challenger to him in the next primary.

The state GOP’S insistence on total political fidelity is a shortsighted, vindictive threat to meaningful conservative candidates who can win general elections. Punishing a conservative lawmaker who voted his conscience on issues important to his district signals that state party’s inability to allow diverse views within its ranks. In the long run, such insularity will shut out moderate candidates and policies that tend to gain broad support from the political middle where most Americans feel comfortable. There are few better paths to ensuring a Democrat represents Gonzales’ district in the future.

Most Texans see nuance in political disagreements and don’t think that expressing a different opinion is an act of treason. And that’s true in this district where Gonzales won the seat in 2020 with the backing of his predecessor, Will Hurd, a moderate Republican who occasionally broke with the Trump administration over border policy and set an example for leading in a bipartisan spirit without a bitter tone.

At moments like these, the state GOP becomes its own worst enemy when it embraces insularity over big-tent candidates and policies. And with more Americans increasingly identifying as independents, the politics of insularity is a long-term losing proposition.