Texas Republican Convention calls Biden win illegitimate and rebukes Cornyn over gun talks
Some 5,100 delegates and alternates voted on a party platform that also calls for ending the federal income tax, requiring education about fetal gestation and limiting the Legislature’s right to regulate guns.

by Sewell Chan and Eric Neugeboren June 18, 2022 Updated: 5 PM Central

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/18/republican-party-texas-convention-cornyn/

HOUSTON — Meeting at their first in-person convention since 2018, Texas Republicans on Saturday acted on a raft of resolutions and proposed platform changes to move their party even further to the right. They approved measures declaring that President Joe Biden “was not legitimately elected” and rebuking Sen. John Cornyn for taking part in bipartisan gun talks. They also voted on a platform that declares homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice” and calls for Texas schoolchildren “to learn about the humanity of the preborn child.”

The actions capped a convention that highlighted how adamantly opposed the party’s most active and vocal members are to compromising with Democrats or moderating on social positions, even as the state has grown more diverse and Republicans’ margins in statewide elections have shrunk slightly in recent years.

Votes on the platform were collected at the end of the party's three-day convention in which party activists moved to add multiple items to the official Texas GOP platform. As the convention closed, two separate sets of ballots — one allowing delegates to choose eight of 15 legislative priorities and another allowing delegates to vote on the 275 platform planks — were gathered. Those will now need to be tallied and certified in Austin, but it is rare for a plank to be rejected, according to party spokesperson James Wesolek.

The convention reinforced the extent to which former President Donald J. Trump’s unfounded claims of a stolen election continue to resound among the party faithful — even though his claims have repeatedly been debunked, including by many of his own former aides, and after a week of televised hearings about the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The denunciation of Cornyn represented a remarkable rebuke to a Republican who has served in the Senate since 2002. The hall at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston filled with boos on Friday as he tried to explain the legislation, which would allow juvenile records to be incorporated into background checks for gun buyers younger than 21 and encourage “red flag” laws that would make it easier to remove guns from potentially dangerous people, along with more funding for school safety and mental health.

Meanwhile, the party platform vote on Saturday by roughly 5,100 convention delegates would argue that those under 21 are “most likely to need to defend themselves” and may need to quickly buy guns “in emergencies such as riots.” It also would say that red flag laws violate the due process rights of people who haven’t been convicted of a crime.

About 9,600 delegates and alternates were eligible to attend; organizers said turnout was a bit more than half that.

The new platform would call for:


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Quote: Tinker wrote in post #2

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A pretty clear statement of what has been patently obvious to many from day one.

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Excellent!

TNM Moves Closer To Making A TEXIT Vote The Official Position of the Republican Party of Texas

June 20, 2022 | Political | TNM Admin

https://tnm.me/news/political/tnm-makes-a-texit-vote-the-official-position-of-the-republican-party-of-texas/

TEXIT supporters have a reason to rejoice as a vote on the issue is one step away from becoming the official position of the Republican Party of Texas.

The Republican Party of Texas held its convention over the last week and the TEXIT issue took center stage. With resolutions feeding into the state convention from County and Senate District conventions all over Texas in March, a debate on TEXIT seemed inevitable. While there was some discussion on the issue in the committees leading up to the official opening of the convention, the sentiment of the majority of the delegates was clear – Texans want a vote on TEXIT.

This sentiment was evident at the convention as volunteers from the Texas Nationalist Movement had thousands of interactions over the week-long process. With concerns about the border, federal overreach, the economy, and much more dominating the conversations, when delegates were asked if they would vote to join the union today, not a single one said “yes”.

The sentiment was so strong that it manifested in a demand for a TEXIT vote in, not one but, TWO planks of the platform.

The two planks read as follows:

“33. State Sovereignty: Pursuant to Article 1, Section 1, of the Texas Constitution, the federal government has impaired our right of local self-government. Therefore, federally mandated legislation that infringes upon the 10th Amendment rights of Texas should be ignored, opposed, refused, and nullified. Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto.”

“224. Texas Independence: We urge the Texas Legislature to pass a bill in its next session requiring a referendum in the 2023 general election for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation.”

While we are well aware that nothing forces elected officials to respect the decision of the Republican delegates, this only increases the pressure for them to get on the “TEXIT Train” and, at a minimum, put the question to the people of Texas.


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Roy Blunt
Richard Burr
Shelly Moore-Capito
Bill Cassidy
Susan Collins
John Cornyn
Joni Ernst
Lindsey Graham
Mitch McConnell
Lisa Murkowski
Rob Portman
Mitt Romney
Thom Tillis
Todd Young