The Republican Party in Texas made a series of far-right statements as part of its official party platform over the weekend, arguing that President Biden was not legitimately elected, criticizing Senator John Cornin for his work on bipartisan gun legislation and calling it homosexual. abnormal lifestyle choices ”.
The platform was voted on in Houston by the state convention, which ended on Saturday.
The resolutions for Mr. Biden and Mr. Cornin were approved by a vote of delegates, according to James Wesolek, director of communications for the Republican Party of Texas. Statements on homosexuality – as well as additional positions on abortion calling on students to “learn about the humanity of the unborn child” – were among more than 270 boards approved by a platform committee and voted on by a larger group of delegates using paper bulletins. The results of these votes were not yet expected on Sunday, but Mr Vesolek said it was rare for a plank to be rejected by the full convention once it was approved by the committee.
Resolutions accepting false allegations that former President Donald J. Trump is a victim of stolen elections in 2020, and other statements are the latest examples of Texas Republicans moving to the right in recent months. Republicans control both houses of the legislature, the governor’s mansion, and every state office, and have used their dominance to enforce strict anti-abortion laws, create supply chain problems by temporarily adding additional state border checks, and re- nominated the Trump-backed Attorney General over a member of the Bush family in the first round in May.
Mr Vesolek challenged the idea that the declarations were tied to the state’s tilt to the right. “It was the will of the body,” Mr Vesolek said on Sunday. “We are proud to be a mass party.”
Texas state party congresses have sometimes been places of public outreach. In 2012, Gov. Rick Perry was heavily booed at the U.S. Republican Congress when he said he supported the powerful vice governor over Ted Cruz in the contested Senate primary. On Friday, Mr Cornin, a key negotiator in arms talks with Democrats, was booed by congressional speakers in a speech he tried to reassure Republicans that the new legislation would not violate gun rights.
The state party’s resolution, covering unfounded allegations of stolen elections in 2020, said that “significant electoral fraud in key urban areas has significantly affected the results in five key states in favor of” Mr. Biden. The State Party, the resolution continued, rejected “the certified results of the 2020 presidential election, and we believe that” acting President Joseph Robinet Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States. “
The resolution urged Republicans to “go to the polls” in November and “bring in friends and family, volunteer for local Republicans and overcome any possible fraud.”
State Representative Steve Toth, a Republican who is part of Montgomery County, a suburb of Houston, said he left Congress before voting on the resolutions, but expressed support for them. He said he hoped Biden’s resolution would “encourage Republicans and Democrats to come together and call for a forensic audit” in the 2020 election.
Jason Vaughn, 38, a Republican delegate from Houston, is credited with adding the “show yourself to vote” language to Biden’s resolution. “I am afraid that if we keep telling people that the election has been stolen, they will not go and vote,” Mr Vaughan said.
Mary Lowe, a delegate from the Fort Worth suburbs who focused on congressional education, said she was surprised that the results of the 2020 election were the focus of her Republicans. But she added: “I don’t know too many people who think Biden has won.
Ms. Lowe, chairwoman of the Taranto County branch of a group known as Moms for Liberty, said she was among those delegates who openly criticized Mr. Cornin. But she added that she was embarrassed by the booing and did not take part in it.
“I don’t think whistling is polite,” Ms. Lowe said. “I feel that the elected officials must be treated with due decency.
Jamie Haynes, 47, a Republican delegate who lives in Texas with her husband and says they have “many guns” together, said the whistles at Mr Cornin showed he had a strong opinion. that Republicans do not want their gun rights shaved – not just taken away – but even simply shaved in any form. “
A resolution reprimanding Mr Cornin passed by Congress opposes red flag laws that allow the seizure of weapons by people considered dangerous. These laws, according to the resolution, “violate the right to due process and are a pre-trial punishment for people who have not been convicted.”
The homosexuality plan passed through the platform’s committee with 17 to 14 votes, according to Mr Vaughan, an openly gay member of the committee who voted against.
“This is not doing anything to move us forward as a party and win voters,” he said in a video of the committee meeting. In an interview, Mr Vaughn said the change in Congress was the result of a small number of people who “make the process unhappy because they want to do all these extreme, far-right things”.
Mr Toth disagreed, saying that with regard to abortion, gay rights and the 2020 elections, the Republican Party is consistent in its conservative principles. “Protection of marriage? Abortion? Second Amendment? “Where have we moved to the right?” He asked. “Republicans have always been strong defenders of constitutional family values.
A Texas congressman and Democrat, Colin Allred, called the Republican Party’s actions regressive.
“The Republican Party of Texas is trying to take us back to a time when women could not make decisions about their own bodies and when Americans lived in fear of being punished for being themselves,” Allred said in a statement. statement.
Add Comment