The executive committee of the Republican Party of Texas was in Austin on Saturday to finalize its first-ever legislative review, outlining a list of censurable offenses that some within the Texas GOP want to use to block certain House Republicans from the 2026 primary ballot.
Those Republicans, made up of delegates chosen by county parties, want to use the list to hold their elected officials to the state party鈥檚 priorities. But others see it as an illegal effort to deny officials from the primary ballot if they don鈥檛 follow the most fervent conservative activists鈥� aims 100% of the time.
Texas GOP Chair Abraham George told The Blast that he and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, who spoke to members of the SREC at a separate meeting with Gov. Greg Abbott earlier Saturday morning, have not discussed the party鈥檚 censure effort, a new 鈥渁ccountability鈥� mechanism the state party approved at its 2024 convention. Still, Burrows likely knew the SREC members would be approving a hit list that could be used to keep 鈥淩INOs鈥� from the ballot.
Earlier this year Burrows and the state party were at odds with one another.
The Texas GOP has spent money in Burrows鈥� district with ads opposing his speakership.
At the time, Burrows dismissed George鈥檚 critiques that the House was letting GOP priority bills stall in the House in an with Spectrum News鈥� James Barrag谩n published May 7.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 respond to him. He鈥檚 not worth responding to,鈥� Burrows said of George.
But the political environment in Texas has shifted drastically since then. George told The Blast on Saturday that Democrats breaking quorum has brought every Republican together in a way that鈥檚 been good for the party and the 鈥済rassroots,鈥� referring to the Texas GOP鈥檚 leadership and activists.
鈥淲e have an open line with the speaker,鈥� George said. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to agree all the time. We probably are still going to have some disagreements. That鈥檚 part of the process.鈥�
State Rep. Mitch Little, R-Lewisville, who has previously been critical of Burrows, likened it to 鈥渁 new day of mutual respect and courtesy and cooperation between the party and the speaker.鈥�
List of Grievances
The State Republican Executive Committee, or SREC, hunkered down in the Capitol auditorium and outlined censurable offenses that would apply to a majority of the GOP caucus, particularly Burrows鈥� top committee chairs.
The report itself doesn鈥檛 censure lawmakers. It鈥檚 a list of transgressions that county parties can use to censure their representatives and ask to bar them from the March primary ballot.
State Affairs Chair Ken King of Canadian, whose committee was a bottleneck for several GOP priority bills, was the subject of numerous censurable offenses. Even Public Education Chair Brad Buckley of Salado 鈥� who quarterbacked Gov. Greg Abbott鈥檚 No. 1 priority, school vouchers, across the finish line 鈥� was mentioned for not advancing a bill to deny public education to K-12 students who are in the country illegally, .
The list of offenses include bills that failed to pass in the regular session that Abbott has added to the call for the special session.
A common theme throughout the meeting was that the report needs to be airtight because they may have to defend it in court, as George noted. Eric Opiela, an attorney helping several House Republicans with pending censures, was in the audience.
鈥淲e are talking about providing grounds for possibly keeping an office holder off the primary ballot,鈥� said Rolando Garcia, an SREC member for Senate District 15 in Harris County. 鈥淚f it looks like we鈥檙e really being shady and squirrely and multiplying violations just to provide grounds for keeping people off the ballot, that is very damaging to RPT.鈥�
Perhaps the most contentious part of the meeting came when the SREC took up the Legislative Review Task Force report on Republicans鈥� effort to ban Democrats from House committee chairmanships, a top priority of the Texas GOP. The House voted to reserve committee chairs for Republicans, but they left vice chairmanships for Democrats when it approved the back in February. A majority of the House, including a majority of Republicans, voted to prematurely close debate and amendments on the rules and ultimately approved them.
Deborah Kelting-Fite, an SREC member for Senate District 7 in Harris and Montgomery counties, called the rules a 鈥淭rojan horse designed to give Democrats more control.鈥�
Steve Evans, an SREC member for Senate District 28 in Burrows鈥� hometown of Lubbock and West Texas, tried to strip the entire Democratic chairs section from the report, pointing out that it named 51 members 鈥� a majority of the GOP caucus鈥� 88 members. Censuring that many Republicans felt like it would create too many unnecessary enemies, he said.
鈥淭his is pretty huge to name this many members when we have so many things going on,鈥� Evans said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got the messaging that鈥檚 going on from the White House to redistrict, we have the House trying to restore a quorum, and then we鈥檙e going to come in here, in their house, and do this?鈥�
Burrows himself wasn鈥檛 completely absolved by everyone on the SREC. Some members tried to add an item that would have made voting in favor of Burrows as speaker to the list of political sins, arguing it was the culmination of a conspiracy to give Democrats more power. Before the legislative session started, the RPT opposed Burrows for House speaker, throwing its support behind his opponent Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield.
George shot down that effort, saying the speaker election was not a legislative priority. Only violations of legislative priorities were to be considered censurable offenses.
The SREC voted to delay the final report by a couple days to allow lawmakers an opportunity to try to explain some of their censurable acts to the committee by Wednesday. The committee will distribute the final report to county parties on Friday.
: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported the deadline for state lawmakers to respond to charges in a legislative report. They have until Wednesday. The final report will be issued on Friday.
This article originally appeared in at .
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