Texas grassroots frustrated with rules vote decision
Grassroots Republicans are in Austin to support the RPT Priority of banning Democrat committee chairs.
January 11, 2023 | Austin, TX
Speaker Phelan is holding the vote on rules today.
Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi described the move as, “Reprehensible, but not surprising. House Republicans too often show contempt for their voting base, and they will twice [on Wednesday]. The first will be when they take the unusual step of debating House rules a day early to avoid visiting constituents; the second, when many House Republicans will vote to award powerful leadership positions to Democrats.”
While the vote is not always held on the same day each legislative session, the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) had announced plans for grassroots members to visit the legislative session on Thursday and be present for the rules vote.
Texas is the only state that continues to appoint party members not in power to serve as committee chairs. Conservatives have been asking Texas legislators to honor the conservative ideals that are espoused in the Republican Party Platform.
More than 5,000 voting delegates at the Republican Party of Texas state convention, held June 13-18, 2022, voted to select eight official Legislative Priorities of the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) for the 88th Texas Legislative Session.
One of the priorities is to ban Democrats from chairing legislative committees. The purpose is to ensure all legislative Republican priorities are given a fair opportunity to become law.
Grassroots Republicans from across Texas will meet in Austin tomorrow to encourage legislators to change the rules package to ban Democrat chairs. With the vote on rules taking place today, legislators will avoid the scrutiny of Republicans who planned to be at the rules vote tomorrow.
“Texas Republicans indicated loud and clear what they expect on this issue. In the March primary election, 81.24% of Republican primary voters (close to two million people) agreed that Republicans should not appoint Democrats to chair legislative committees,” said SREC Legislative Priorities Committee Chair Jill Glover. “At the RPT state convention in June, this priority was ranked 5th most important of the top 8 Legislative priorities by thousands of convention delegates.”
Tomorrow’s session is scheduled to gavel in at 10:30 am.
According to Hayden Sparks of The Texan, The Republican Party of Texas has scheduled a press conference for Thursday at 1:30 pm regarding the House rules vote. Reps. Slaton, Hayes, Tinderholt, and Schatzline will attend with Legislative Priorities Chair Jill Glover.