Texas GOP To Sue State Over Open Primaries Citing Legislative Inaction
June 13, 2025 | Media Inquiries: press@mctxgop.org
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX - According to a confidential source within the leadership of the Republican Party of Texas, the Texas GOP will be filing a lawsuit against the state over its failure during the 89th Legislative Session to transition to a closed primary system. The lawsuit will argue that the current open primary structure — which allows voters unaffiliated with the Republican Party to participate in its candidate selection process — violates the party’s constitutional right of freedom of association.
At the heart of the issue is a critique of the 89th Texas Legislative Session, during which Republican leaders saw that the efforts to close the primary system were systematically derailed in the Texas House as every bill introduced that would have shifted Texas to a closed primary model was either blocked in the House Calendars Committee or denied a hearing altogether. Despite bills being filed in the House to close the primary such as House Bill 934 and House Bill 951, not a single piece of legislation on the matter from the House or Senate reached the floor for debate.
“It is not simply legislative neglect, it’s blatant obstructionism by Speaker Burrows and his crew in Austin,” said Jon Bouché, Vice Chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Party and a candidate for Texas House District 16. “The grassroots of our party have made it overwhelmingly clear that they want a closed primary system. When lawmakers ignore that mandate and refuse to even allow a public discussion, it leaves the party with no choice but to turn to the courts.”
Texas remains one of the few states with a semi-open primary, where voters do not have to register with a party to vote in its primary election. GOP members argue that this system allows Democrats and unaffiliated voters to influence Republican candidate selection, diluting the will of conservative voters and contributing to an ideological drift within the party.
A lawsuit will frame this issue as a constitutional one, citing Supreme Court rulings that political parties have the right to determine how they associate and select their nominees. By failing to implement a closed primary, the Texas GOP will be arguing, the state is interfering with those rights.
GOP members and political analysts across Texas note the irony of despite having overwhelming Republican House and Senate majorities in Austin — and leadership who claim to be aligned with conservative values — they failed miserably in delivering on what has become a central demand of the party’s grassroots base for years.
This lawsuit is as much a shot across the bow of Texas Republican legislators as it is a legal action against the state. By filing this lawsuit, the party is sending a clear message: get serious about party control, or we’ll take matters into our own hands.
In May of 2024 at their convention in San Antonio, the Texas GOP changed the party rules to close the primary and was anticipating that Republican legislators, who hold an overwhelming majority in the Texas House and Senate, would pass legislation supporting their actions but that did not happen.
When the case is filed, it is likely to stir debate not only over the legality of the open primary system but also over internal rifts within the Texas GOP itself — between establishment figures and a growing faction determined to reshape the party’s electoral mechanics. Republican voters should pay very close attention to the so called “republicans” who fight to keep the primary open so that Democrats can cross over and vote against Conservatives in Texas.
Whether the courts will ultimately side with the GOP remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the battle over who gets to choose Republican nominees in Texas is far from over.