Texas Republican leaders who gathered at the Henry B. González Convention Center this week signed off on a number of measures signaling a continuation of the party’s crusade against its moderates: a new party chair who supports that vision, an intensified party platform and a new rule aimed at keeping officials who step out of line off the ballot.
The moves at the 2024 Texas State Republican Convention came as a disappointment to some Bexar County Republicans, who recently took steps to move the party in the other direction. The county elected a new county party chair in March, Kris Coons, who has vowed to support incumbents and make the party more inclusive.
The state party’s maneuvering could now usurp some of her authority to do so, by forcing county party chairs to reject from the primary ballot any candidate who has been censured in the past two years.
“Some of this, we have to have careful, it’s reactionary,” state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio) said of the state party convention’s actions in an interview Saturday. “Sometimes people do things because they’re angry, and the ramifications could be hurtful in the future and have unintended consequences.”
Indeed, six months out from a pivotal presidential election against a sitting Democratic president, GOP activists and many of their guest speakers spent much of their time instead voicing their displeasure with Republican officials who they felt had failed to adhere to the party’s values.
“There’s a sort of battle going on for the soul of the Republican Party,” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Dripping Springs) told the San Antonio Report Saturday. “For too long we’ve had too many people who’ve been elected, who don’t do what they say they would do. They get there and then they always have some excuse. And the people are saying, ‘enough of that.'”
Few officials took more of that drubbing throughout the convention than U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio), who is in the final days of an expensive primary runoff that will be decided Tuesday.
That race comes after the state party censured him last year for his votes in favor of same-sex marriage and gun safety.
Speaking to a roaring crowd at Saturday’s general session, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) told attendees that Texas delivers some of the best members of Congress, “but since I’m here, I have to say, you also send us some of the worst Republicans,” he added, singling out Gonzales as an example.
“We should not have Texas Republicans or any other Republicans voting for red flag laws,” Gaetz told the crowd, who roared as he brought Gonzales’ primary opponent, Brandon Herrera, on stage.
Under the party’s new rules, once an official is censured by three-fifths of the State Republican Executive Committee, state and county party chairs are directed to “refuse to accept any application for a place on the ballot of a Republican primary” for 24 months.
Koons declined to comment on the new rule. It’s expected to face a legal challenge — as is another rules change, aimed at closing the primary so that only Republicans can vote in them.
Currently Texas voters can choose whichever party’s primary ballot they want immediately before casting their votes, but Republicans hope to make it so that only people registered with the party can have a say in who it nominates.
“Primaries are not a bad thing, but this has been sort of a unique experience in my time in office,” U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said of the current GOP infighting in an interview with reporters Friday. Gov. Greg Abbott, who addressed the convention through a video message Friday, and Cornyn used their time at the convention to call for party unity ahead of the November election.
Bexar County influence at the convention
Despite Bexar County’s Democratic tilt, delegates from here were part of some of the biggest caucus meetings, filling the convention center’s Lila Cockrell Theatre for gatherings of the state’s 25th Senate District, represented by state Sen. Donna Campbell, and 21st Congressional District, which is represented by Roy.
The number of delegates for a caucus meeting is weighed by its political lean, and both provided some of the most votes to Abbott in 2022.
On Friday, that dynamic contributed to a surprise third-place finish for San Antonio state party chair candidate Weston Martinez, a former real estate commissioner. The party ultimately picked Abraham George, the chosen successor of outgoing chair Matt Rinaldi.
While most local Republican officials kept a low profile at the convention, one who did not was state Rep. Mark Dorazio, a former chair of the Republican Party of Bexar County who led the successful efforts to censure then-Texas Speaker Joe Straus in 2018.
Dorazio was there promoting his bill to make gold and silver legal tender through a digital currency as a legislative priority for the party in the 2025 session.
Local Democrats, meanwhile, took the opportunity to poke fun at Republicans who steered clear of the event.
“You know how bad things are when the governor would choose to Zoom it in rather than come down for an hour,” state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio) said at a press gathering outside the convention hall Friday.
“For Republicans to come to San Antonio, to convene at the Henry B. González Convention Center — a champion for the immigrant, a champion of Latinos and the working class throughout the state — I know that Henry B. is turning in his grave right now,” Martinez Fischer said.
