State Convention to Showcase Risky Plan
to Dodge Wave Without Votes Beyond Base
Capitol Inside
June 10, 2026
HOUSTON - Thousands of MAGA warriors are storming downtown Houston this week for a Texas GOP Convention that's shaping up to be an epic wagon-circling extravaganza amid fears of a monstrous blue wave and a strategy that revolves on a record turnout of conservatives to survive it without the need for votes outside the base.
GOP leaders have appeared to be shelving the bigger tent approach that's been the key to their success in the Lone Star State where they've won every statewide race since 1994 with significant support from independent voters, relatively conservative Democrats and Republicans who are more centrist than far right.
No America president has ever been elected without some substantial support in the middle of the political spectrum. The same can be said for every governor and U.S. Senate member from Texas in modern times. But the two biggest names at the George R. Brown Convention Center at the state GOP confab during the next four days - Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton as the party's U.S. Senate nominee - think they can be the first in history to win statewide without the broader appeal that had been the ticket to dominance in the nation's second largest state.
The Texas Republicans' biennial gathering for 2026 gets off the ground officially with opening ceremonies on Thursday as the first of four general sessions that be held during the next two days. The convention's delegates will debate and approve a new state party platform along with a list of formal priorities for the Texas Legislature to consider when it meets in regular session next year. Texas GOP Chair Abraham George appears to be the favorite in a bid at the event for a second term with at least one opponent.
But the push for a united base without reaching beyond it could be a sign that Paxton, Abbott and the state party are conceding independents, votes from across the aisle, traditional GOP voters who are fed up with President Donald Trump and Latinos who supported him in record numbers in 2024 to James Talarico and the Democrats in 2026.
The game plan is highly-risky and could be doomed to fail in light of the fact that no one has won the White House or a major statewide race in Texas without some support from voters who aren't died-in-the-wool Republicans or Democrats. But Paxton appears poised to double down with a hard turn further to the right at the state party convention this week on soon thereafter.
Trump scored his highest share of the vote in Texas in 2024 when he received a record amount of support in South Texas and border areas that had been dependably Democrat in the past. But polls have shown the president's support collapsing among Latino voters - and the Republicans here have been nothing to keep them in the fold amid the apparent belief they're no longer needed as long as base voters turn out in force at the polls in November.
Talarico gives the Republicans a clear-cut villain at the state convention. With the Republicans desperate for distractions with inflation hitting a three-year high on Wednesday while Trump's approval remarks remain at record lows, Paxton is attacking Talarico based on a fabricated narrative in a creative name-calling competition that features his characterization of the Democrat today as Talacreepo.
But the attempt to redefine the Texas House member from Austin has floundered up to now with the debunking of bogus claims on Talarico being vegan, gay and transitioning to the female gender while some Republicans accuse him of having multiple romantic interests who are all women.
Paxton and Trump have both slammed Talarico for arguing years ago that God is non-binary, a line that fails to resonate outside the far right with voters who have no clue what it means. The Republicans are telling voters that Talarico said once that there were six separate sexes. But the wild and colorful tales about the Democrats' Senate contender haven't put any noticeable dents in the slim lead that he's had on Paxton in the polls.
more to come ...
| 
