Crenshaw Ambush Cap Offs Convention
That Was Hate-Fueled Flop on All Counts

Capitol Inside
June 18, 2022

HOUSTON - The Texas GOP Convention was an embarrassment for the party by every measurable standard before fizzling to a close on Saturday with a rhetorical assault on a congressman who's a former Navy Seal as the only significant development on the third and final day. The only real accomplishment arguably came when state party Chairman Matt Rinaldi adjourned the convention exactly as scheduled at 4:30 p.m. central standard time.

The biennial gathering at the George R. Brown Convention Center proved to be a showcase for how radically conservative, angry and intolerable the party base has become since the last in-person event of its kind in 2018. The gulf between the GOP's elected leaders and grassroots activists has never been as wide as it was during the past three days. There was no enthusiasm or energy among the rank-and-file at the GRB.

The Houston Astros offered the only excitement in town this weekend when they scored 10 runs in one inning en route to a 13-3 rout of the Chicago White Sox on Friday night just two blocks away at a sold-out Minute Maid Park. The delegates down the street appeared to be as white as ever despite predictions from the stage on South Texas going red this fall. This seemed to be a much older crowd than the GOP has drawn to state conventions during the past several decades.

The fans at the Astros game were an international lot - with white people accounting for approximately 25 percent to 30 percent and an average age half the amount of the typical Republican at the convention center. The most stark difference between the convention and the baseball game was the fact that the Astros fans were positive, cheering and getting along with each other as people from all walks of life.

Conservatives who were superstars in the past like Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton received warm applause with scattered whoops and cheers during speeches at the convention on Friday. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz failed to fire up a listless audience as the only Republican at the event with whom most delegates could relative.

U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Houston stole the show on Saturday simply by walking through the hallway outside the convention hall where he was confronted by a man screaming invectives and calling him "Eyepatch McCain" as he and an entourage moved through the GRB.

But there were no signs of original or independent thought at the convention this weekend in Houston where the activist who heckled Crenshaw - Alex Stein - turned out to be a delegate from Senate District 12. Stein called Crenshaw a "globalist RINO" repeatedly during the bizarre encounter.

Initial reports said that a Crenshaw aide was pushed into a wall during a melee that erupted when Stein approached the congressman with the verbal lashing. A video of the encounter showed two or three members of the Crenshaw entourage physically retrain Stein and shoved him against a wall. According to Stein, Crenshaw's "whole team swarmed on me, they're grabbing me, pushing me."

Crenshaw countered with a tweet. "This is what happens when angry little boys like @alexstein99 don’t grow up and can’t get girlfriends…"

One of Donald Trump's favorite Texans in Washington D.C. during his first two years in the U.S. House, Crenshaw has alienated the far right with positions on some hot button issues including his support for red flag laws in the midst of a gun violence crisis. But Crenshaw sought to steer the focus away from convention confrontation with a Twitter analysis that tied Formula One racer Sebastian Vetal's new helmet to dirty Saudi Arabia oil money.

"This woke virtue signaling goes down in flames when the facts are applied," Crenshaw explained.

Rinaldi set the tone for the convention when he praised Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Patrick in opening remarks on Thursday while declining to mention Governor Greg Abbott by name. U.S. Senator John Cornyn was shouted down amid a hurricane of boos during a speech to the confab on Friday about his role in a bipartisan gun package.

While Cornyn had the guts to show up and speak when he knew what to expect, Abbott took the opposite path when he refused to address the convention in favor of a reception on Thursday at a small beer garden across the street from the GRB. Abbott said the unconventional convention approach was designed to unite the party for battles with Democrats this fall. Abbott knew he would be treated as badly as Cornyn if he hadn't decided to duck the delegates for the hit-and-run appearance in downtown Houston this week.

Beating Democrats in November was barely an afterthought at the GOP state convention.

 
 
 
 

 

 

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