SAN ANTONIO - Republicans converge on the Alamo City on Wednesday for a biennial state convention that could be the last hurrah for RINOs with Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan as an all-time villain and Attorney General Ken as the only bonafide superstar in town for the show.
Governor Greg Abbott finds himself in a more precarious position at the Texas Republican Convention in downtown San Antonio this week after dodging delegates at the last state party confab in Houston in 2022. Abbott has taken great strides to remake an image as a moderate into a Donald-Trump-certified right winger with an abortion ban, gun deregulation, elections restrictions and an $11 million border security production.
But Abbott is actually playing both sides in a monumental civil war that the Texas GOP will have on display at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center for the next three days.
The governor for example has been campaigning vigorously for two state House Republicans who Paxton and his allies on the far right want to bury in Tuesday's primary runoff election when State Reps. Lynn Stuckey of Sanger and Stephanie Klick of Fort Worth square off in overtime with Andy Hopper and David Lowe respectively. Abbott has endorsed a third lawmaker who's facing a challenger in OT in State Rep. Frederick Frazier of Plano. But the governor has done nothung since that time to help Frazier as a consequence of embarrassing off-the-field behavior.
Conservatives who will dominate the state convention see Stucky, Frazier and Klick as traitors as a result of votes they cast a year ago for Paxton's impeachment. Abbott declined to take a position on the attempted impeachment - and he's refused to let the historic event affect his record involvement on the House battlefield as vengeance for votes against school choice last fall.
Abbott is on board with Paxton conservatives with his support for challengers Alan Schoolcraft of San Antonio, Katrina Pierson of Rockwall, Helen Kerwin of Glen Rose and Chris Spencer of Texarkana in runoff duels with GOP representatives who voted with the Democrats to kill the vouchers bill in special session in November. Phelan has been silent on Phelan's fight for survival in a hometown re-election race with David Covey of Orange as the consensus betting favorite in House District 21.
The HD 21 runoff in southeast Texas has an obscene price tag that will swelll considerably between now and the overtime vote next week. While Phelan should nowhere around the convention in SA, he will be the talk of the town during the GOP festivities several blocks from the Alamo this week. Paxton is the closest thing to a rock star in Texas Republican ranks thanks almost exclusively to the House Republicans who tried to impeach him and failed.
Paxton loyalists took turns taking shots at the speaker.
"Dade Phelan is the puppet of the establishment," Covey said in a post on X
State Rep. Brian Harrison of Midlothian cast the challenge as an ultimatu. "We must defeat @DadePhelan and elect @CoveyTX to #MakeTheTexasHouseRepublicanAgain," Harrison said on X.
The Texas House - for the record - has been controlled by Republicans for more than 21 years. The GOP has a current advantage of 86 seats compared to 64 for the Democrats.
more to come ...
Current Revolt Claims to Score GOP Chair Ballot
from Primary with Spurning of Trump for DeSantis
The Texas Republican Convention got under way on Wednesday with the party's more gullible activists abuzz over a report today on a spoof web site that claimed that outgoing state Chairman Matt Rinaldi voted for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for president in the March 5 primary election based on a copy of a ballot that it says it obtained. Rinaldi dignified the Current Revolt report with a post on X that said its author needed counseling. But an amazing number of Republicans in downtown San Antonio this afternoon acted as though they believed the claims or thought they might be true.
Rinaldi for the record had endorsed DeSantis for the White House in 2024 before switching his allegiance to Donald Trump after the Florida leader pulled the plug on a listless campaign. A former state representative who'd been a Texas Freedom Caucus original, Rinaldi is giving up the party leadership post and backing Collin County GOP chairman Abraham George for the job that delegates in downtown San Antonio will vote to fill this weekend.
more to come ...
