GOP Leaders Jumped the Gun on Guns
with Texas Party Priorities Floundering

Capitol Inside
April 19, 2021

State GOP Chairman Allen West dished out the accolades with glowing generosity last week after the Texas House voted in favor of a so-called constitutional carry bill that party leaders hailed as a landmark achievement that they'd fought hard to bring about.

"Our indomitable spirit, our desire to remain victors -- not victims -- stands strong tonight across Texas," West declared. "As I have often said, 'An armed person is a citizen, and an unarmed man is a subject.' That will not be the case in our beloved Lone Star State."

State Republican Executive Committee member Jill Glover described the no-permit gun measure as an unprecedented piece of history in the making. "This is something that has never before been done in a Texas Legislative session, though it is something Texas Republicans have repeatedly asked for," Glover said of the gun rights measure.

The victory party ended on Monday afternoon when Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick acknowledged that the gun legislation lacks the votes that it would need to clear the Texas Senate in the final five weeks of the regular session. With Senate Republicans holding 18 seats in a chamber where a bill only needs 18 to pass, Patrick's admission indicates that at least one senator for the GOP is against the proposal that cleared the lower chamber in House Bill 1927.

For West and his allies at the Republican Party of Texas, the House vote of 87-58 for HB 1927 might have been their last opportunity to celebrate with all of the state party's priorities for the 2021 regular session in some degree of trouble if not on life support.

West blamed Patrick for the gun measure's apparent stall in the Senate - contending in a radio interview on a Lubbock station on Monday night that the lieutenant governor hadn't wanted the proposal to "see the light of day."

Patrick didn't say which of the Republicans are opposed to the gun legislation in the east wing of the statehouse. "If we have the votes to pass a permitless carry bill off the Senate floor, I will move it," Patrick said today. “At this point we don’t have the votes on the floor to pass it.”

The constitutional carry plan might have been the only major state GOP priority that had a chance for success before the session adjourns on May 31 if not sooner. The party's official session priorities were adopted by delegates at the state Republican convention on the Internet in July when West captured the leadership post in a fog of chaos and disarray.

West recently designated election integrity as the number one formal priority for the 87th biennial gathering. The major House and Senate bills that would restrict voting in Texas have been on hold in the west wing for more than a week amid a deluge of corporate opposition that Patrick has condemned as an attack on the integrity of Senate Republicans.

But West has blasted Governor Greg Abbott repeatedly for his orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. The party boss branded GOP House Speaker Dade Phelan as a traitor after he'd lock the post down late last year on the strength of a coalition that included Republicans and Democrats. West's elevation of the voter bill to the top spot on the priority list could have been a kiss of death for the election legislation and other state party priorities as a result.

Glover led the charge on "children and gender modification" as a subcommittee work group. She will be unhappy to learn that a Senate bill that takes aim at transgender sports in Texas schools could be on a slow trip to the House graveyard amid a flurry of corporate opposition from some of the same major companies that are trying to kill the voting bill.

A ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying by Texas cities and counties probably never had a chance in the House. The same probably can be said for RPT priorities like historic monument protection and school choice - two of the RPT's eight formal priorities for 2021.