Time Might Be Ripe for Texas Vote
for Gubernatorial Recall Elections

Capitol Inside
September 15, 2021

Texas Republican leaders and lawmakers could cap off a united run to the far right by offering to share some of their power with the conservative base with a measure in an upcoming special session that would clear the way for recall elections for state officials.

The GOP's bid to oust California Governor Gavin Newsom a year before his term is up was an exercise in grassroots democracy and conservative governance at its purest form.

But Texas is not among 19 states that give citizens a process for removing governors and other elected state officials without having to wait four full years.

Governor Greg Abbott, who devoted his agenda in two summer special sessions to the GOP's most conservative members, could show the base that he's sincere by including a recall proposal in the call for a third special session that starts next week.

Such a system would have given conservatives an opportunity to give Abbott the boot last year when they up in arms over the COVID-19 restrictions that he'd issued for the sake of protecting the public health. Republicans on the hard right - the heart of the new GOP - accused Abbott of tyranny and totalitarian rule.

While Newsom staved off the recall bid with a blowout victory on Tuesday night, the election provided a showcase in the empowerment of the people that Texans are being denied.

Abbott could add an item to the new session call that gives the Legislature an opportunity to let the voters make the final call on gubernatorial recalls in a statewide election.

Abbott might be inclined to stay silent on recall elections at a time when he's more unpopular with the voters than he'd been before. The Texas governor could find it hard to survive a recall effort without his own party united behind him like Democrats in California been with Newsom. The jury is still out on whether Abbott's dramatic lunge to the hard right will cost him the governorship when he seeks a new term in 2022.

But Abbott would be substantially safer in a primary election than a recall vote because Democrats would have to cross party lines for the opportunity vote against him. Abbott appears to have his hands full already with former Texas Senate member Don Huffines and ex-state GOP chairman Allen West gunning for him in the primary.

North Dakota Republican Lynn Frazier was the first governor to be recalled by voters in an election in 1921. California voters ousted Democrat Gray Davis in a recall initiative in 2003 when Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger won the job in his place.

Democrats tried and failed to knock Wisconsin Republican Scott Walker out of the governor's office in 2021. Newsom was the fourth governor in the U.S. targeted in a recall effort.

While Abbott may not be amenable to a recall election proposal in the special session that will revolve on redistricting, lawmakers wouldn't need his approval in the 2023 regular session with a constitutional amendment that would require two-thirds support in the Texas House and Senate.

Texas Republicans have been obsessed with instant gratification up to now in 2021. But a vote on a joint resolution for recall elections for state leaders would be a sign that the Republicans are preparing for the future when Democrats take over the state at some point.