State GOP Urged Abbott to Act Fast
as Texas Business Backlash Erupts

Capitol Inside
October 12, 2021

The Texas Republican Party took credit on Tuesday for a ban on vaccine mandates that Governor Greg Abbott issued the previous day in a move that's forced some of the state's largest corporate employers to choose between violating state or federal emergency laws.

The state party singled out Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan as well - echoing Donald Trump's call for the passage of a forensic election audit bill here in a special session that ends a week from today.

As a marquee list of private Texas companies announced plans to defy the governor's order as a result of business they do with the U.S. government, state GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi and 51 State Republican Executive Committee members touted a letter they'd sent to Abbott on Friday urging the action that he's taken in the lates COVID-19 decree.

Abbott had failed to give the state party credit when he imposed Executive Order GA 40 on Monday in spite of promises in the past to keep the state from restricting businesses again like he'd done in the first few months of the covid pandemic. But SEC member Jill Glover, who chairs the legislative priorities committee, expressed the party's gratitude to the governor for his swift response to the call for action nonetheless.

"Thankfully Governor Abbott listened and Monday evening issued an executive order banning vaccine mandates immediately and added the item to the third special session," Glover said in an email today. "We thank Governor Abbott for his attention to this issue and ask the legislature to move quickly with just a little over a week left before the 3rd special session ends."

The state GOP recycled a weekend email that the former president had fired off in an attempt to get Phelan to capitulate on the election audit proposal in Senate Bill 47. Trump threatened to field primary opposition against Phelan in his home district in the Beaumont area in 2022 if he did not bow to the demand. Trump slammed Phelan as a weak and moderate leader in the communique from the Save America PAC.

"We continue to urge Speaker Phelan to fix this issue, which is an insult to the people of the state of Texas," Glover said. "To pass a bill touting toughening of our elections process yet actually weakening it is a slap in the face to Republicans."

Abbott's prohibition on vaccine mandates sparked a predictable furor within the Texas business community - with Southwest and American Airlines and other major Texas companies such as Chevron and Dell saying they would not comply with the executive edict because it directly contradicts a federal guidance requiring them for large businesses. Businesses run the risk of losing contracts with the federal government if they fail to abide by the Biden administration policies on vaccination requirements.

While Abbott hasn't said how he will hope to penalize the companies for their open defiance, one of the Republicans who's challenging him in the 2022 primary election made it clear how he will handle the issue if he unseats the incumbent next year.

“As Governor of Texas, I will vehemently crush anyone forcing vaccine mandates in the Lone Star State," former Texas Republican Party chief Allen West declared in a statement on his release from the hospital where he'd landed during a bout with covid. " There are far better protocols that individual citizens can utilize and decide for themselves. Our bodies are our last sanctuary of liberty and freedom. I will defend that for everyone, even the progressive socialist jackasses who must be saved from themselves."

more to come ...