While the rest of the country is debating whether Texas might be a swing state in 2024, the Texas Republican Party is very upset that the 87th Legislature has not gone more sharply their way. To fix that, they are launching their own scorecard to distribute to voters so they can decide whether their representatives are properly toeing the party line.
“We on the Legislative Priorities Committee are creating our own scorecard,” says Jill Glover, Chair of the Legislative Priorities Committee of the State Republican Executive Committee. “We will be looking at Priority bills filed, committee hearings, as well as the votes from this session, and will let you know how every one of our Republican Representatives and Senators performed. We will let you know how many, if any, of our Republican Priority bills made it to the Governor’s desk. Then you get to decide what to do next.”
According to Glover, the legislative session has been a complete failure that has not passed a single one of their priority bills. These include making it illegal for trans and non-binary children to receive medical counseling affirming their identities, allowing businesses to discriminate under the umbrella of religious freedom, protecting Confederate monuments, and permitless carry. The last has since been passed by the Legislature and is on its way to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk despite a solid majority of Texans opposing the issue. Glover claims the bill had been “sabotaged.” The final version included some provisions recommended by law enforcement, which wanted to increase the ability of officers to identify and arrest felons who were not allowed a gun.
Lately, some of the Texas Republican Party member’s actions were bordeline bigoted. Glover’s statement scolds Texas Republicans for advancing a bill that would make the upcoming Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr part of the official holiday calendar for state employees. House Bill 1231 designates the two Eid celebrations as optional holidays provided the employee worked another state holiday instead. The specter of this simple, inclusive move is apparently anathema to the GOP.
“You will know that there is something wrong when the Republicans control the majority, yet the Democrats seem to come out ahead,” says Glover. “Something’s wrong when some of our Republican representatives — Reps. Oliverson, Jetton, and Hull — manage to get a bill to the Calendars Committee and on the floor for a vote that creates a new Texas holiday. The cause for celebration? Islam’s first victory over non-Muslim forces. In fact, this bill got to the Calendars Committee three days after our Priority bill to protect children from pediatric sex change did, yet our bill still sits in Calendars and this new state holiday bill is being voted on today in the House. We can protect puppies, create new holidays, and do all sorts of other trivial things, yet we can’t protect our children from an exploding trend that literally destroys their bodies and alters their brains.”
For the record, minors are not given gender reassignment surgery. A doctor may prescribe puberty blockers for a trans or non-binary child.
The final form of this scorecard is unknown. It appears to be more efforts from the far-right wing of the party to re-focus Republicans on niche, unpopular, and discriminatory efforts rather than actual governance. With Texas Republicans always facing possible attacks on their own right flanks, it’s likely to make the 2022 midterms even crazier than they already were going to be.
While the rest of the country is debating whether Texas might be a swing state in 2024, the Texas Republican Party is very upset that the 87th Legislature has not gone more sharply right-wing. To fix that, they are launching their own scorecard to distribute to voters so they can decide whether their representatives are properly toeing the party line.
“We on the Legislative Priorities Committee are creating our own scorecard,” says Jill Glover, Chair of the Legislative Priorities Committee of the State Republican Executive Committee. “We will be looking at Priority bills filed, committee hearings, as well as the votes from this session, and will let you know how every one of our Republican Representatives and Senators performed. We will let you know how many, if any, of our Republican Priority bills made it to the Governor’s desk. Then you get to decide what to do next.”
According to Glover, the legislative session has been a complete failure that has not passed a single one of their priority bills. These include making it illegal for trans and non-binary children to receive medical counseling affirming their identities, allowing businesses to discriminate under the umbrella of religious freedom, protecting Confederate monuments, and permitless carry. The last has since been passed by the legislature and is on its way to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk despite being a solid majority of Texans opposing the issue. Glover claims the bill had been “sabotaged.” The final version included some provisions recommended by law enforcement, which wanted to increase the ability of officers to identify and arrest felons who were not allowed a gun.
Some of the Texas Republican Party’s is frankly bigoted in nature. Glover’s statement scolds Texas Republicans for advancing a bill that would make the upcoming Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr part of the official holiday calendar for state employees. House Bill 1231 designates the two Eid celebrations as optional holidays provided the employee worked another state holiday instead. The specter of this simple, inclusive move is apparently anathema to the GOP.
“You will know that there is something wrong when the Republicans control the majority, yet the Democrats seem to come out ahead,” says Glover. “Something’s wrong when some of our Republican representatives — Reps. Oliverson, Jetton, and Hull — manage to get a bill to the Calendars Committee and on the floor for a vote that creates a new Texas holiday. The cause for celebration? Islam’s first victory over non-Muslim forces. In fact, this bill got to the Calendars Committee three days after our Priority bill to protect children from pediatric sex change did, yet our bill still sits in Calendars and this new state holiday bill is being voted on today in the House. We can protect puppies, create new holidays, and do all sorts of other trivial things, yet we can’t protect our children from an exploding trend that literally destroys their bodies and alters their brains.”
For the record, minors are not given gender reassignment surgery. A doctor may prescribe puberty blockers for a trans or non-binary child.
The final form of this scorecard is unknown. It appears to be more efforts from the far-right wing of the party to re-focus Republicans on niche, unpopular, and discriminatory efforts rather than actual governance. With Texas Republicans always facing possible attacks on their own right flanks, it’s likely to make the 2022 midterms even more screwball than they already were going to be.
