The Texas Republican Party made a series of far-right statements as part of its official party platform over the weekend, claiming that President Biden was not legitimately elected, issuing a “rebuke” to Senator John Cornyn for his work on bipartisan gun legislation and referring to homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice.”
The platform was voted on in Houston at the state party convention, which concluded Saturday.
The resolutions on Biden and Cornyn were passed by a vote of delegates, according to James Wesolek, the communications director of the Texas Republican Party. Statements on homosexuality, as well as additional positions on abortion asking students to “learn about the humanity of the imprisoned child” – were among the more than 270 boards that were approved by a platform committee and voted by the largest group of the convention. delegates using ballots. The results of these votes were still pending on Sunday, but Mr. Wesolek said it was rare for a board to be rejected by the plenary convention after it was approved by the committee.
The resolutions passed by the false claims that former President Donald J. Trump was the victim of a stolen election in 2020, as well as other statements, were the latest examples of more right-wing movements of Texas Republicans in recent years. months. Republicans control both houses of the legislature, the governor’s mansion and all state offices, and have used their dominance to push legislation against hard abortion, create supply chain problems by temporarily adding additional state inspections to the state. border and rename the Trump-backed state. Attorney General on a Bush Family Member in a Second Round in May.
Mr. Wesolek disputed the idea that the statements were linked to the right-wing leaning of the state party. “That was the will of the body,” Mr Wesolek said on Sunday. “We are proud to be a grassroots party.”
At times, state party conventions in Texas have been places for the public issuance of internal fractures. In 2012, Gov. Rick Perry was heavily booed at the state Republican convention when he said he supported the powerful lieutenant governor over Ted Cruz in a Senate primary. On Friday, Mr. Cornyn, a key negotiator in arms talks with Democrats, was booed by convention attendees during a speech in which he tried to reassure Republicans that the new legislation would not violate the rights of gun owners.
The state party’s resolution embracing the baseless stolen 2020 election claims stated that “substantial electoral fraud in key metropolitan areas significantly affected the results of five key states in favor of” Mr. Biden. The state party, the resolution continued, rejected “the certified results of the 2020 presidential election and we hold that incumbent President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States.”
The resolution encouraged Republicans to “turn out to vote” in November and “bring in your friends and family, volunteer for your local Republicans, and overwhelm any possible fraud.”
State Representative Steve Toth, a Republican representing part of Montgomery County, a suburb of Houston, said he left the convention before voting on the resolutions, but expressed support. He said he hoped Biden’s resolution would “encourage Republicans and Democrats to unite and call for a forensic audit” of the 2020 election.
Jason Vaughn, 38, a Houston Republican delegate, claimed the merit of having added the language of “turn out to vote” to Biden’s resolution. “My fear is that if we keep telling people that the election was stolen, they won’t go to the polls,” Vaughn said.
Mary Lowe, a Fort Worth suburban delegate who focused on education issues at the convention, said she was surprised that the results of the 2020 election were the focus of her Republican colleagues. But, he added, “I don’t know too many people who felt that Biden won.”
Mrs. Lowe, chair of the Tarrant County chapter of a group known as Moms for Liberty, said she was among the openly critical delegates with Mr. Cornyn. But she added that she was embarrassed by the booze and did not participate.
“I don’t think booing is polite,” Ms. Lowe said. “I think elected officials should be treated with the right decorum.”
Jamie Haynes, 47, a Republican delegate who lives in the Texas Panhandle with her husband and says they have “a lot of guns” together, said the boos aimed at Mr. Cornyn demonstrated that there was a “strong view that Republicans don’t want to shave their gun rights, not just take them off, but even shaved in any way.”
The resolution reprimanded by Mr. Cornyn, which passed the convention, was opposed to red-flag laws, which allow people to confiscate weapons that are considered dangerous. These laws, according to the resolution, “violate the right to due process and are a pre-trial punishment for the crime of not guilty convicts.”
The homosexuality board approved the platform committee by a vote of 17 to 14, according to Mr. Vaughn, an openly gay member of the committee who voted against.
“It does nothing to advance as a party and win voters,” he said in a video of the committee meeting. In an interview, Mr. Vaughn said the change to the convention was the result of a small number of people who “make the process miserable because they want to do all these far-right things.”
Mr. Everyone disagreed, saying that on abortion, gay rights and the 2020 election, the Republican Party has been consistent in adhering to its conservative principles. “Defense of marriage? Abortion? Second amendment? Where have we moved to the right? “He asked.” Republicans have always been strong advocates of constitutional family values. “
A Texas congressman and Democrat, Rep. Colin Allred, called the Republican Party’s actions regressive.
“The Texas Republican Party is trying to get us back to a time when women couldn’t make decisions about their own bodies and when Americans lived in fear of being punished for being themselves,” Mr. Allred in a statement.