Texas Republicans open their convention as they seek to motivate base ahead of election

Riding an unparalleled winning streak in modern political history, the Texas Republican Party formally opened its biennial convention in San Antonio on Thursday with its leaders promising to push the conservative agenda even further and to spare no effort to ensure that former President Donald Trump again carries the state in November.

And the nearly 10,000 delegates and alternates inside the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention, a half-mile walk from the Alamo, cheered with gusto as GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi joined Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton in casting their fellow Republican, embattled Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, as an infidel who owes his position to an alliance with the Democrats.

"I want to address an issue. Let's call it the Republican elephant in the room," Patrick, the powerful president of the Texas Senate, said in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the GOP's mascot. "As lieutenant governor, I do not want to run the House. But I want a conservative Republican to be speaker who will run the House."

Phelan, who does not plan to attend the convention that runs through Saturday, is in a three-way feud with Patrick and Paxton that was thrust front and center a week short of one year ago when the Texas House under his leadership brought impeachment charges against the attorney general on an array of accusations that he had abused his office and obstructed justice. After the Senate cleared Paxton, Patrick railed against Phelan for allowing the process to go forward.

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But much of the opening day speeches were designed to motivate the party activists selected as delegates to keep Texas in the Republican column in the upcoming Nov. 5 elections. Rinaldi, who is not seeking another term as party chairman, warned that Democrats led by President Joe Biden and his allies in Congress are bent on keeping power, no matter the cost.

"Our party can't be content merely to slow America's leftward trajectory," Rinaldi told the delegates. "We can't rest on achieving a few legislative victories and sit back content. And we can't have Republicans win elections, and then hand power over to Democrats who want to destroy us. We need to take the fight directly to the left. Go on offense and mobilize, organize and unify around the singular goal — preserving the American dream for our children."

Warnings of a Democratic takeover, a typical GOP refrain in each election as campaigns begin shifting into high gear, might sound unduly alarmist in Texas, which has backed the Republican nominee in every presidential election since 1980. Also, the GOP has not lost a single statewide race since 1994, and it has kept total control of both houses of the Legislature since 2003.

Paxton, who like Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott — who plans to virtually address the convention Friday — is in his third term, used his 8½-munute address to the delegates to highlight the 75 lawsuits his office has brought against Biden's policies and to point out his efforts to rid the GOP of officeholders he believes have strayed from party principles.

He pointed out not only that he helped force Phelan into a runoff that will be decided Tuesday by voters in the speaker's Southeast Texas House district, but also that the three Republican incumbents on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals whom he campaigned against were all defeated in the March 5 primaries.

"Between this primary and the runoff, we are on a pathway to change out over 20 Republican incumbents who are more loyal to (Phelan) and the Democrats than they were to you," Paxton said.

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Patrick, meanwhile, made sure delegates knew that he and Trump are in sync this election cycle as they were in 2020 when the former president held Texas but was defeated by Biden. Patrick noted that he was with Trump for the final day of his hush-money trial in New York earlier this week and then accompanied him at fundraising events in Houston and Dallas.

"Donald Trump — I've known him now for 10 years. I've been his campaign chair. We've become friends, good friends," Patrick said. "The guy never stops. He never stops."

Texas Democrats will hold their convention next week in El Paso. But party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa did not pass up opportunities to tweak both Paxton and Patrick for their appearances in San Antonio. In emailed statements, Hinojosa accused both of putting Trump's interests ahead of the nation's. Paxton, he said, is incapable of "original thought" and Patrick was derided as "Trump’s #1 Bootlicker."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas 2024 State Republican Convention opens in San Antonio