Long before the impeachment began, GOP rifts were growing in Texas
The impeachment proceedings against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton by a majority of his fellow Republicans have exposed an undercurrent of division and discontent stirring the Republican Party in the most populous state, where it still enjoys near-total political control .
As the vote in the House of Representatives suddenly hurtled through the heart of Texas politics on Saturday, underlying resentments had been building for months, if not years, not over individual personalities but over how Republicans should use their power and which ones to use. shape the party should take in the future.
The battle to impeach Mr. Paxton, which attracted national Republican figures, including former President Donald J. Trump, provided a stark demonstration of two increasingly warring currents of Republican politics.
While the outburst was unexpected — as of a week ago there had been little public indication that an impeachment might be imminent — it was the culmination of a session of the Texas legislature, where Republicans dominate both chambers, that was marked by a steady growing bitterness within the parties.
“It’s the battle between the Republican Party’s version under Trump and the traditional Republican Party’s version,” said Jeronimo Cortina, a political science professor at the University of Houston. The battle is especially urgent in Texas, he added, as increasing urbanization and demographic changes threaten the party’s dominance over the Democrats.
“The question for Republicans is, do you want to stay in government for a few years” by catering to a shrinking pool of aging voters? said Mr. Cortina, describing the party’s most conservative members. “Or do you want to invest in having a Republican Party that will have a future in Texas?”
During the impeachment process, some of the most conservative members of the legislature found themselves railing against the power politics of their own moderate leaders in the House.
“Don’t end our session like this,” Rep. Tony Tinderholt said as he implored fellow Republicans to vote against impeaching Mr. Paxton, a staunch conservative who has built a national reputation for fighting Democrats on immigration. , healthcare, voting and other issues. “Do not tarnish this institution.”
Ultimately, 60 of the 85 Republicans in the Texas House disagreed and voted to impeach Mr. Paxton on charges of corruption, bribery and abuse of office, temporarily removing him from office pending an upcoming trial in the Senate.
By the end of the session, which officially ends on Monday, the conservative juggernaut that swept through a wave of legislation during the last session of lawmakers two years ago was met with significant opposition not only from Democrats but also from fellow Texas Republicans willing to were a line in the sand on some issues.
A special session to address some of the lingering divisions – over education funding, property taxation, border security and renewable energy regulation, not to mention Mr Paxton’s fate – seemed all but certain.
Anger among conservative activists and hard-right lawmakers had been brewing for months as they watched many of their priorities sail through the state Senate only to be thwarted in the Texas House.
The two chambers have often clashed during recent legislative sessions, with the House acting as a more moderate check on the far-right leadership of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate.
This year, however, the resentment seemed bigger than usual.
Most of the high-profile conservative proposals came from the Senate, which quickly passed a series of hard-hitting bills, including ending tenure at state universities, creating new restrictions on education about sex and gender, similar to a highly controversial Florida law , adding extensive new voting restrictions in Houston and placing the Ten Commandments in every Texas public school classroom.
But tensions escalated as the weeks passed and the deadlines approached. Many of the Senate’s priorities languished and then officially died in the House the consternation of some of the most conservative members.
A dispute over the best way to lower property taxes for Texans — a seemingly easy lift in a tax-avoiding state with a budget surplus of more than $30 billion — led Mr. Patrick to call Dade Phelan, the Speaker of the House. had another planby one of the more insulting nicknames one can think of in Texas politics: “California Dade.”
Mr. Patrick even enlisted Mr. Trump to weigh in. The former president adopted the nickname and approved Mr. Patrick’s property tax plan.
That tactic did not lead to a breakthrough in the negotiations, but it did put the spotlight on Mr. Phelan, a Republican from the town of Beaumont. The House and Senate agreed Saturday on a spending plan that allocates more than $17 billion for a tax cut, but they have still failed to agree on how it would actually work.
The California nickname was replaced by “Drunk Dade” in some conservative activist circles last week after Mr. Paxton Mr. Phelan charged with drunkenness at a recent late-night House session. Mr Phelan denied the allegation, which was made just as it became clear that the House had secretly investigated Mr Paxton.
Mr. Trump again condemned Mr. Phelan on Saturday before and after the impeachment vote, promising to “fight” all Republicans who voted to impeach.
The Texas Republican Party, which has positioned itself to the right of many state elected officials, has been attacking Mr. Phelan since the session began, radio advertisement against him in February because he continued a longstanding practice of allowing Democrats to chair some committees.
But the conservative discontent goes deeper.
“I see it as part of an evolution rather than something directed specifically at Phelan,” said Cal Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “There’s a growing annoyance among social conservatives that they don’t have the kind of control in the Texas House that Patrick has in the Senate to move a social conservative agenda.”
The division came out on Saturday in a display rarely seen in today’s atmosphere of hyper-partisanship: a formal proceeding, governed by Republicans, that calls to account a popular but scandal-ridden politician from their own ranks. The speed was remarkable: just days after the investigation into Mr Paxton was first publicly discussed, he was impeached.
“I’ve been following this stuff for a long time,” said Mr. Jillson, “and I’ve never seen such a big development erupt so unexpectedly.”
While lawmakers debated in Austin, Governor Greg Abbott — who has not commented on the impeachment — toured the state to garner Republican support for his main policy goal: a program to use public money to pay for private schools.
To push for what are known as school vouchers or school choice, Mr. Abbott visited Christian schools and churches across Texas and appeared before the influential Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative nonprofit backed by major Republican donors.
The governor, who has been trying to get between the factions of the party, has gained support from the Senate, which passed a bill to allow school choice using so-called education savings accounts, or ESAs. But the attempt was met with resistance from many rural Republicans. especially at the Texas House.
In a fit of rage this month, the governor threatened to use his power to force legislators to return for another legislative session after it has ended.
Hours after Saturday’s impeachment vote, it became clear that’s what he’d have to do if he wanted to save his school funding plan: In an 11 a.m. attempt, Senate Republicans failed to push through a school voucher plan that tacked it onto a house bill to increase school funding and teacher salaries.
“Teacher Raises Are Held Hostage To Support An ESA Plan!” Representative Ken King, a rural Republican from the Texas Panhandle and the sponsor of the bill, said in a statement on Saturday. “What the governor and the senate have done is unforgivable.”
Despite the breaches, some pieces of controversial legislation have been passed by both chambers. A bill to ban hormone therapies, surgeries and other medical treatments for transgender children has been passed. So was a measure – derided by Democrats as the “Death Star Account— that would prevent local governments, including major cities run by Democrats, from making their own local ordinances on certain issues, such as worker protection. And lawmakers agreed on a bill to allow school districts to employ religious chaplains as counselors.
Even if Mr. Abbott doesn’t call them back, lawmakers will return to the Capitol for a unique kind of special session likely to further test Republican ties: Mr. Paxton’s Senate trial.
The date has yet to be set for what will be the first impeachment trial of a Texas state official in more than a century, one in which divisions in the Republican Party are likely to take center stage. Representatives of the House of Representatives present the case. Mr. Paxton gets a chance to defend himself. And the senators — including Mr. Paxton’s wife, Angela, and his old friend, Bryan Hughes, unless they withdraw — will act as jurors.
Mr Patrick, who will preside over the trial and set the rules, is a staunch Conservative and former talk radio host whose supporters and backers come from the same wing of the party as Mr Paxton. But as for the process, Mr. Patrick has so far taken a neutral stance. “The senators, all 31 senators, will vote,” he said an interview on the Y’all-itics podcast. “We will all be responsible, as any juror would be.”