Abraham George says conservatives are not divided, they just have issues with some elected officials.
DALLAS — In the 2024 Republican Primary and Primary runoff, 16 incumbents lost to insurgent candidates. Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and Attorney General Ken Paxton endorsed candidates running against the incumbents.
Many of the incumbents who lost claimed that their challengers told lies and mischaracterized their legislative records. Republican Political consultant Matt Mackowiak told Inside Texas Politics that he couldn’t remember a Republican primary or Primary runoff as divisive as 2024.
But, Republican Party of Texas Chairman Abraham George told Inside Texas Politics that conservatives are not divided.
“I don’t think the conservatives are divided. I think the party has an issue with some of our elected officials,” George said. “But the conservative, the grassroots are not necessarily divided. They’re united in principles and the party platform.”
George also said the p arty is in a “pretty good” financial position. He says former Republican Party of Texas Chair Matt Rinaldi left the party with about $2.9 to $3 million – a good start for George.
The party has two things that it wants to accomplish, George said. One is to close the primaries. He understands that it will be a fight through legislation and also at the courts. He expects primaries to be closed by 2026.
The second is the upcoming speaker’s race. The party wants a speaker who will appoint Republicans as chair of all legislative committees, breaking with a long-held tradition in the Texas legislature.
“We don’t want a speaker who will go to the Democrat side,” George said. “We now have 46 members who agreed — which is more than 50% of the Republican caucus — who agreed that they will not support a speaker who is going to put Democrats in charge.”
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan has said that he’s running for speaker again and that he has enough support to win.
Chairman George says the party would only support him if he did what the party is asking him to do. And that eliminating Democratic chairs would be a good start.
“He’s got two other challengers now. Both have committed that they will do that. They will not put any Democrats in committee chairs,” George said. “And if they’re going to do that, and Dade Phelan comes back and said, no, I’m going to do this, the party will not be supporting him.”
According to George, Phelan could win with a coalition of Democrats and Republicans. If Democrats support Phelan, he will only need 12 to 13 Republicans.
“And the party is gonna be upset with him. It could go really good or it could go really bad,” said the GOP chair.
George also weighed in on President Joe Biden’s executive order to address asylum seekers. The President’s order would shut down the border to asylum seekers if more than 2,500 came across in a single day.
The GOP state chair said that Biden’s order doesn’t solve the border problem. “Now, Biden is not solving the problem. He’s allowing illegals to stay in the country,” said George.
George predicts that U.S. Senator Ted Cruz will win re-election by a margin similar to that of former President Donald Trump. Trump is currently polling double digits.
The party will help Senator Cruz in his bid. “We have a victory team already in place working with his campaign,” shared George.