Texas Republican state Reps. Brian Harrison, Nate Schatzline, Tony Tinderholt, and Steve Toth are being investigated for campaigning against one or more of their colleagues — and they are willing to leave their own party for it.
The group of four campaigned publicly against several of their colleagues during primary and runoff elections, including Speaker Dade Phelan. If these Republicans do not like their own rules, they should change them, not leave the party without a fight.
Many of these challenger campaigns were successful, with 15 incumbents unseated. Voters used the opportunity to have their voices heard. Big names such as Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and President Donald Trump all weighed in. Texas House races had more attention on them than ever, but there is typically a standard of not being vocal against incumbents.
These four members broke the rules and are being investigated by their caucus. These investigations are violations of the Texas House Republican Caucus bylaws. Sections 7.09 and 7.10 dictate that members should “not financially support an opponent of another member in any campaign” and that members should not “participate or assist in the campaign of an opponent against another member.” Did this group of legislators not believe that their own bylaws they voted for in 2019 would be enforced, or was it simply their own negligence that led them not to care?
The members facing expulsion each made variations of the similar statement that they are blessed to be able to fight for conservative principles. Toth described his actions as “standing with candidates who voted to stand against establishment Republicans.” He wrote off the candidates as essentially capitulating to the teachers unions, which doesn’t exactly matter in this vote. Schatzline echoed a statement from controversial Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that he stood up to “establishment hacks.” Regardless if the people were “establishment” or less of a Republican, they were still duly elected. They deserve to be treated as such until the voters can have their voice heard in the matter. The voters were heard at the ballot box, and deservedly so.
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However, the Republican Party has prided itself for years on being the party of law and order, so these four representatives cannot say, “Laws for thee don’t apply to me.” If they make rules that are approved by the full caucus which have existed without major problems for seven years, they deserve to be upheld until they can be debated again. Thus, those campaigning against the rules now deserve to be punished. They shouldn’t split the party when they could use this moment to handle the present split in the party with grace.
These four Republicans could use these moments to show an opportunity to recognize and heal the divisions within the party. They instead issued a joint statement saying that they “only regret that they have but one caucus membership to lose for our country.” They could bring their party to new heights in Texas, but instead, they insist on bucking the system and diverting away from the party that they used to claim to represent.