After a dreary six months, Texas Republicans try to regroup

AUSTIN — When you have unemployment at record lows and the economy is stout, surely Texas Republicans will hold onto both houses of the Legislature next year. Right?

Not if they have another 12 months like their last six months.

Starting last summer, the scandal that embroiled Speaker Dennis Bonnen over a secretly recorded conversation quickly spilled over into open rancor at a fractious October meeting of the House GOP caucus. The Angleton Republican has announced he’ll leave the House by 2021.

Then came a leaked state GOP battle plan for next year’s election. It showed the party’s anything but surefooted and confident.

Last week, Sugar Land GOP Rep. Rick Miller’s raw comments to a reporter about the ethnicity and motivations of two Asian-American Republicans seeking to oust him led to a big flap — and his decision to follow Bonnen into retirement.

This week brought news of another pressure campaign by Gov. Greg Abbott and other GOP leaders — to force Galveston County GOP Chairwoman Yolanda Waters to quit. Though Waters claimed it was an “unfortunate typo,” it turned out she used a racial slur in a text to a fellow party official about another who happens to be African American.



https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2019/12/10/after-a-dreary-six-months-texas-republicans-try-to-regroup/