The Blast - June 16, 2025

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The Blast | Texas Tribune
June 16, 2025

By Renzo Downey and The Texas Tribune Politics Team

6 days until the governor’s veto deadline
7 days until the moratorium on political contributions ends

IN TODAY’S BLAST

  • Revisiting an offhand remark from Abbott in 2023

  • Rule 44 censure redos

  • And closed primaries

REVISITING AN OFFHAND REMARK FROM ABBOTT IN 2023

Go ahead and add taxpayer-funded lobbying to your special session bingo chart after this weekend.

Speaking at the Harris County GOP Lincoln Reagan Dinner on Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott pointed out that the Legislature didn’t pass a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying this session.

“All I can say is we may not be done yet,” Abbott said, according to the Houston Chronicle’s Jeremy Wallace.

Although Abbott pooh-poohed the idea of a special session as recently as Wednesday, the list of rumored topics previously included redistricting, THC regulation if Abbott vetoes Senate Bill 3 and rounding up the final bail proposals. Brandon Waltens of Texas Scorecard is keeping a longer list.

The lobbying special session flare caught the attention of several conservative members of the Legislature over the weekend, as well as Texas GOP Chair Abraham George.

Before he was elected House speaker, Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, supported banning taxpayer-funded lobbying as recently as 2023. He was a joint author on bills to that effect in 2019 and 2021. (Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, was also a joint author of the bill in 2019, the session before he was elected speaker.)

The House shot down the 2019 bill 85-58. That was the last time the House had a record vote on the matter.

Diving into the pre-session Blast archives, back in August, The Blast found that only nine of the 25 House Republicans who voted with Democrats to oppose the 2019 bill are still around. Some of their successors publicly endorsed the potential special session this weekend.

Even though the House seemed to be in a position to pass the bill this session, the House State Affairs Committee failed to advance even a watered down version in the form of HB 755. Committee Chair Ken King, R-Canadian, put it up for public testimony in mid-April. Notably, he was one of those who opposed the 2019 bill.

A full ban marked one of the few priorities of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick that did not pass this session. Even the Senate added an amendment to its version, SB 19, that would have codified a way around the ban.

Abbott hasn’t maintained a steady drumbeat against the use of public dollars for lobbying purposes, but he did mention it as early as 2013, during his first run for governor. He even called out the practice during his “parent empowerment” speech on the north steps of the Capitol in March 2023, linking it to his push for school vouchers.

“There are people as we speak — this moment right now — who get paid for a living to go inside this Capitol and to lobby legislators to keep the status quo: ‘Do not employ school choice, do not change the way things are because it will annihilate education as we know it,’” Abbott said. “They get paid for doing that. They’re paid to show up every single day. Some of them are getting paid with your taxpayer dollars, by the way.”

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RULE 44 CENSURE REDOS

In at least four attempts this year, county branches of the Texas GOP have failed to adopt any censure that is acceptable to party officials, so the officials will go back to the drawing board this summer to draft a new advisory for county parties.

Last summer, the Texas GOP updated its censure process under the party’s Rule 44, allowing county parties to initiate the removal of an elected official from the Republican primary ballot during the following election cycle. Although county parties have censured at least four state House members so far, the resolutions panel of the State Republican Executive Committee didn’t move forward with any of the resolutions during its meeting last week.

To date, the Tarrant County GOP has censured John McQueeney of Fort Worth, the Bosque County GOP has censured Angelia Orr of Itasca, and the Dallas County GOP has censured Angie Chen Button of Garland and Morgan Meyer of University Park. The Dallas County GOP’s County Executive Committee is meeting this evening with plans to redo censures against Button and Meyer — and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, whose Lubbock-based district does not touch Dallas County.

Rule 44 will certainly be challenged in court once the party goes through with banning an official from the primary, meaning party leaders want county parties following their censure resolution guidelines to a T. However, county parties have struggled to follow the guidelines.

For McQueeney’s censure, the Tarrant County GOP sent him notice by certified mail, but the post office never delivered it.

“Know that we followed the guidance to the T,” Tarrant County GOP Chair Bo French posted on social media on Friday. “The problem was not within anything the TCGOP did. This falls squarely on the SREC. Some of those folks are the worst kind of smug RINOs imaginable. People are going to take notice of who.”

In Orr’s case, the Bosque County GOP sent her the censure and gave her seven days to respond. The seven days notice was supposed to happen before the censure.

So, the SREC has scheduled a special meeting in August to update its censure guidance. In October, the panel will then meet to consider the censures. That will give county parties a couple months to prepare censures, and leave only two months till the candidate filing deadline for the March 2026 primaries.

With House members expected to challenge the ballot removal process in court, the later the censures happen, the less time they have to fight the rule.

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AND CLOSED PRIMARIES

Another Texas GOP action to watch is an update to its rule about closing the party’s primaries.

The SREC voted to update its rules to require voters to register as Republicans with the Texas Secretary of State before voting in the primary, even though the Legislature didn’t pass any law to close primaries. The party says the step “clarifies, strengthens, and solidifies our Party’s commitment to ensuring that only Republican voters decide Republican nominees.”

“Our primaries should reflect Republican values — not outside interference,” Abraham George said in a statement. “The grassroots are demanding action, and the SREC is delivering. We are putting Texas Republicans back in charge of Texas Republican elections.”

Political consultant Derek Ryan has consistently pushed back against the idea that a significant number of voters vote in the “other” primary to influence which candidate will face their party’s candidate in the general election.

“The people who are savvy enough to vote in a party’s primary in an effort to vote for a more moderate candidate are also savvy enough to change their party affiliation in order to do so,” he noted on social media.

IN MEMORIAM

Scott Zublin, owner of the Texas Chili Parlor, died on June 7.

We’re hosting a series of events across Texas that recap the major policy debates of the 2025 legislative session and what new legislation will mean for you. 

On June 18, we’ll be in San Antonio to talk with state legislators about the budget, education, property taxes, water, social issues and more. We’ll discuss which bills passed, what didn’t make the cut and what the new laws mean for Texans in San Antonio and surrounding communities.

Confirmed speakers include state Rep. Ray Lopez, D-San Antonio, and state Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio.

Doors open at University Center’s Mengler Conference Room at St. Mary’s University at 11:30 a.m. and the event begins at noon. The Tribune will provide lunch.

  • Gov. Greg Abbott held a property tax relief bill signing ceremony today in Denton with House Speaker Dustin Burrows, Senate Local Government Committee Chair Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Morgan Meyer, R-University Park and others.

  • Abbott will hold a bill signing ceremony on “pro-business tax policies” at the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership luncheon tomorrow. State Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills; Meyer and state Reps. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, and Caroline Harris Davila, R-Round Rock; and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker are scheduled to join Abbott.

  • TX-28: Punchbowl News reported that state Rep. Ryan Guillen, R-Rio Grande City, is considering jumping into the primary to go up against legally embattled U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo. Former U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Los Indios, and 2024 Cuellar challenger Jay Furman are already in the race, and Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina, who switched parties late last year, has been a rumored GOP candidate.

Do you or someone in your office have a new job you’d like mentioned? Email us.

  • Kolby Duhon will be the Texas Democratic Party’s vice chair for finance, filling the vacancy left by Chair Kendall Scudder when he took over the party earlier this year.

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“After El Paso joined Abbott’s border crackdown, the number of dead migrants in the New Mexico desert surged” by Uriel J. García of The Texas Tribune, Patrick Lohmann of Source New Mexico and Yuriko Schumacher of The Texas Tribune

“Tarrant County weighs spending $250K in legal fees to defend new precinct map” by Rachel Royster of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Do you or someone in your office have a birthday you’d like mentioned? Email us.

(June 16) State Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos, D-Richardson

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