The Blast - June 30, 2025

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The Blast | Texas Tribune
June 30, 2025

By Renzo Downey and The Texas Tribune Politics Team

21 days until the first special session

IN TODAY’S BLAST

  • Coaching county parties on how to censure RINO “thugs”

  • Birdwell to retire, Cook launches state Senate campaign

  • How Senate retirements could impact the special session

  • Schatzline draws primary challenger

COACHING COUNTY PARTIES ON HOW TO CENSURE RINO “THUGS”

As the Texas GOP looks to censure alleged RINOs and potentially ban them from the primary ballot, GOP leaders are coaching county parties on how to navigate the party’s revamped and legally controversial censure process.

The State Republican Executive Committee’s resolutions panel met for an hour with Taylor County GOP leaders on Friday evening, workshopping how to batten down the county party’s censure resolution against state Rep. Stan Lambert. The Blast joined the Zoom room to get a sense of how Texas GOP officials are approaching the censure process.

County parties have so far struggled to follow the Texas GOP’s strict guidelines for censures under the party’s new Rule 44. Local party officials must identify at least three times the elected official in question violated the party’s legislative priorities in their current term, and they must give the official enough notice to come and plead their case.

The SREC’s Resolutions Committee recently rejected some of the censures passed by county parties, telling those parties to redo the censures to make sure they drafted the censures by the book.

The rejections don’t mean the resolutions are dead on arrival. In 2023 and 2024, party officials went back to the drawing board multiple times for censures that ultimately passed against U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, then-Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan and then-state Rep. Andrew Murr, the lead impeachment manager against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“I wanted to get you on in Taylor County so we could at least take a look at your resolution, and if there are issues that come up, we can kind of give you some feedback to help you with that going forward,” SREC Resolutions Committee Chair Andy Eller kicked off the Taylor GOP Zoom call. 

The SREC wants the censures to be air-tight. Once the GOP blocks censured incumbents from the primary ballot under the 2024 rewrite of Rule 44, those members are all but certain to sue.

The SREC has a task force that’s combing through the legislative session to identify censurable acts for county parties to include in their resolutions. Eller suggested the Taylor County GOP and other county parties wait to censure members until the task force presents its report at the Aug. 9 SREC meeting.

That task force met for around 10 hours last week, according to Eller.

The task force has already identified some votes it’s considering as censurable acts, like voting to stifle debate on the House rules, backing Republican Rep. Matt Shaheen’s amendment to the foreign-owned land bill (Senate Bill 17) and supporting Democratic Rep. John Bucy’s bill about requesting mail ballots (House Bill 2442).

County parties have until Sept. 6 to send their censure resolutions to the Resolutions Committee. At least 39 of the 64 SREC members will need to approve a censure to move forward with a Rule 44 punishment, such as removing the censured official from the primary ballot.

One hiccup for the censure resolutions has been that the pro-Burrows walkout from the December Texas House Republican Caucus meeting took place before the term technically began on Jan. 14. 

“If that is not censurable, it shows a major flaw in our rules that we need to fix at the convention, because this is the most damaging thing that those thugs did to our party right out of the gate,” SREC member Paul Hale said.

County parties have also struggled to meet the notification requirements under Rule 44. They must notify lawmakers at least seven days before adopting a censure resolution against them and give them a chance to speak at the meeting.

For example, Taylor County GOP Chair Ryan Goodwin served Lambert via certified mail. He sent the letter to Lambert’s home on May 30, but Lambert didn’t sign for it till June 3. That was only six days before the party executive committee voted to censure Lambert on June 9. Some party officials think incumbents may be intentionally evading mail carriers so they don’t receive notice on time.

To meet the quick turnaround from the Aug. 9 task force report to the Sept. 6 deadline, Eller suggested county parties pre-schedule their meetings so they can quickly notify, draft and censure incumbents in time.

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BIRDWELL TO RETIRE, COOK LAUNCHES STATE SENATE CAMPAIGN

State Sen. Brian Birdwell announced his retirement from the Texas Senate, and former House Speaker candidate David Cook appears to be the Dan Patrick candidate to succeed him.

Birdwell, a Republican from Granbury and a 15-year veteran of the Senate, announced today that he won’t run for reelection next year. Cook, a third term Mansfield Republican, jumped in minutes later with Patrick’s consultant, Allen Blakemore, as the point of contact. That’s a good sign that Cook begins in the pole position to next represent Senate District 22.

During the recent speaker’s race, there was speculation that Cook’s campaign was a tryout for the Senate. Patrick, the lieutenant governor and leader of the Senate, inserted himself into House speaker politics when he called on former House Speaker Dade Phelan to resign in October 2023. He endorsed Phelan’s primary challenger in February 2024 and called for the House to elect a speaker with support from a majority of Republicans, all but endorsing Cook.

If successful, Cook would be the latest speaker candidate to head to the Senate after failing to mount an insurgent speaker campaign from the right. Ken Paxton, now attorney general, challenged then-Speaker Joe Straus for the 2011 session and lost before being elected to the Texas Senate in 2012. Bryan Hughes tried his hand against Straus ahead of the 2013 session and was elected to the Senate in 2016.

Other state House members in Birdwell’s district include former Speaker candidate Shelby Slawson, R-Stephenville, and state Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian. But with Cook hiring Blakemore for his Senate campaign, he should have a lock on the Republican primary. Paxton also aired his support for Cook today.

Birdwell’s retirement makes four open races for the state Senate. Patriot Mobile c-suite official Leigh Wambsganss is Patrick’s choice to succeed former Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, in November special election for Senate District 9. Patrick has also backed state Rep. Dennis Paul, R-Houston, to succeed Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, in Senate District 11. Patrick has not weighed in regarding Senate District 3, where state Rep. Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin, and State Republican Executive Committee member Rhonda Ward are running to succeed retiring Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville.

HOW SENATE RETIREMENTS COULD IMPACT THE SPECIAL SESSION

Another thing to potentially watch for with Birdwell and Nichols is how they handle THC during the upcoming special session.

Nichols attended Patrick’s dope-slinging press conference, and Birdwell criticized the House’s version of the Texas Compassionate Use Program bill as a “C4 blast” on the TCUP medical marijuana program. But both have an independent streak when it comes to Patrick priorities, and as a veteran, Birdwell could be swayed by veterans who oppose a THC ban. And now they don’t have reelection to watch out for.

With Hancock’s seat empty, it would take four Republicans to join all Democrats to block a Senate bill.

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SCHATZLINE DRAWS PRIMARY CHALLENGER

Northwest ISD Board Trustee Steve Sprowls today launched a campaign to primary state Rep. Nate Schatzline in House District 93 with a big focus on pushing back against Schatzline’s far-right brand of conservatism.

Schatzline, a second term Republican from Fort Worth, has championed social conservative priorities in the House, like transgender issues and education, but has only passed three bills as a primary author or sponsor. He dropped out of the race for Senate District 9 when it became clear that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick would endorse Leigh Wambsganss.

Sprowls, who has served on the Fort Worth-area school board since 2017, said he would prioritize public education.

“I’ve seen firsthand how decisions in Austin impact our students, and I’m tired of politicians ignoring our kids and putting them on the back burner for personal ambition,” Sprowls said in a press release.

Most candidates endorsed by the Tarrant County GOP lost in the May nonpartisan local elections. And late Friday, Patrick called on Chair Bo French to resign after making social media posts critics deemed bigoted and antisemitic. Patrick broke the ice, and several Republican elected officials joined the lieutenant governor’s call.

“With the Tarrant County Republican Party in turmoil, it’s never been clearer that we need leaders who will bring common sense and grounded solutions to the Capitol,” Sprowls continued. “Voters want a principled fighter, not a political firebrand. We need to get back to the basics of Texas superiority, things like local control, limited government, and responsible budgeting.”

  • Today marks the end of June, making it a major fundraising deadline.

  • Texas attorney general: Aaron Reitz’s campaign says he raised $1.75 million in the first two weeks of his campaign.

  • Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on Tarrant County GOP Chair Bo French to resign late Friday. “Bo French’s words do not reflect my values nor the values of the Republican Party,” Patrick said on social media, sharing a San Antonio Current article about French’s recent posts. “Antisemitism and religious bigotry have no place in Texas.” That spurred calls from several Republicans, including state Sens. Brian Birdwell of Granbury and Phil King of Weatherford, state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake, U.S. Rep. Craig Goldman of Fort Worth and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. French so far is not backing down.

  • State Rep. Mitch Little, R-Lewisville, is representing former Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg in the potential contempt of court case against her. The Democrat, who lost her 2024 primary 75%-25%, is due in court on July 28 to defend against allegations that she violated the gag order in the Jocelyn Nungaray case.

  • Texas A&M University is among the universities in six southern states who are forming a new accreditation organization called the Commission for Public Higher Education. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the organization on Thursday.

  • The Texas State Board of Education vetoed two of the six new charter school applicants on Friday. They voted down Unidos Soccer Leadership Academy in Northside ISD and Valenta Academy in Bastrop ISD.

  • Potential statewide Democratic candidates Beto O’Rourke, Joaquin Castro and James Talarico held a town hall in San Antonio on Friday. Lieutenant governor candidate Vikki Goodwin and recent San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg were others in attendance. Read the story here.

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“Here’s how the Tarrant GOP could remove Bo French for social media ‘bigotry’” by Cody Copeland of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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