"We want real conservatives, real Republicans" says Texas GOP Chair in planned lawsuit against the state to close Republican primaries

CBS News

22-06-2025

Texas Republican Party Chairman Abraham George said the party intends to sue the state of Texas to close the Republican primaries.
In an interview for Eye On Politics, George told CBS News Texas, "We wanted to have closed primaries for many, many years now. We've had this as a priority as part of the platform for many cycles. We expected our legislators to take care of this at the legislative session in the last convention that was held in San Antonio in the 2024 convention, about 10,000 people in the delegation came together and said we're going to change our rules to have the Republican primaries closed. We had about three bills in the last legislative session that we liked and we expected to pass, but unfortunately, that did not happen."
George said this left the party with no other option than to file suit against the state. "The state law does not allow us to have a closed primary. So we're just trying to get the court to tell us that the Republican Party of Texas has the right to have closed primaries and we have the right to associate with the people that we believe are Republicans. We are expecting our statewide leaders to be on our side on this."
He said this is crucial for the party to avoid interference from Democrats. "There is a reason why the party is frustrated with this process of any Democrat can come and choose the Republican nominee and find the weakest Republican or even a liberal and put them on our ballot under our name, and we had worked to get them elected. So we're kind of done with that. So we want real conservatives, real Republicans who will uphold the party's principles and our priorities."
The plan to sue the state comes months before the state's March 2026 primary, which features an already contentious battle between U.S. Senator John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate.
George said he didn't think closed primaries will have an impact on this race. "I don't know if there's going to be a huge difference. It's going to make any big difference in that election itself, but I don't know. I haven't looked at any of the numbers. This is not specific to any specific election, including the 2026 primaries. What we are trying to do is something we've been working on for close to a decade to close our primaries."
Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder tells CBS News Texas the party has no plans to seek closed primaries.
Full interview with the Texas GOP Chair below: