It’s time for the week that was in Texas politics with Alex Samuels, political reporter for The Texas Tribune.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner canceled the State Republican Convention that was supposed to be held in his city starting July 16. Turner said the event, which was expected to draw 6,000 attendees, was too much of a public health risk amid growing coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in Houston and across the state.
Many Texas Republicans were unhappy about Turner’s decision, Samuels said.
“The party, on Thursday, sued Mayor Turner and others involved with the canceling of the party’s convention,” she said.
The GOP argued that the Texas and U.S. Constitutions protect the party’s right to hold its convention the way it had planned.
The Texas Republican Party challenged Turner’s decision in Harris County District Court. But a judge there denied its request to
hold the in-person event. Now, the party will appeal to the Texas Supreme Court, and its executive committee will decide how to proceed this weekend “based on the outcome of that case,” Samuels said.
Also, Texas progressive Democrats are looking to the upcoming runoff elections next week to potentially make up for losses during the March primaries. Those losses included Bernie Sanders, who lost his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, and Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, who was running for one of Texas’ Senate seats.
“There’s still a lot of leading progressive candidates still in the fight, and they’re eager to use the coronavirus pandemic, fights over voting by mail and calls for police reform to sort of score some late victories in the July runoff,” Samuels said.
Web story by Caroline Covington.
