Texas lawmakers have taken the state’s long history of chest-thumping conservatism to new levels over the last few months.
Republicans, who have complete control of state government in Texas, have pushed through some of the most extreme rightwing measures in the country. They enacted the most restrictive abortion law in the United States, essentially outlawing the practice after six weeks and incentivizing private citizens to sue anyone who assists another person in obtaining one. They passed a measure allowing anyone to carry a handgun without a permit or training. They severely restricted how teachers can talk about systemic racism in their classrooms, passing a law that says teachers cannot be required to discuss current events and cannot give “deference to any one perspective” if they do so. And they passed sweeping new election restrictions, banning voting practices, including 24-hour and drive-thru voting, that the state’s largest, and Democratic-leaning, county used in 2020.
It’s a hard-right turn driven by a need to appeal to the core part of the Republican base, observers say, particularly at a time when there are clear signs the Republican electorate in Texas shrinking and the state becoming increasingly politically competitive. Nearly all of the state’s population growth over the last decade has come from people of color, recent census numbers show. Democratic-leaning cities and their suburbs are growing quickly, while Republican-leaning rural areas are not.
“They’re doing it because their base, primary Republican voters, is declining,” said Robert Stein, a professor at Rice University in Houston. “You don’t have to have a PhD to figure it out.”
The laws will have significant impact on the lives of Texans. Approximately 85% of all abortions previously performed in the state are now illegal, providers say, forcing women to travel outside of the state to obtain one. People who work long hours and can’t take time off work will face obstacles to casting a ballot with 24-hour voting now banned. And people with disabilities may face more difficulties in casting their vote because of new restrictions on people who assist them.
The extremism in Texas is being led by Greg Abbott, the state’s Republican governor, who faces a Republican challenge from the right in his primary election next year. Though Abbott, considered a potential presidential contender in 2024, is still overwhelmingly favored in the race, observers say he has used the legislative session to burnish his conservative bona fides. Abbott has called lawmakers back to Austin for special legislative sessions this year to take on red-meat issues for the Republican base, including voting and critical race theory, an academic discipline that examines the ways in which racism operates in US laws and society.
“He sees an opening. I think he thinks he’s competing for the extreme far-right of his party. Not just here in Texas, but nationally. And I think unfortunately that’s really been the driver of this,” said John Bucy, a Democratic state representative from Austin.
Focusing on restricting abortion and voting while expanding gun access is not new for Texas lawmakers. But the severity and extremism of the bills that passed this year is, according to Joshua Blank, the research director at the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. Just a few years ago, he noted, Republican leaders rejected a proposal to allow permitless carry for handguns like the one that sailed through the legislature in 2021.
“When you have a conservative party in charge, an extremely conservative primary electorate that chooses most of the elected officials, you end up with more extreme legislation because some of the low-hanging fruit has already been addressed,” he said.
“It’s not enough for a Republican member of the state legislature to go back to their Republican primary electorate and simply say ‘I went to the Republican legislature for 140 days and we didn’t make it easier to get an abortion in Texas. We didn’t pass laws that would restrict your right to own guns.’ That’s not good enough in Texas,” he added.
As Republicans push extreme bills in the legislature, they’re also bolstered by an extremely powerful political advantage. A decade ago, Republicans had complete control over the process of drawing the boundaries for state legislative and congressional districts. It allowed them to distort the lines to help Republicans win elections and guarantee their election in the state legislature over the past 10 years. This year the lines will be redrawn again and Republicans once again will have complete control of the process. It’s a power that allows Republicans to make laws without having to worry about alienating Democratic voters, Blank said.
“There’s probably more confidence in their party that they can cater to the Republican primary electorate without necessarily creating problems for them in the general election, because they’ll fix that with redistricting,” he said.
Texas activists like Amatullah Contractor are used to the conservative politics of the state. But the last few months have felt like “we’re heading towards some sort of doomsday or living in a dystopian reality,” said Contractor, the Texas deputy director of Emgage, a civic engagement organization for Muslim American communities.
The solution, she said, is for the US Congress to step in and pass laws to blunt the voting and other measures being passed in Texas. Even though Democrats control both chambers of Congress, they have been unable to pass that kind of legislation because of the filibuster, a Senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance legislation.
“We’re screaming into the void because who’s paying attention and where is the action from the federal government? They’re the ones holding power,” said Contractor, who joined a 27-mile march for voting rights earlier this year. “Over here we can organize, but we don’t have electoral majorities. They do and they’re not using it.”