Who is Leading the Texas GOP?

As the fight over the bathroom bill continues, top Republicans find themselves in a showdown for power

Izzy Rodriguez
Jul 21, 2017 · 5 min read
All eyes are on the special session and the actions of the Texas House (Source: Wikimedia)

With public hearings beginning today for the Texas Legislature’s special session, all eyes are on how the legislature will deal with Senate Bill 6, also known as the ‘Bathroom Bill’ that would regulate the ability for trans people to use public restrooms. While many would assume that the bill will pass because of Texas’ conservative bona fides, the road looks difficult, as leaders in the Texas Government are at a deadlock over how to go about addressing the measure and its backlash from protesters. With infighting reaching a new boiling point, the fight has only emphasized how lost the Texas GOP has been in a search for leadership.

Texas House Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who serves as the Texas Senate president, are the headliners for the fight over the Bathroom Bill, defending the moderate and conservative views of the bill, respectively. Straus has emphasized that he believes that this bill solves a manufactured problem, one that will only isolate trans people and hurt Texas when it comes to businesses who oppose the legislation (Straus went as far as to say that he did not “want the suicide of a single Texan on my hands.”) Patrick believes that the bill is a public necessity, and that Straus is only trying to defy the beliefs of himself, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and the citizens he represents as Speaker. How cold have things gotten between Straus and Patrick? The two have reportedly not met one-on-one in over 200 days.

It would be easy to think that Straus doesn’t stand a chance, considering that the Bathroom Bill has support from Patrick and Abbott, objectively the most powerful people in Texas government. But neither man has been able to close the deal when it comes to the legislation. At this point, passage of the bill is still not a sure thing, as memories of North Carolina’s Bathroom Bill backlash still haunt many legislators, and businesses are making it clear that they will boycott the state if necessary. While the far-right of Texas continue to champion this bill and Patrick, the rest of the state is dealing with the reality that in a new age of Texas politics, no one at the top of the GOP leadership chain has stepped up to lead.


While Rick Perry’s presidential runs (and many gaffes) damaged his reputation nationally, there was no mistaking that he was a force in Texas politics, overseeing a substantial economic boom for the state that served as a picturesque ad for Republican governance across the nation. With that in mind, 2014 wound up being an incredibly pivotal year for the typically stable Texas political scene. That year, Perry would choose not to run for reelection, ending his 15 years running the state, Dan Patrick would defeat David Dewhurst in the Republican primary, and would go on to become the state’s Lieutenant Governor, and Greg Abbott would defeat Wendy Davis to become Governor.

Perry’s exit left a power vacuum that, naturally, would have been filled by Dewhurst, but he chose not to run for Governor. Abbott, the State Attorney General and former State Supreme Court Justice, became the immediate frontrunner and easily won the nomination. David Dewhurst, however, was not so lucky, and lost the Republican runoff for Lieutenant Governor to Patrick, a former state senator and radio talk show host who ran significantly to the right of the established Dewhurst, and rode a wave of Tea Party support and dissatisfaction with Dewhurst’s job to an easy victory. Patrick capitalized on the failure of Dewhurst to stop Wendy Davis’ famous filibuster to victory, while Davis herself was unable to capitalize on the filibuster, losing the race for Governor by double digits.

This set the stage for post-Perry Texas Politics. All the players were in place and, with the failure of Wendy Davis, the prospects for Democrats to turn Texas into a swing state dimmed. Abbott and Patrick could justify having a mandate for conservative governance, and it’s what they have chosen to lead with. If you look at the legislative goals and accomplishments of the Abbott-Patrick agenda, they lean towards social issues such as abortion, health care, sanctuary cities and, yes, the Bathroom Bill. So why haven’t they been able to lead with it successfully?

A major problem is with the agenda itself. Social issues always get more passionate responses out of people, which is why you’ve seen more protesters out at the statehouse. Rick Perry, who was a Christian Conservative in a similar vein to Abbott and Patrick, still built his legacy on pragmatism and his accomplishments for the Texas economy, not controversial social issues that the Abbott-Patrick platform focuses on. But even more than that, Abbott and Patrick are not the kind of leaders that Rick Perry was. Greg Abbott has been hands-off on the entire process, so much so that many people had no idea what his position on the bill was as late as March. He hasn’t tried to garner massive public support or even work with Texas politicians on the bill, giving all the responsibility to Patrick.

This leads to the next issue; Patrick hasn’t been very capable of garnering support for the bill himself. The way Patrick has operated, you’d assume that only the Senate was needed to approve the bill. The report that he has not met with the Speaker of the Texas House in nearly 7 months suggests that he isn’t willing to work with the legislative body that he needs to get this legislation passed. It’s why Straus has an actual shot to succeed in stopping the bill, rather than just being viewed as a no vote on a bill that would easily pass. With Patrick and Abbott not filling Rick Perry’s shoes, who’s left to lead the Texas GOP? Straus, a moderate in an increasingly conservative state? Senators Ted Cruz or John Cornyn, who continuously find themselves preoccupied with President Trump?

For now, the state GOP is going along with everything hoping it will work out. But even then, the future of the party remains uncertain. Sure, Wendy Davis and her brand of liberalism lost, and it could be some time before a Democrat wins statewide office again, but ineffective leadership is still a problem for the party. The Bathroom Bill and its backlash killed Pat McCrory’s reelection campaign in North Carolina, and while Texas is more red, a boycott can still hurt the state in ways that voters notice. Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick are focused on leading a successful, conservative Texas, and the Bathroom Bill is their gamble to see if they can get away with focusing more on ‘conservative’ and less on ‘leading’.


Izzy Rodriguez is a writer and student at Rice University. You can follow Izzy for more commentary on politics and pop culture on Twitter @IzzyRxdriguez.

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Izzy Rodriguez

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Student, Political Writer, Cultural Critic and Music Reviewer. Rice ‘18

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