Paxton and Texas GOP May Get Mulligan
after State Party Convention Fails to Unite
Capitol Inside
June 17, 2026
After a Texas GOP Convention that shrunk the state party's base while doing nothing to attract or to keep new voters, the Republicans here may get a mulligan in light of U.S. Senate contender Ken Paxton's claim that a special midterm convention is being planned for Dallas in September.
Paxton announced plans for the second Republican convention in Texas in a span of four months in a tele-town hall on Monday. The attorney general who's the Texas Senate nominee in November said President Donald Trump would be the main draw at the event that would be the first of its kind in the United States.
Since scoring Trump's endorsement a week before a primary runoff election that he won last month, Paxton has suggested that the president would be making multiple trips to Texas for rallies on his behalf for a fall fight with Democrat James Talarico in the nation's most closely watched Senate contest on the ballot in 2026. .
National and state political conventions require months of preparation that begins more than a year ahead of when they're scheduled to take place. The process of electing delegates starts with precinct conventions on the night of primary elections and includes a second phase with county and senatorial conventions where activists are chosen for their party's convention at the state level.
Paxton didn't fare as well with the delegates at the Republicans' state convention in Houston last weekend than he had with primary runoff voters three weeks before when he ousted longtime U.S. Senator John Cornyn. An overwhelming majority of the delegates dealt Paxton a stinging blow at the biennial meeting's outset when they rejected the candidate he'd supported vigorously in the state chair's race - incumbent Abraham George - who lost the post when the vice-chair D'rinda Randall knocked out in a landslide vote. Paxton received a lukewarm reception at best from delegates during his first major speech since the ousting of longtime incumbent John Cornyn. A significant number of the activists in Houston refused to leave their seats on the convention floor when Paxton received two standing ovations near the end of a speech that was casual and low-key.
The Republicans here had been accustomed to bumps to various degrees in momentum, enthusiasm and polling after every state convention here that wasn't held on Zoom in two dozen years of GOP rule here. But the Texas GOP may have emerged from the 2026 version last week in worse shape than it had been going into the event on an array of fronts.
A second major convention in Texas would give the state GOP a chance to mitigate some of the damage that the biennial gathering in the Bayou City inflicted on the ticket's odds for success here in November. The convention in Houston exposed a high-risk strategy that's loaded with the potential for disaster because it revolves on maximum turnout from a base that Republicans sought to shrink instead of expanding like they'd always felt compelled to try to do in the past.
But there were no signs of unity beyond speeches and slogans at the convention in Houston - from the booting of the state party chair that Paxton wanted to keep to the mixed response he received on the stage to the chasing of Muslims who'd been elected as delegates away from the arena in a fit of fear and anger.
After a move to expel a pair of Muslim delegates fizzled out, George made it clear to them from the convention stage that they weren't welcome there. "I would strongly advise you to leave our caucus," George said. "There is a Democrat convention happening in a couple weeks. Join them."
Paxton took the stage shortly after Governor Greg Abbott had electrified thousands in the giant meeting hall with the surprise appearance of a frightened elephant who stole the show when it bathed the convention floor in urine. The publicity stunt that's been characterized as animal cruelty was a difficult act for Paxton to follow when his time to speak came up.
There were no attempts to find ways to retain support from independents and other centrist voters who aren't married to either party and have supported Republicans often in the past. The Republicans in Houston didn't debate how their candidates should respond to Trump's record low approval ratings and support that polls show him losing among Hispanics who backed him in record numbers in Texas in 2024. There was no discussion how the GOP"s candidates here should confront questions on the soaring price of gasoline and groceries, the Epstein files or the war in Iran that some Republicans are saying Trump lost amid revelations that the U.S. would spend $300 billion for rebuilding places that it bombed in the past few months at the president's command.
The Republicans haven't won nationally at the state level with substantial support in the middle of the political highway. The notion that they can do so in Texas in 2026 without votes from outside a base that's even smaller now in the state convention's wake may seem short-sighted if not suicidal.
Anti-Islam sentiments reached a fever pitch in Houston last week. State Rep. Andy Hopper, a far-right freshman lawmaker from Decatur, argued that the Muslims got themselves elected as delegates simply to invoke a knee-jerk reaction in the media. Hopper contended that the father of Muslim delegate Mohammed Hussein founded the Houston branch of the organization CAIR - a civil liberties group that Abbott designated a foreign terrorist organization.
Hussein "showed up to our convention to elicit the exact reaction that we are seeing echoed throughout the press--that Islam is somehow the victim," Hopper asserted. "This is the tried-and-true formula to hijack the sympathies of Western cultures through the media."
But the ousting of an Indian-American chairman got the convention off on a bad foot for the Republican who should have been its star - Attorney General Ken Paxton as the U.S. Senate nominee for the GOP here this year. Paxton invested substantial political capital in George's bid for a second term - and it backfired when Randall unseated the Senate contender's candidate as the opening act of business at the convention. George's loss had to sting all the more for Paxton after Randall wrestled the chairmanship away with a late endorsement from the Senate nominee's wife - State Senator Angela Paxton of McKinney. Paxton the senator sued the AG for divorce last year. George may have figured out by now that it was probably no coincidence that he lost the leadership post to a white woman when the two appeared to agree on every major issue.
But the do-over in September - if Paxton's information on a midterm convention for the GOP in September is on the mark - would give the Republicans in Texas a chance for some redemption. the inaugural midterm convention - if it materializes - probably would be a rally for all practical purposes for Trump and Paxton for the most part.
Paxton would hope Trump gives him more of a boost than U.S. Senator Ted Cruz received when the president rode to his rescue in a re-election race with a rally in Texas shortly before the 2018 general election. Cruz best Democrat Beto O'Rourke by less than 3 percentage points that year - the closest that the Democratic Party had come to winning in Texas statewide since 1994. Democrats flipped 12 Texas House seats, two state Senate districts and two in the congressional delegation here in the midterm election during Trump's first term. Trump was considerably more popular eight years ago, however, than he's been during the second White House stint.
more to come ... | 
