Governor Vows Push for Closed Primaries
in Dramatic About-Face after Court Fight
Capitol Inside
June 13, 2026
HOUSTON - Governor Greg Abbott sought to puff his credentials with the hard right on Friday in a speech to the Texas GOP Convention that featured one of his all-time flip-flops with a vow to lead a push to keep Democrats from voting in Republican primary elections here.
Shortly before an elephant rained on Abbott's unity crusade during a publicity stunt at the end of his first state convention speech in eight years, the governor attempted to jump out in front of the parade on the limiting of voting in Texas primaries to voters who are registered with the party conducting the election.
“We are going to make sure that only Republicans vote in Republican primaries,” Abbott promised delegates on the second day of the biennial gathering that's being held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston this week.
Abbott has a history of Johnny-come-lately maneuvering and turnabouts on an array of major issues that conservatives had pressed him to get behind without success for long periods of time.
One of the Texas leader's most dramatic U-turns came on gun rights in 2018 after he'd called for new restrictions in the aftermath of a deadly school shooting in the city of Santa Fe on the outer edge of the Houston area. While Abbott backed off the proposal in the face of an extreme backlash from conservatives, Abbott and his allies feared that he would be showered with boos at the state GOP convention the following month despite an attempt to go 180 degrees to appease the far right. Abbott hadn't delivered a speech to delegates at a state convention since that time until this week.
The governor rallied behind high-profile conservative priorities belatedly on subjects ranging from a bathroom bill that it took almost an entire decade to pass to school choice - a major priority for two dozen years with conservatives before Abbott got behind the proposal and made it possible to finally pass last year.
Abbott had shown no interest for years in a ban on local governments and school districts hiring lobbyists to represent their interests in Austin. But the governor pledged to support such a prohibition in the speech to the convention that wraps up on Saturday afternoon or evening.
But Abbott's most sweeping about-face may have come during his remarks at the state Republican confab when he promised to support the closing of primaries to voters who aren't registered with the party that's staging the election in which they want to participate.
The Texas GOP sued the state in the past year in an attempt to force the restricting of primary participation to voters who are registered with the party holding the vote. Secretary of State Jane Nelson - a former Texas senator who Abbott appointed to be the chief elections officer here - had been fighting the Republican Party at the courthouse on the issue on the governor office's behalf.
more to come ...
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