Texas Factory of Conservative Legislation May Be At Risk As Generation of GOP Dominance Shakes
'Texas factory of conservative legislation may be at risk.' AP News, Oct. 31, 2020. - EXCERPTS:
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Win or lose in Texas on Tuesday, Republicans will still run plenty of America’s state capitols. Maybe even most of them. “But Texas means more,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, owner of the abortion provider Whole Woman’s Health, who has taken lawsuits over new abortion restrictions in Texas to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a generation of GOP dominance in Texas wobbles heading into Election Day — the tight polls and record-shattering early turnout of 9 million voters are unlike anything seen here before — nowhere is the state’s recent shift into a battleground more on display than in the fight for control of the state House of Representatives.
For a decade the Texas Legislature has been America’s foremost factory of conservative legislation. Voting restrictions, expanded gun rights, immigration crackdowns and limits on abortion have passed out of the state House. Other red states, Republicans like to say, have looked to the Texas Capitol as a leader. But that machine is showing signs of strain. Democrats are just nine seats from seizing a House majority for the first time in 20 years.
The GOP still has a commanding advantage in the state Senate and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has two more years in office, which would leave Democrats little way of reversing laws they have fought in recent sessions.
But a divided Texas Legislature could still spell an end to the intense era of culture wars and bitterly divisive laws that have made the state Capitol an arena for some of the nation’s most explosive battles. Texas is one of a number of states where Republicans are on the defense in statehouses. They hold full control in more than half of the nation’s legislatures but are in closely contested fights in states including Florida, Georgia, Iowa and Minnesota.
Driving urgent statehouse battles across the U.S. this cycle is the fact that legislatures next year will begin drawing new voting maps, based on the 2020 census, which can give parties a political edge for the next decade. Outside groups have poured tens of millions of dollars into Texas with that goal in mind.
Republicans are taking the threat to their Texas majority seriously, but also insist they are not as vulnerable as Democrats make it seem. “There’s always going to be strong, conservative themes within Texas. But I do think you’re going to see a very different legislative session,” said Republican strategist Matt Langston, a consultant to one GOP challenger trying to win back a House seat in suburban Dallas. “You’re not going to see a lot of ‘statement’ bills. I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of major partisan, ideological fights.” There have been no shortage of those fights in recent years.
Many have centered on abortion, including Democrat Wendy Davis’ 13-hour filibuster in 2013 that temporarily blocked a sweeping anti-abortion law, which ultimately led to the closure of more than half of the state’s abortion clinics.
A fistfight nearly broke out on the House floor at the end of the 2017 session that was marked by tense battles over immigration, and that same year, lawmakers were pulled into a summer special session over a “bathroom bill”...
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-legislature-legislation-elections-gun-politics-50b2d481d74bef4d872c0bb789b7aab6
