Posted on 10/10/2025 4:49:18 AM PDT by DFG
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a joint motion with the state's GOP leadership to close the Republican primaries.
The filing comes after the same leadership sued the Texas Secretary of State for the same purpose. It also comes ahead of the race for U.S. Senate, in which Paxton hopes to unseat longtime Sen. John Cornyn.
Ken Paxton wants closed Texas primaries
What's new: Paxton filed the motion jointly in a federal court with the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) on Thursday. The RPT sued Secretary of State Jane Nelson at the beginning of September to achieve the same goal.
The motion seeks to strike down a provision of the Texas Election Code which ultimately allows for registered Democrats to vote in Republican primary elections. The party is asking that these elections be limited exclusively to registered Republicans.
‘A slap in the face to the Republican Party’
What they're saying: "The unconstitutional law stopping the RPT from closing its primaries is completely indefensible and a slap in the face to the Republican Party and voters. The Secretary of State must follow the Constitution by swiftly implementing this consent decree," Paxton's statement reads in part.
The RPT issued a statement Thursday thanking the AG for his support. The statement reads in part:
"For far too long, radical democrats and socialists have exploited our open primary system to undermine our nominees. They cross over to exploit the weakest candidate and then switch sides in November to back the democrat. As a result, Republican priorities are stifled, property taxes soar, and conservative victories are diluted."
Why do Republicans want closed primaries?
Big picture view: As mentioned in the RPT's statement, Texas' Republican leadership has maintained that the state's open primary policy allows for Democrats to meddle in the selection of candidates in order to increase their chances in the general election.
Texas is one of 15 states with completely open primaries, meaning that anyone who is registered to vote can vote in a specific party's primary without being a member of that party. In contrast, only 10 states operate a closed primary where only members can vote in a party's primary.
The rest of the nation operates under rules that either allow independent voters to choose at the polls or allows the state to decide ahead of an election if they will allow unaffiliated voters or voters from another party to vote in their elections.
A major criticism of the closed primary system is how it seemingly alienates voters who don't align with either party. Critics say that by not allowing independent voters to be a part of the primary process it effectively disenfranchises millions of Texas voters.
Ken Paxton's open primary history
The backstory: Thursday's motion is not Paxton's first attempt to close the primaries. In May 2024, the attorney general accused the Democratic Party of conspiring to support former Speaker of the House Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) in a runoff election after he was censured by the RPT.
The RPT found Phelan to have behaved in an unconservative manner during the 2023 Texas Legislative Session and forced him to defend his seat. Phelan was criticized by party leaders for allotting influence to Democrat representatives, as well as supporting bipartisan legislation that the RPT did not feel was in line with party values.
Phelan won the election, and Paxton said at the time that 1,442 Democratic early voters were found to have supported him, thereby assisting him in "stealing" the election. Paxton then demanded that primaries be closed.
Dig deeper: Paxton is in the middle of a campaign to unseat Cornyn, the longtime senior Republican senator for Texas and the former Senate minority whip. Cornyn's team recently called the primary race a dead heat, though recent polling numbers show a slight lead for Paxton.
It's unclear who would benefit the most from an open primary, though those same numbers suggest Cornyn would fare better in the general election. If Democrats were to cross lines in the primary in support of the candidate they believe they have the best chance of beating, the newest polling numbers might lead one to believe that Paxton would gain the extra votes.
Primaries should be closed.
Open primaries make a mockery of political parties.
In fairness, the political parties do a pretty good job of making mockeries of themselves.
Good. What is more dumb than this stupid traditional
Texas is a red state run by democrats in the state house.
I don’t live in TX, so this is a tactical sideshow to me. But Paxton is the kind of skunk at a picnic I’d like to see in the Senate - so, good luck to him in this skirmish!
“ In fairness, the political parties do a pretty good job of making mockeries of themselves.”
No. Democrats run circles around stopped republicans and no more so than in Texas.
Republicans sit around and watch it just banking on reputation alone
Cornyns entire TV campaign is 1960’s cowboys in trucks thanking Cornyn for helping Trump get into the White House
I am not exaggerating
George Washington tried to warn us about the danger political parties pose.
Pity we didn’t listen.
Back in 2024 there was a lot of chatter about (eventually) closing primaries in Texas. But a significant portion — if not an outright majority — of TXGOP politicians are RINOs and they *need* Democrat participation in Republican primaries in order to survive against conservatives.
Seeing as how Texas does not even register voters by party, that would be a necessary first step in being able to “close” a primary — and would simply result in numerous Democrats registering as Republicans in order to continue their sabotage, which also happens in any state which laughably thinks it has closed Republican primaries.
EVERY conservative State AG should be working on this prior to the 2028 election!
Open Primary States: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin
Yeah, I know. *SIGH*
Guys, two words: Donald Dems.
If Dems still voted in lockstep with Deep State, why does it have to steal their elections?
If conservative Dems can’t vote in a Pubbie primary, it’ll be easier for a Deep State RINO to win.
Just something to keep in mind because I’ll guarantee you Deep State has.
I don't get the logic for them to ever be open.
“conservative Dems”
Is that like a unicorn? If you vote for a democrat or label yourself as a “democrat”, then you are not a conservative (nor a Republican for that matter).
George Washington tried to warn us about the danger political parties pose.
Pity we didn’t listen.
The structure set up by the Constitution drove us, inevitably, to a two party system, which has worked much better than the parliamentary system in other countries.
Call it divine providence if you will. The system in the USA has proved to be the most stable and effective of all the political systems in the world.
Does it need adjustment? Yes. Did the takeover of nearly all media by a hostile ideology (Progressivism) nearly destroy the Constitutional order? Yes.
President Trump and the Trumpian (revitalized Republican) party are restoring Constitutional order.
Ever been to a Trump rally? You’d find a lot of us at one.
If Dems still voted for this, some food for thought....
Why do at least 50 blue cities and states now have some form of RCV?
Why was LA’s last mayoral stolen?
Deep State clearly knows we exist, so why don’t you? :-)
While Rush’s Operation Chaos was a hoot at the time, I think all primaries should be closed.
I don’t get the logic for them to ever be open.
By making the party choices open to a vote of the entire polity, they leveraged their ability to influence elections.
If you are an Democrat, you shouldn’t be voting in the Republican primary. If you are an independent voter, you should be able to vote in your own primary. No one should be voting in another party’s primary!!
Yep. At least gives the RINOs another hurdle.
My Democrat brother-in-law registers Republican in Florida and votes in all the Republican primaries. He says that way hr can vote for the worst Republican since he doesn’t care who the Democrat is.
Wisdom from Austin, Texas? (Fox 7 Austin via Fox 4 DFW)
BARF!
Cornyn has been past his out of date stamp for 20 years.
Yes, Paxton has some baggage. Cornyn could not carry his baggage in a boxcar.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.