{"id":341152,"date":"2026-06-18T10:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341152\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T10:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:07:08","slug":"why-the-texas-gop-wants-closed-primaries-and-what-that-means-for-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341152\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Texas GOP wants closed primaries and what that means for voters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Texas\u2019 free newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

During the Texas Republican Convention last week, Gov. Greg Abbott publicly backed a push to close primaries and require voters to register with a party. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to make clear that in the future, only Republicans vote in Republican primaries,\u201d he said Friday, addressing the convention in Houston. <\/p>\n

After an unsuccessful legislative push last year to close the primary elections, when voters choose a party\u2019s nominees for the November general elections, state Republicans sued to make it happen. That litigation is still pending in federal court, but Abbott wants state lawmakers to try again. Lawmakers \u201ccan and should be more responsive to Republicans than a judge may be,\u201d Abbott told the Texas Scorecard, a conservative news outlet. <\/p>\n

During the convention, Abbott noted that closing the primary will require a \u201cthoughtful process\u201d laying out \u201chow we\u2019re going to make sure we get all Republicans registered to vote and identified as Republicans.\u201d Abbott\u2019s comments were received with cheers and applause. The party also made closing the primaries one of its top legislative priorities for next year\u2019s legislative session.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what you need to know about the GOP\u2019s push to close the primaries: <\/p>\n

When did the recent push to close Texas primaries begin?<\/p>\n

For years, Republicans in Texas have made closing primaries a top legislative priority, but haven\u2019t gotten anywhere. The push intensified in 2024 when two incumbent state representatives viewed as moderates, former House Speaker Dade Phelan and Gary VanDeaver, held off challengers in their primary races by fewer than 800 votes. <\/p>\n

Some Republican leaders claimed Phelan and VanDeaver only won because they\u2019d received votes from Democratic- and independent-leaning voters \u2014 which is allowed under the state\u2019s open primary system that doesn\u2019t require party registration and allows any voter to cast a ballot in whichever primary they want. <\/p>\n

That same year, more than 70% of voters in the Republican primary supported a nonbinding proposition calling for closed primaries. <\/p>\n

How Texas safeguards elections \u2014 and what still poses a threat<\/p>\n

Get the latest reporting on voting technology, misinformation, the push for hand-counting ballots, and more in Votebeat Texas’ free newsletter, delivered twice a month.<\/p>\n

How do primaries work in Texas?<\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 open primary system has been in use since the early 1990s, when the state moved away from using party conventions to nominate candidates. <\/p>\n

Eligible voters in Texas do not have to select a party affiliation when registering to vote, and may choose to vote in any one party\u2019s primary during a given election cycle. <\/p>\n

Unlike most other states, where county and state officials are responsible for managing the primary election, Texas gives the political parties a lot of authority<\/a>. On primary Election Day, the parties have discretion to choose where and how voters cast ballots and how the votes are counted. The state then reimburses them for many expenses and administrative costs. <\/p>\n

Why did closing the primaries become such a hot topic?<\/p>\n

The issue heated up last fall, when the Texas Republican Party sued Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson<\/a>, a Republican, arguing that the state\u2019s open primary system is a violation of their freedom of association rights under the First Amendment. Then, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sided with the GOP<\/a> in asking a federal judge to strike down parts of the election code that allow for open primaries. Paxton\u2019s office gave Nelson less than an hour\u2019s notice of his filing. <\/p>\n

Nelson, who earlier this month announced she\u2019d be stepping down<\/a> as secretary of state, opposed Paxton\u2019s motion and argued that it\u2019s up to the state Legislature<\/a> to make changes to election law. This sparked backlash among some Republicans, and scattered calls on social media for Abbott to fire her. <\/p>\n

The lawsuit is still pending in federal court. <\/p>\n

What would it actually take to close the primaries?<\/p>\n

The law would have to change. Republican lawmakers\u2019 proposals to close the primaries haven\u2019t been successful so far, but Abbott\u2019s recently declared support could push the proposal forward during next year\u2019s legislative session. <\/p>\n

Alternatively, the federal judge presiding over the GOP\u2019s lawsuit could also at some point rule the current state law unconstitutional, which would also force a change. <\/p>\n

What would closing the primaries in Texas mean for voters?<\/p>\n

Administratively, changing the state\u2019s current system could be complicated because the state\u2019s more than 18 million registered voters have never had to declare a party affiliation. And the state\u2019s voter registration system is not designed to accommodate that.<\/p>\n

In its lawsuit, the GOP suggested that if the judge were to rule in their favor, the party could maintain its own voter registration lists, \u201cdevelop its own verification procedures,\u201d and work with county election officials to provide them with access to the GOP\u2019s system. Under that model, Democrats would presumably need to take similar action.<\/p>\n

But the change could also require administrative action by the state. Election policy experts are wondering whether switching to closed primaries would mean requiring all voters to re-register with a party affiliation. That could be a big lift not just for voters but for the state, which would have to redesign its forms and software to allow for voters to list a party affiliation. It\u2019s not yet clear how long that would take and how much it could cost. <\/p>\n

Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. Natalia is based in Corpus Christi. Contact her at ncontreras@votebeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[121684,121685,27,29,28,36798,19681],"class_list":["post-341152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-eddie-gaspar","tag-gov-greg-abbott-speaks-to-delegates-and-attendees-at-the-2026-texas-state-republican-convention","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-the-texas-tribune","tag-votebeat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}