The Republican Party of Texas over the weekend adopted a resolution at its state convention that rejects President Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election, further aligning the state party establishment with former President Donald Trump in pushing false election claims.
“We reject the certified results of the 2020 Presidential election, and we hold that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States,” reads the resolution, passed by voice vote in Houston on Saturday. “We strongly urge all Republicans to work to ensure election integrity and to show up to vote in November of 2022, bring your friends and family, volunteer for your local Republicans, and overwhelm any possible fraud.”
Before the final resolution was adopted, Brian Bodine, a platform committee member who says he wrote the resolution, proposed an amendment about the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. It asserted that the “rights of those charged with crimes have been violated” and rejected the “narrative” that events at the US Capitol represented an insurrection. The proposal drew applause and “Let’s go Brandon” chants. Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the committee, ruled the amendment was out of order and would not be considered.
The platform also included a section calling homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice” and opposing “all efforts to validate transgender identity.”
The state party’s platform has not yet been finalized, James Wesolek, a spokesperson for the Texas GOP, told CNN, but votes are being tallied on each individual plank.
Also, during the convention, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a lead GOP negotiator on bipartisan gun talks, received boos from his home-state crowd after he said he had “fought and kept President Biden’s gun-grabbing wish list off the table.”
“Democrats pushed for an assault weapons ban, I said no. They tried to get a new three-week mandatory waiting period for all gun purchases, I said no. Universal background checks, magazine bans, licensing requirements, the list goes on and on and on. And I said no, no, 1,000 times no,” Cornyn said.
“So, you might ask, ‘What is on the table?’ More mental health resources, more support for our schools, and making sure that violent criminals and the mentally ill cannot buy a firearm,” Cornyn said, as boos continued. “That primarily means enforcing current law. That’s what I’ve heard from many of you here today and this week, and that’s what we’re working on – nothing more, and nothing less.”
The party also nearly unanimously adopted a resolution by voice vote on Saturday rejecting the bipartisan gun agreement and rebuking Cornyn and other GOP negotiators, including Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Mitt Romney of Utah, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Rob Portman of Ohio and Roy Blunt of Missouri.
CNN’s Michael Warren, Morgan Rimmer and Ali Zaslav contributed to this report.
