Nate Schatzline
State Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, resigned from the Texas House Thursday to take a new position as Gov. Greg Abbott’s senior adviser on election policy.
Schatzline, who was among the most hardline conservative members of the Texas House, is set to lead “policy development and legislative strategy efforts related to election integrity,” according to a Thursday announcement by Abbott’s office.
The two-term lawmaker had been floated in recent weeks as the governor’s potential choice for secretary of state, Texas’ top elections officer, according to unconfirmed media reports that The Texas Tribune could not independently verify. On June 2, Secretary of State Jane Nelson announced she would step down from the office in mid-July, just months before a blockbuster midterm.
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Schatzline’s portfolio for the next legislative session is expected to include closing Texas’ primary elections, or requiring voters to register with a party in order to cast a ballot in the nominating contests. It is set to be a major priority of the Legislature next session, with Abbott announcing his support for doing so at the Texas GOP’s convention last month and the party’s rank-and-file delegates putting it on their policy wishlist.
Republican activists have long pushed to close the primaries, arguing that Democrats and voters who are not truly conservative were casting ballots in GOP primaries and elevating more moderate candidates. Other Republicans, including U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, have opposed closing the primaries, arguing the move would stifle participation.
The Texas GOP sued Nelson, a former Republican state senator, last year in a bid to close the 2026 primaries. She opposed the idea on the grounds it would “confuse voters, unduly burden election administrators, or otherwise sow chaos or distrust in the electoral process,” she wrote in a court filing, arguing lawmakers could instead take up the issue during their 2027 session.
In Schatzline, the proponents of closing the state’s primaries will have a strong ally.
The hard-right lawmaker authored a bill during the 2025 legislative session that would have done just that. House Bill 4059 was referred to the chamber’s elections committee but never received a hearing.
See here and here for more on the closed primaries stuff. I was concerned that Abbott was going to name Schatzline as the new SOS. I’m not sure how this compares, but it kind of sounds like maybe he’s mostly there for the next session? I can’t tell, and it seems unlikely that he wouldn’t have anything to do during the election. I suppose the best that can be said is that Schatzline – who, let’s be honest, really looks like a guy trying to sell you on some kind of super dodgy crypto scheme – basically accomplished nothing in the Lege, despite being in a comfortable majority the whole time. Whatever quality it is about him that enabled him to do so little, I hope that carries forward for as long as he’s in this role. Which, you know, we could try to bring to an end at the end of this year. I’m just saying.