I mean, if Matthew Kacsmaryk isn’t going to rule for them, what other choice do they have?
Still the only voter ID anyone should need
A federal judge on Friday afternoon paused a bid by Texas Republicans to restrict participation in the GOP’s primary elections to voters registered with the party.
While Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a U.S. district judge based in Amarillo, stopped the effort, he wrote in his order that he expects the state’s Republican Party to succeed in closing its primaries during the upcoming Legislative Session.
“Prominent Texas politicians support similar legislative action,” Kacsmaryk wrote, later adding that his decision to put the lawsuit on hold is “because the Texas Legislature may soon amend the law challenged here.”
A year ago, the Republican Party of Texas sued then-Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson, challenging her to limit eligible Republican voters during primary elections. Currently, any Texas voter can cast a ballot in GOP primaries.
[…]
The Republican Party in its lawsuit argued that the state’s open primaries violate their First Amendment right to choose party leaders. Republicans have been trying to close primaries for years, but urgency to do so 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.
Some Republican leaders claimed Phelan and VanDeaver only won because they’d received votes from Democratic- and independent-leaning voters.
Gov. Greg Abbott made clear at the Texas Republican Convention in June that he wants to make sure that “only Republicans vote in Republican primaries.”
Nelson took heat from Republicans when she said changes to election laws has to be done through the state Legislature. Many lawmakers urged Abbott to fire her. She stepped down in June, and her successor, Robert Howden, said in a legal filing in August that he’s going to defend the state’s open primary system.
Although Kacsmaryk wrote that it’s likely that lawmakers next year will pass legislation to close the state’s primaries, it’s not certain.
“Texas’s current primary system may be distinct from a pure open primary anyways, because voting in a Texas primary does entail some level of party affiliation,” he wrote.
See here, here, and here for the background. I think the First Amendment argument being used is straight up bullshit, but that has never stopped the GOP or its lackeys like Kacsmaryk before. Still, it’s clear that they could do this legislatively if they wanted to. And if they retain their majorities and their hold on the Governor and Lite Guv. If it turns out that they can’t do it legislatively next year, I for one will enjoy the hell out of the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the aggrieved parties that will result.