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It was nearly a year ago when a gunman massacred 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school. About a month later, Congress approved the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, thanks in part to the support of 29 congressional Republicans (15 Republican votes in the Senate and 14 Republican votes in the House.)
One of those 29 has now been censured by his own state party. NBC News reported:
The Texas Republican Party on Saturday voted to censure Rep. Tony Gonzales for breaking with his GOP colleagues in a handful of votes. ... The Texas GOP said in a statement that it is imposing the “full set of penalties allowed by the rules, for lack of fidelity to Republican principles and priorities.”
The vote wasn’t especially close: The 64-member State Republican Executive Committee met in Austin for its quarterly meeting, and the censure resolution passed on 57-to-5 vote, with one abstention.
It didn’t matter that the gun legislation in question was a relatively modest bill, drafted in response to a horrific massacre. It didn’t matter that the bipartisan measure would’ve passed whether Gonzales voted for it or not. It didn’t matter his constituents didn’t seem to mind: He won re-election in 2022 by a wider margin than his victory in 2020.
The GOP congressman prioritized public safety over the party line, and the Texas Republican Party wasn’t willing to let that slide. In fact, the weekend’s developments were the second time Gonzales was formally rebuked by party officials: The NBC News report noted that the original censure resolution “was approved by Medina County Republicans in February and was supported by more than a dozen other counties in Gonzales’ district, according to the state party.”
This newly passed resolution also took aim at the congressman’s willingness to support legislation to protect same-sex marriage — the Respect for Marriage Act — which passed the House late last year with 39 Republican votes.
What’s striking about the Texas GOP’s offensive against Gonzales goes beyond the positions the party expects him to take. Just as important is the state Republican Party’s indifference to broader circumstances.
In party politics, there’s generally an understanding that certain members need to be mindful of their electoral context and vote accordingly. We’re unlikely to see the Democratic Party of West Virginia formally condemning Sen. Joe Manchin because its members are likely aware of the challenges he faces running as a conservative Democrat in an increasingly red state. Members of the Maine Republican Party have also not scrambled to condemn Sen. Susan Collins for her occasional breaks with party orthodoxy.
But as far as the Texas Republican Party is concerned, the fact that Gonzales represents a competitive border district is irrelevant. State GOP officials also don’t seem to care about the fact that if he moved sharply to the right, he’d likely lose.
What the Texas Republican Party cares about is having its congressional delegation toe the line — without exceptions or excuses.
To date, Gonzales, a relative GOP moderate by 2023 standards, has not only been rebuked by his ostensible party allies, he’s also received no defense from other Texas Republican leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, Sen. Ted Cruz, or Sen. John Cornyn.
At this point, relative moderates in the Republican Party are an endangered species. Some in the GOP appear eager to push that total even lower.