Republicans support Texas AG’s power to prosecute election crimes

Nearly a hundred Republican precinct chairmen gathered on Tuesday night objected to a recent Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decision that appears to have taken away the power of our state Attorney General to prosecute election fraud.

The Travis County Republican Party Executive committee voted unanimously to oppose the majority opinion in Texas v. Stephens, citing the Texas GOP platform’s aggressive support of fair election procedures.

On Wednesday, the Republican Party of Texas and 13 state Senate Republicans announced they would file amicus briefs opposing the decision. The Court of Criminal Appeals, along with its sister the Texas Supreme Court, are the top judicial bodies in the Lone Star State.

Below is the full text of the Travis GOP’s resolution.

WHEREAS the Court of Criminal Appeals Dec. 15,2021 opinion in State of Texas vs. Zena Collins Stephens would harm election integrity by removing the long-standing authority of the Attorney General to prosecute election crimes; and

WHEREAS the current Travis County District Attorney received support from George Soros-backed PACs and campaigned on a progressive platform of not prosecuting aggressively certain crimes, meaning that an effect of this decision is that election misconduct or voter fraud is unlikely to be prosecuted in Travis County;

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE TRAVIS COUNTY REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE that the Travis County Republican Party opposes the Court of Criminal Appeals Dec. 15, 2021 opinion in State of Texas v. Zena Collins Stephens;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the county party urges the court to reconsider this opinion; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the county party finds that the Dec. 15, 2021 decision in that case is legislating from the bench in violation of Principle 1 of the Republican Party of Texas Platform (Plank 3) and also violates Plank 210 (Fair Election Procedures) of the platform; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Executive Committee authorizes the Chairman and staff to communicate the party’s position on this issue to appropriate authorities and to take reasonable actions to support reconsideration or legislative action to mitigate the impact of this decision; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas and SREC members representing Travis County.

Approved 1/18/22 by the Travis GOP Executive Committee.