(The Center Square) – The blue tsunami that swept through Texas on Election Day wasn’t solely voter outrage over Trump administration policies, Republican leaders told The Center Square. Incumbent Republicans failed to deliver on promises, conservative candidates weren’t advanced, and political infighting and a lack of a consistent messaging led Republican voters to either stay home or vote for Democrats, they said.
At a statewide level, party leadership failed to get more people registered to vote and advance conservative candidates, former executive director of the Republican Party of Texas Wayne Hamilton told The Center Square.
Over the past decade, party leaders were also marred by scandal, including connections to a white supremacist, interpersonal problems and alleged gun violence and infighting connected to donor wars. The current Texas GOP chair, D’rinda Randall, has been in office for a few months. She said the significant losses are “not the end of our story. We will reflect honestly, learn from our setbacks, and come back stronger.” She also pointed to Texas Senate wins.
The Texas GOP “didn’t field the best candidates,” Hamilton said. “Voters also didn’t understand the redistricting issues and Republicans looked really bad. Then you add high costs, including high gas and diesel and that devastated people. You wrap all of that together and voters had enough. They were angry. What happened on Election Day was all emotion. It was a repudiation of Republicans from the top to the bottom.”
Outgoing Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn agrees, arguing that Republicans lost because they “forgot how to win elections.” He cites Republican Party infighting, Republican candidates making racist comments, not being likeable, not keeping campaign promises, not having character and integrity and not unifying voters or building coalitions as key reasons for a crushing defeat in an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal.
Hamilton was the longest-serving executive director of the Republican Party of Texas who helped flip more than 650 local offices during his tenure. When he helped lead the party from 1997 to 2003, the party disposed of its debt and built coalitions, including business, tort reformers and conservatives, he said. He helped make history with Republicans winning control of the Texas House for the first time in state history in 2003.
Statewide, Republicans lost at least 20 House seats with several races still too close to call. Democrats retook the majority it lost 23 years ago on Nov. 3.
Democrat wins were not because Texas voters support “Democratic socialist policies,” state Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Waxahachie, told The Center Square. “Texas Democrats did not win last Tuesday. Republicans lost. This was a loss a long time in the making.”
First elected in 2021, Harrison won reelection after consistently advocating for fiscal constraint and accountability for government spending. High property taxes, corporate welfare, wasting taxpayer money and term limits were top issues to voters, he said.
One of the main reasons why Republicans lost every statewide race is because “on every metric of conservatism, objectively, Republicans have had an absolutely abysmal record,” he said.
In the last four years, Republican leadership increased state spending by 42% and Texas is the fifth most regulated state with the most occupational licensing regulations in the country, Harrison said, citing a report.
Texas is the only Republican-led state in the top five states with the most reported state and local debt, which surpassed $6.1 trillion in 2023, The Center Square reported.
Texas also received a C grade for fiscal health and didn’t have enough money to cover its bills in 2024, reporting a $10.8 billion shortfall, The Center Square reported.
“Property taxes are absolutely crushing all sectors of our economy,” Harrison added, impacting small businesses, individuals and renters, not just homeowners. According to a Tax Foundation analysis of 2020 data, Texas had the sixth highest property tax rate in the country. Every legislative session, Republican leadership claimed they enacted the greatest property tax relief in state history as property taxes increased, The Center Square reported. In 2024, 90% of Texans polled said housing affordability was “a big problem.”
“Corporate welfare has also been on steroids in Texas,” Harrison added. “Texas should be leading the fight against it but as Texans are taxed out of their homes, the state has given billions in tax breaks to AI data centers and liberal Hollywood.”
Under Republican leadership, more than $3 billion in tax breaks were given to data centers, billions have been given to multi-billion-dollar companies and $2.5 billion of taxpayer money was given to Hollywood over voter objection, The Center Square reported.
“That’s billions of dollars going from the back pockets of Texas taxpayers to liberal Hollywood,” Harrison said, “who are the biggest funders of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s presidential campaign. Why are Texas taxpayers subsidizing his campaign and why are their tax dollars being used to relocate data centers to Texas?”
Gov. Greg Abbott has highlighted a record of successes during his tenure, including supporting law enforcement and border security, being ranked by various outlets as the top state for business, job creation and economic growth, advancing record education funding, protecting prolife, Second Amendment and girls’ and women’s rights and advancing energy policies, The Center Square reported.
Harrison acknowledges Texas successes but says they can be reversed through executive orders because the legislature never reigned in gubernatorial emergency powers by changing the law. He’s called for a special legislative session to address the issue.
He’s also calling on the legislature to enact term limits. House Democrats have already filed bills to create term limits, which Harrison has offered to cosponsor.
This article was originally published by The Center Square and is republished under its open-access guidelines.