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Texas Republicans embrace 'The Big Lie' at their state convention in Houston

Two Texas Republicans sit inside the state GOP convention on June 17, 2022, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán
/
The Texas Newsroom
Two Texas Republicans sit inside the state GOP convention on June 17, 2022, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.

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Texas Republicans say the party is ready to focus on reelecting Gov. Greg Abbott, solidifying their majority in the state and helping win back Congress.

But at their biennial convention in Houston, many were also fixated on false and debunked claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

On Thursday, the Republican Party of Texas Permanent Platform Committee advanced a resolution claiming the 2020 election "violated" the Constitution.

"We reject the certified results of the 2020 Presidential election, and we hold that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States," part of the resolution says.

Delegates are scheduled to vote on the party's platform – and the resolution – on Saturday, the last day of the convention.

MORE | John Cornyn booed at Texas GOP convention in Houston

President Joe Biden received 81,284,666 votes in the 2020 election — about 7 million more than Trump. Biden also won 306 Electoral College votes, while Trump only secured 232.

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Multiple independent audits have confirmed Biden's victory, including one in Texas, which was launched after Trump publicly called on the state to do so.

But for many Republicans, that's not enough.

"There’s no way in hell Biden got 81 million votes," said Mary Jo Bloomquist, a resident of Granbury. "Are you kidding me?"

Jessica Steels, a delegate from College Station, also said she's certain Trump won.

She claims she saw "numbers change" and that now she doesn't "trust the voting system."

"I became a precinct chair two years ago when Donald Trump was running in 2020, which we all know he won," Steels said.

During the convention, delegates, alternates and guests sat through screenings of "200 Mules," a film that falsely claims to have exposed election fraud. There was also a session about election integrity, an issue taken up by Republicans during the last legislative session, which produced some of the strictest voting laws in the country.

The convention is taking place as lawmakers in Washington, D.C. continue to take testimony as part of the House Jan. 6 Select Committee.

Dana Myers, who was a candidate for vice chair of the Republican Party of Texas, praised some of the people arrested during the insurrection in the U.S. Capitol.

Paraphrasing a prison letter sent from one of the people arrested at the pro-Trump riot, she said, "Are you irate? Tireless? Are you willing to risk everything? Or will we let some other good men do that ‘something' that may save us?"

Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, The Texas Newsroom