Michelle H. Davis writes a gutsy blog called LoneStarLeft. She watched the state GOP conventions we didn’t have to. The party is the extreme edge of the white Christian nationalist movement. Thanks, Michelle.

Above all, the Texas GOP is obsessed with abortion. They recognize no circumstances where it should be permitted. This is Part 1 of her coverage of the state GOP convention.

Davis writes:

If you aren’t already following me on Twitter (I’ll never call it X), that’s where I’ve been posting all of the bat-shit crazy video clips I’m seeing at the 2024 Republican Party of Texas (RPT) Convention. For some reason, I thought their convention didn’t start until this weekend, but I forgot it’s an entire week long, and their committees are meeting for 15 hours a day. My week is committed. I’ll listen for all the juicy tidbits and report all the crazy back to you. Get ready because some of this stuff is full-blown bananas….

I’ve been mainly watching their Legislative Priorities Committee and their Platform Committee, but their Rules Committee has also been meeting. I have to catch up on it later. 

Some of you may remember the absolutely deranged Republican platform from 2022, which called Joe Biden an illegitimate president, said gay people were “abnormal,” and opposed critical thinking in schools, and that was all before they booed John Cornyn off stage

The Legislative Committee will make 15 planks the highest priority of the RPT. These are the 15 items they expect the Republicans in the legislature to pass and vote in favor of. If the GOP officials do not pass these “legislative priorities,” they risk being censured by the Republican Party of Texas, which, personally, I love. They bully their own, and it’s pure entertainment for the rest of us. 

The Legislative Priorities Committee lets their delegates argue about which planks stay and which go. These speeches are giving us little gems like this one, where a woman discusses enacting MORE abortion restrictions on Texas women. (More on that later.)…

Why am I watching the RPT Convention?

I likely have spent more time watching Republican conventions, hearings, debates, and town halls than any other Democrat in Texas. I find them extremely entertaining, but I also watch the Legislature and Congress. Maybe I’m just that type of nerd. …😉

Women have a lot of reasons to be concerned in Texas right now. 

The “abolish abortion” issue seems to be a big topic at this convention, even more so than the 2022 convention. You’re thinking, but hasn’t abortion already been abolished in Texas? It sure has, but when Republicans say “abolish abortions,” they don’t just mean abortions. 

Two months ago, Lone Star Left was the first to break the story of the emerging Abolish Abortion movement in Texas, which we learned about through a leaked video at a True Texas Project meeting.

In March, Michelle wrote this about the “Abolish Abortion” issue.

The abolish abortion movement seeks to ban IVF and certain forms of birth control in Texas; they also are seeking legislation to give the death penalty to women who have abortions, even if they are minors, even if they are a rape victim….

There was also discussion about preventing women from traveling out of state to get an abortion. Some women objected by the men shut them down.

Davis believes that Democrats have an opportunity to capitalize on divisions within the Republican Party in Texas. The big issues in their 2024 debates were centered on “God and Jesus, putting more Christian values in our government, and persecuting the LGBTQ community. Every single one of them was a carbon copy of the other. The RPT is in shatters, and there is no one out there who can fix them.”