Those attending this week’s Republican Party of Texas state convention in Dallas will vote on a number of ideas that will ultimately represent what Texas Republicans stand for. Those ideas range from whether Texas should lead a constitutional convention of states to whether Texas should be allowed to secede from the United States.
Ahead of the convention, people like Heather Fazio with the Marijuana Policy Project have been meeting with state delegates and convention committee chairs. She’s hoping to get her group’s plank or resolution in the state party’s platform, which essentially is a guide for the party to say this is what Texas Republicans believe in, like possibly reforming the state’s laws on use and possession of marijuana.
“The first of which has been the most popular, which is making the Compassionate Use Act, which passed last year overwhelmingly in the Texas Legislature, to make that program more inclusive so that doctors would ultimately decide which patients have access to cannabis medicine,” Fazio said.
An effort is also being made to adopt a referendum that vows to make Texas an independent nation through secession. Daniel Miller with the Texas Nationalist Movement believes it’s gained some traction among state Republicans.
“It actually looks like it’s going to go to a full vote before the delegates so there is definitely support,” Miller said.
Other issues hoping to make it into the party’s 2016 platform include opposing city bathroom ordinances for transgendered Texans and an effort being promoted by Gov. Greg Abbott that calls for Texas to enter into a constitutional convention with other states to address federal laws that limit a state’s ability to govern.
The State Republican Convention begins this Thursday in Dallas and runs through the weekend.
