Blogs: electoral college

Among the Texas Congressional delegation, Ted Cruz had the expressed support of 11 of the 24 Republican members of the Texas delegation for his efforts to overturn the Electoral College results. In a likely portent of politics to come in Texas, support in the Texas delegation for Cruz's efforts was actually higher than expected when the time came to take votes – which, tellingly, came after pro-Trump rioters who shared those members skepticism about the 2020 election stormed the Captiol and disrupted Congress's role in the orderly transfer of power.

Different Texas actors in the latest phase of the presidential election have different and even multiple motivations. A look at some of the contextual data helps illuminate why so many Texas Republicans in Congress seem determined to place more stress on a Constitutional system they otherwise seem intent on defending as exceptional and under siege from others who don’t respect it enough.