Majority of Republicans in the Texas Congressional Delegation Voted to Question Electoral College Results After Pro-Trump Attack on U.S. Capitol

Wednesday morning we posted data on the context of announced support in the Texas Congressional delegation for the efforts led by Senator Ted Cruz to object to the Electoral College votes certified in several strategically chosen swing states. Among the Texas Congressional delegation, Cruz had the expressed support of 11 of the 24 Republican members of the Texas delegation, as we presented in a table with information about the GOP delegation in yesterday’s pre-riot post. 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. 

The efforts of Cruz and another likely presidential candidate, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, were expected to fail to garner a majority in support for denying the results in either house of Congress, but were clearly efforts to attract the support of Republicans, Trump supporters in particular, who remain skeptical (or disbelieving) of the electoral process that resulted in the President's defeat. In a familiar rhetorical flourish, Cruz and others couched their implicit validation of Trump’s continuing lies about the election process and outcome – and, critically, validation of those Trump supporters who believe him – in the rhetoric of the security and integrity of elections.

The planned and widely publicized protests that erupted into a riot and then the storming and vandalization of the U.S. Capitol, which according to press accounts resulted in fourfive deaths, interrupted the legislative processes of counting the Electoral College votes, hearing objections to accepting the votes of electors in several states, and both chambers voting on motions to object to accepting the votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania. 

Speculation abounds about the possible impact of the anti-government riots by Trump supporters on Republican politics in Texas. The leading indicators suggest that GOP support for Cruz’s line of attack on the elections among both Trump voters and other GOP elected officals probably will not evaporate. There were 11 Texas GOP members who said that they would object before the insurrection attempt. All 11 voted to object to the slate of electors from Pennsylvania, while 10 of 11 voted to object to the Arizona electors. In an indication of the continued embrace of Trump’s denial of the election outcome, an additional four objected to Arizona, and five to Pennsylvania. The table below details these votes, along with information about the members’ respective positions in their districts in the last two elections. The overall takeaway remains clear: A majority of the GOP congressional delegation from Texas voted to implicitly support the factually unfounded disinformation Trump continues to cultivate among his supporters, just hours after Trump supporters stormed the chambers where the votes were eventually taken. Trump will exit office in less than two weeks, but there are no signs that the support for the destructive cynicism he’s fostered in the Republican Party will be leaving with him.