Subscribe to The Blast, The Texas Tribune’s premier newsletter, for exclusive reporting, nonpartisan analysis and the first word on political moves across the state.
Recommended Videos
For more reporting like this, sign up for our premium politics newsletter, The Blast, which delivers exclusive reporting, nonpartisan analysis and the first word on political moves across the state. Subscribe today.
A new Texas GOP megadonor says he plans to fund a legal challenge against the Republican Party of Texas and its governing executive committee if they move forward with plans to censure Republican state lawmakers and block them from the March primary ballot.
Amarillo businessman Alex Fairly said in a statement Friday that he would tap into the $20 million political action committee he launched last year to challenge the censures in court if the State Republican Executive Committee goes ahead with plans to formally admonish dozens of GOP lawmakers in October.
“The discussions taking place by the State Republican Executive Committee to block candidates from appearing on the primary ballot is not only unlawful, it’s disastrous for the Republican Party of Texas,” Fairly said in a statement, in which he vowed to “fully fund” a legal opposition effort.
Fairly’s announcement comes hours before the executive committee will meet to finalize a review of the 2025 legislative session. That report could become the basis for blocking GOP lawmakers from the ballot.
“People just hate accountability,” Texas GOP Chair Abraham George said in response to Fairly’s news.
The state Republican Party created the new rule last year as a way to hold GOP lawmakers accountable for votes that don’t strictly align with the state party’s legislative priorities and party principles.
In order to draft a censure that could lead the Texas GOP to ban someone from the primary ballot, the offending lawmaker must have committed at least three censurable offenses in their most recent term. Such acts are defined as those contrary to the party’s legislative priorities and its core principles laid out in the preamble of the party platform.
If the Texas GOP executive committee moves forward, Fairly said, he would fund a full legal challenge, arguing that the decision belongs to voters.
“Letting a handful of insiders dictate who can run in our primaries undermines both our party’s core principles and the First Amendment,” Fairly added, referring to the delegates, chosen by local precinct chairs, who make up the GOP executive committee.
As of mid-July, the Amarillo businessman had not spent any of the $20 million he put in the Texas Republican Leadership Fund since he created the PAC last December.
One Senate Republican and 41 of 88 House Republicans committed at least three censurable offenses, according to the draft report to be taken up Friday.
When adding the election of Rep. Dustin Burrows as House speaker, that number increases to 45 House members, a majority of the caucus. Before the legislative session started, the state GOP opposed Burrows for House speaker and ran attack ads in his district. Some SREC members have pushed to consider a vote for Burrows as a censurable act, arguing it was the culmination of a conspiracy to give Democrats more power.
However, the party will not unilaterally try to remove everyone eligible for a censure. Local party officials must initiate the censure and ask the SREC for permission to bar them from the ballot.
State Rep. Caroline Fairly, the daughter of the Amarillo businessman serving in her first term, announced her support for Burrows on the final day of the speaker’s race in January and racked up enough censurable offenses to be barred from the ballot.
“The death penalty”
State party delegates, many of whom are among the party’s most conservative activists, approved the censure rule at the Texas GOP’s 2024 convention. The Fairly-backed legal challenge could mark the first test of the new rule, which critics say is illegal and goes against democratic principles.
In the past week, the Republican Party of Texas’s executive committee delayed its report and sought input from Republican lawmakers, knowing a legal fight was looming.
“I want the right people censured if they deserve a censure,” George told SREC members. “I do not want anyone getting censured by county parties or districts if they don’t deserve a censure. This is a serious matter for the party as a state party, so we want to do the right thing.”
At Saturday’s SREC meeting, Texas GOP general counsel Rachel Hooper said she supported the enhanced Rule 44 — the policy approved at the 2024 convention that lays the groundwork to bar ballot access — in part because she was upset the Texas House impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton the year before.
“Sometimes there’s acts that are so bad that you need the death penalty,” Hooper said.
So far, county parties have initiated censures against at least eight state representatives: Angie Chen Button of Garland, Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake, Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, Cody Harris of Palestine, Stan Lambert of Abilene, John McQueeney of Fort Worth, Morgan Meyer of University Park, Angelia Orr of Itasca.
But while the party moves forward with the censure process, George has been publicly celebratory of Burrows. George and SREC members met with the Lubbock Republican, Gov. Greg Abbott and other state representatives at the Governor’s Mansion on Saturday before the SREC meeting, marking Burrows’ first audience with Texas GOP officials since his election as speaker in January. They did not discuss the censures, instead talking about conservative victories from the recent legislative session, Republicans’ mid-decade congressional redistricting and House Democrats’ quorum break, which has united Texas Republicans.
“We have an open line with the speaker,” George told the Tribune later that day. “You don’t have to agree all the time. We probably are still going to have some disagreements. That’s part of the process.”
Fairly’s fight
Fairly is new to Texas Republican politics, splashing onto the scene during the 2024 Republican primaries to become the 10th biggest donor in that year’s state legislative races.
He launched the PAC last year in the midst of a bruising fight for Texas House speaker. Originally, he seemed in lockstep with Republican Party of Texas leadership, declaring that he would use the money to target Republican lawmakers who did not come together to support Rep. David Cook of Mansfield, Burrows’ rival who had the backing of the GOP caucus.
But he has slowly shifted his position since, continuing to distance himself from the state’s Republican Party leadership, which has received support from West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks in recent years. Dunn and Wilks have spent tens of millions of dollars supporting hardline conservative primary challengers, incrementally pulling the Texas GOP and Legislature toward their socially conservative stances.
After initially declaring he would primary Republican House members who did not support Cook’s speaker bid, Fairly quickly walked back that sentiment, issuing a new missive a few weeks later clarifying that he would not use the money to primary lawmakers who voted for Burrows.
“The vote for Speaker belongs to the members,” Fairly wrote in his follow-up statement.
A few months later, Fairly distanced himself from Texas GOP leadership again when he criticized them for threatening to run primary opponents against members unless they passed all remaining bills related to their legislative priorities. In an interview, Fairly told the Tribune he called George, the GOP chair, and told him he felt his threats on social media were unproductive.
“I’m weary of this method of trying to get what we want,” Fairly said he told George. “If this is how we’re going to manage people … I may use my money to help balance this out.”
More all-star speakers confirmed for The Texas Tribune Festival, Nov. 13–15! This year’s lineup just got even more exciting with the addition of State Rep. Caroline Fairly, R-Amarillo; former United States Attorney General Eric Holder; Abby Phillip, anchor of “CNN NewsNight”; Aaron Reitz, 2026 Republican candidate for Texas Attorney General; and State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin. Get your tickets today!
TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.