At the biennial Texas Republican convention held last week in Houston, hundreds of delegates gathered to discuss and adopt a new state party platform that reflects a notably more hardline conservative stance. The event drew significant attention, with some attendees filling every available seat, standing in the back, or sitting on the floor to hear panels such as “Don’t sharia my Texas,” which underscored the party’s emphasis on opposing Islamic law within the state.
Amy Mekelburg, a conservative activist, addressed the packed room, framing Texas as a pivotal battleground in preserving national conservative values. Her remarks resonated with many in attendance and beyond, amid a platform that has grown increasingly influential in shaping policies not only statewide but also on the national level. The Texas GOP’s 2024 platform had already set a precedent by promoting strict border enforcement, endorsing Bible instruction in public schools, and opposing instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity—positions later echoed by the national Republican Party.
Political analysts attribute the Texas GOP’s growing sway to a combination of factors including the state’s large population, substantial financial backing from wealthy donors, and a leadership driven by competition to position Texas as the most conservative state in the country. At the convention’s opening ceremony, Texas GOP Chair Abraham George asserted the ambition “to become the capital of conservative states.”
The party’s 135-page draft platform introduced several new priorities, among them proposals to regulate rapidly expanding data centers due to concerns over water resource depletion and rising electricity costs. However, the platform’s strongest emphasis was on measures targeting sharia law and immigration. It labeled sharia law as fundamentally incompatible with the Texas and U.S. Constitutions and called for criminal penalties, disqualification from public and military service, denaturalization, and deportation for its advocacy or implementation. This stance reflects ongoing GOP opposition to Muslim-oriented residential developments like North Texas’s EPIC City, and builds on legislation passed last year prohibiting any form of sharia law in Texas communities.
These measures have drawn criticism from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which denounced them as politically motivated fearmongering that infringes on First Amendment rights. Meanwhile, some GOP lawmakers acknowledge such measures may hold primarily symbolic weight given federal constitutional protections.
High-profile conservatives featured at the convention included activist Bo French and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who emphasized opposition to immigration and visa programs such as H-1B. Governor Greg Abbott echoed these positions, calling for a ban on sharia law in Texas, curtailing H-1B visa abuse, and ending immigrant hiring by state and local governments. Abbott stated, “Texas jobs should go only to Texans,” reflecting the localist emphasis permeating the platform.
Attendees at the convention expressed strong approval of the platform’s grassroots-driven, hardline approach, viewing it as an authentic articulation of voter sentiments within the state’s Republican base.