Abbott’s closed-primary promise

Gov. Greg Abbott made an unmistakable promise at the 2026 Republican Party of Texas Convention.Texas, he said, would make clear that only Republicans vote in Republican primaries.Then came the court filing.Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden, appointed by Abbott in July, told a federal judge Aug. 10 that the state would maintain the legal position taken by his predecessor, Jane Nelson. Texas continues to oppose the Republican Party of Texas’s effort to obtain a closed GOP primary in federal court and still seeks dismissal of the lawsuit.That does not mean Howden rejects closed primaries. His filing says the Legislature is the proper forum for creating the system and that the secretary of state’s office would implement a change enacted into law.But it leaves Texas Republicans with a legitimate question: If the governor supports the result, why is his administration still spending public money to fight the party seeking it?This case decides more than who receives a Republican ballot.It tests who controls a political party’s nomination process, whether party-association rights can override the state’s current election system and whether elected leaders will turn a convention promise into policy.It also puts taxpayer money at the center of the dispute. Republican voters are helping fund the party pressing the lawsuit. Those same Texans also fund the state officials and outside lawyers opposing it.That is the kind of power conflict Politics with the Big Dogs exists to examine: what elected leaders say, what government does and who pays for the gap between the two.