Speaker Phelan Slams Trump For Blaming Midterm Losses On Republicans With No Abortion Exemptions

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Austin, TX, 3 hours ago Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) pushed back against former President Donald Trump’s charge that pro-life candidates are to blame for Republican losses in past years’ midterm elections.

Trump, who announced his 2024 campaign for the White House in November, commented on the 2022 election results in a post on the social media network he founded, Truth Social.

It’s not my fault that the Republicans fell short of expectations in the MidTerms. I’m 233-20! The issue of abortion, which many Republicans have not handled well, especially those who strongly insist on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or the Life of the Mother, lost a large number of Voters, wrote by Trump.

Also, the people who pushed hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the US Supreme Court, and simply disappeared, never to be seen again. Plus, Mitch’s stupid $!

Trump nominated three of the justices who ruled in favor of the petitioners in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization last year. The Supreme Court wrote in Dobbs that the Constitution does not grant an individual the right to obtain an abortion. In doing so, the court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that protected abortion rights for more than 49 years.

The US Senate confirmed the nominations of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett during the Trump administration.

Many candidates endorsed by Trump in the midterm primaries fell short in several states during the general election, proving fatal for the GOP’s efforts to secure a Senate majority. In a social media post, Phelan attributed the Republicans’ failure to win the Senate to Trump’s endorsements.

The GOP has lost control of the Senate THREE cycles in a row and it’s not the fault of the pro-life movement, Phelan writes. Your chosen candidates performed poorly and lost heavily. May 2023-24 bring new GOP leadership PROUD to protect the unborn.

Phelan referred to the Human Life Protection Act of 2021, the trigger law that bans all abortions in Texas except to save the mother’s life or to prevent significant impairment of a major bodily function. The law took effect 30 days after the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Dobbs.

Previously, Trump called Phelan another Mitch McConnell for refusing to support legislation to require a full audit of the 2020 presidential election in Texas. Instead, the Texas secretary of state ordered an audit of Collin, Dallas, Harris, and Tarrant counties. The Texas Legislature also enacted legislation requiring audits of four counties decided at random in future elections.

Sen. Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville) and others have expressed a desire to revisit the abortion ban on the lack of exceptions for unborn children conceived through rape or incest. In remarks he made in September, Phelan himself seemed open to adding exceptions to the Human Life Protection Act.

Matt Rinaldi, the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, agreed with Phelans’ rejection of Trump in his own tweet.

The trigger law states where Dobbs effectively ended abortion: AR, ID, KY, LA, MS, MO, ND, OK, SD, TN, TX, UT & WY. The GOP performed well in all of these states, Rinaldi wrote. Ohio passed the heartbeat law and the GOP won nearly every statewide election by 20 points. Dobbs is not the problem.

Rinaldi has been at odds with Phelan and other Texas Republicans over the speaker’s appointment of Democrats to committee chairmanships in the last legislative session. Although Phelan received the support of 78 Republicans in a recent Texas House GOP caucus vote, Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R-Arlington) is running for speaker and has promised to bring his candidacy to the House floor on the first day of the session.

The Texas Legislature meets on Tuesday, January 10.

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