The Dallas County Republican Party has censured Republican State Reps Morgan Meyer of Dallas and Angie Chen Button of Richardson for actions deemed “in opposition to the core principles of the Republican Party of Texas’s Platform and the Legislative Priorities.”
The Dallas County GOP Executive Committee highlighted several actions as contradictory to Republican Party of Texas (RPT) principles in the resolutions passed Monday evening.
Dallas County GOP Chair Allen West told Texas Scorecard, “I think it’s important that we hold elected officials accountable for their actions, and there are consequences to those actions and decisions when they violate our principles, our platform—rules and procedures that we expect them to follow.”
Button and Meyer’s actions that are in question include abandoning the Republican caucus vote for House speaker, which violated a State Republican Executive Committee resolution and Republican caucus rules.
The resolutions state that on January 14, 2025, Meyer and Button violated Plank 213.a of the RPT platform by not voting for David Cook, the Republican caucus nominee for House speaker, and instead voting for Dustin Burrows.
The Dallas County GOP writes that Meyer and Button also ignored a letter sent on January 7, 2025, demanding they “support the House Republican Caucus Nominee, Representative David Cook, for Speaker of the House.”
Both Meyer and Button are also accused of violating voters’ rights when, on January 23, 2025, they supported imposing the “nuclear option” motion on the Texas House floor, which cut off any opportunity for amendments and debate on the new House rules.
The Dallas County GOP also contends that Meyer and Button circumvented the intent of the RPT’s “No Democrat Chairs” legislative priority by voting in favor of mandating the appointment of Democrat vice-chairs for committees, awarding them sweeping new powers as co-chairs.
The resolution states that each committee vice-chair position awarded to a Democrat, each subcommittee chair position awarded to a Democrat, and each committee or subcommittee that is not majority Republican for the current legislative session will be construed as a separate additional censurable act.
The Dallas County GOP is formally requesting that the State Republican Executive Committee of the RPT uphold the censure of Meyer and Button and impose all applicable penalties under Rule 44. This would include but is not limited to refusing to accept any application from them for a place on the Republican Primary Election ballot for 24 months following the adoption of the censure.
“I hope that others will hold representatives accountable, because they are representatives of us, and we work hard to get them elected,” added West.
The RPT has previously stated it will uphold a local censure and potentially remove from the primary ballot any Republican lawmaker who did not support the Republican candidate for speaker.
Texas Scorecard reached out to Meyer and Button for comment, but they did not respond before publication.
