Texas GOP Pens Open Letter to Gov. Abbott

On Friday, the Republican Party of Texas announced it had submitted an open letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott requesting his support for medical freedom and personal responsibility in response to the COVID-19.

In the letter, they implore him to add a “comprehensive ban on vaccine mandates” to the agenda for the ongoing special legislative session. The letter also requests that Abbott expand an executive order so all individuals—not just consumers—are protected from vaccine mandates and passports.

More than 50 members of the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) signed on to the letter, in addition to Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi. The SREC recently adopted a resolution seeking to defend medical freedom and personal responsibility.

This comes one day after several Republican activists and lawmakers hosted a press conference requesting Abbott act on employer vaccine mandates and expressing frustration that legislation addressing the issue has been stalled in a Republican-controlled Legislature.

Friday marks Day 19 of the ongoing special legislative session, which will reach its forced conclusion on October 19, 2021. It remains unclear whether Abbott will add the consideration of employer vaccine mandates to the agenda.

Jeramy Kitchen

Jeramy Kitchen serves as the Capitol Correspondent for Texas Scorecard as well as host of 'This Week in Texas', a show previewing the week ahead in Texas politics. After managing campaigns for conservative legislators across the state, serving as Chief of Staff for multiple conservative state legislators, and serving as Legislative Director for the largest public policy think tank in Texas, Jeramy moved outside of the Austin bubble to focus on bringing transparency to the legislative process.