State Rep VanDeaver penalized by Texas Republicans

AUSTIN – The Republican Party of Texas met on Saturday to discuss potential penalties for several lawmakers, including two East Texas State Representatives. According to our news partner KETK, East Texas State Representatives Cody Harris of Palestine and Gary VanDeaver of New Boston were two of those ten State Representatives who faced potential penalties from the Senate Republican Executive Committee (SREC).

Resolutions were brought against ten State Representatives who are accused of making votes and taking actions against State Republican Party platform policies like having no Democratic Committee Chairs in the State House.

Harris avoided a concurring vote and any penalties that the SREC could have levied against him but the SREC did concur with the resolution against VanDeaver.

The penalties the SREC can hand out include:
The Republican Party of Texas spending up to 12% of it’s budget running campaign materials against the censured lawmakers in Republican primaries.
Officially discouraging them from participating in any Republican primary elections.
Directing the State Chairman and any county chairmen to not accept their applications to run in a Republican primary for 2 years.

VanDeaver ended up facing the first and second penalty but the SREC voted against giving him the third penalty which could have kept him off of Republican Party Primary tickets for 2 years.

VanDeaver was one of only five lawmakers who had penalties handed out to them by the SREC on Saturday. The SREC voted against the resolutions filed against the other five lawmakers, including the resolution against Harris. President Donald Trump endorsed Harris in his re-election bid on Friday.