Texas GOP Delegation Largely Split/Silent on Challenge to Electoral Votes

With Congress set to officially count the Electoral College votes for President and Vice-President this Wednesday, seven of the twenty-three Republican members of the Texas delegation to the United States House of Representatives, as well as Senator Ted Cruz, have so far publicly committed to objecting to the certification of the electoral college results.

Representatives Louie Gohmert (R-Tyler), Lance Gooden (R-Terrell), August Pfluger (R-San Angelo), Ronny Jackson (R-Amarillo), Randy Weber (R-Alvin), Pete Sessions (R-Waco), and Brian Babin (R-Woodville) are the representative publicly committed to objecting. Of this group, Pfluger and Jackson are new members of congress, while Sessions is making his return to Congress after being defeated for what would have been the twelfth term in 2018.

Gohmert has made headlines recently by bringing an unsuccessful lawsuit attempting to give Pence greater control of the proceedings of the certification. 

Meanwhile, representative Chip Roy (R-Austin) has criticized plans to object to the certification. Roy, a former chief of staff for Cruz, argued that if members of congress want to object to the electors, they should also object to the seating of the representatives from the states in question, mainly Republicans, sworn in on Sunday

Senator John Cornyn has also indicated that he will not object to the certification, calling the state certification of electoral votes “conclusive.”

The rest of the Republican members of the Texas delegation have not made public comments on the issue as of publication time. 

In order to reject any electoral votes during the joint session, federal law requires the objection carry the support of a majority of both chambers of Congress to concur in support. While there does appear to be an unprecedented number of congressional members planning to object to electoral votes from contested battleground states, the objections will likely not have any impact on changing the current election results.