Republican Party of Texas sues state, says open primaries violates its free speech
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Republican Party of Texas, or RPT, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court Thursday, claiming that the state’s open primary election system “violates [its] First Amendment rights.”
That system, which has been in place for decades, allows Texans to vote in either party’s primary elections. If they do, they must also declare that they won’t vote in the other party’s primary.
However, the RPT changed its bylaws in 2024 to only allow registered Republicans to vote in its primaries. In June 2025, the party’s executive committee hired a law firm to bring the legal challenge, as KXAN previously reported.
“The First Amendment entitles political parties to determine who they associate with to select their nominees for public office,” the lawsuit reads, citing legal precedent.
The lawsuit lays out an argument that the court should rule Texas’ primary system unconstitutional, which it claims would prompt the Texas Legislature to implement a new system. It argues that the open system “results in substantial crossover voting” that sways Republican primary elections.
“This is not fanciful. A Democrat or an independent may decide to vote in the Republican primary for multiple, different strategic reasons,” it reads.
RPT claims that Rep. Dade Phelan’s 2024 primary runoff win, in which the former speaker of the Texas House won by 389 votes, was likely “altered” by crossover voting. It also noted other primaries it said were decided by non-Republicans — some of which were in districts that went uncontested by Democrats.
The party also said in the lawsuit that strategic voting “makes sense.”
“Recent elections and historical data show how Texas’s open primary system fosters crossover voting in Republican primaries in the State, and how, given the Party’s dominance in Texas politics, that system is primed to encourage and facilitate crossover voting,” the lawsuit reads.
