Texas Republicans declare Biden election illegitimate, despite evidence
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[June 20, 2022]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in Texas
formally rejected President Joe Biden's election in 2020 as illegitimate
and voted in a state-wide convention that wrapped up this weekend on a
party platform that calls homosexuality an "abnormal lifestyle choice."
The party's embrace of unfounded electoral fraud allegations in a
bedrock Republican state came as a bipartisan congressional committee
seeks to definitively and publicly debunk the false idea that Biden did
not win the election.
Biden received 7 million more votes than rival Donald Trump. Biden also
received 306 votes from the Electoral College, more than the 270 needed
to win.
The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the
U.S. Capitol is building a case that Trump's efforts to overturn his
defeat in the 2020 presidential election -- including by denying he lost
-- amounted to conspiracy to illegally hold onto power.
Trump, the 45th U.S. president, has denied any wrongdoing.
"We reject the certified results of the 2020 presidential election, and
we hold that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not
legitimately elected by the people of the United States," the Texas
party said in a resolution, passed in a voice vote at its convention.
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Texas is a major player in U.S. national politics, with 38 electoral
votes, the second highest after California. Voters there have backed
Republican presidents for the past four decades.
The White House had no comment.
According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, about two-thirds of
Republicans believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen from
Trump. State and federal judges dismissed more than 50 lawsuits brought
by Trump and his allies challenging the election while reviews and
audits found no evidence of widespread fraud.
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![](../images/062022PIX/news_n35.jpg)
A supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump wearing a hat with a
sticker on it reading "Stop the Steal" attends a rally ahead of the
U.S. Congress certification of the November 2020 election results,
during protests in Washington, U.S., January 5, 2021. REUTERS/Leah
Millis/File Photo
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PLATFORM ATTACKS 'CHOICE' OF HOMOSEXUALITY
One of the proposed principles in the latest Texas Republican party
platform also includes new language criticizing homosexuality and
voicing opposition to "all efforts to validate transgender
identity."
"Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice," it reads, a
statement that is not in the 2020 platform.
Votes on the provision are being tallied and certified following the
bi-annual state party convention, a party spokesperson said.
The Log Cabin Republicans of Houston, an organization that
represents LGBT conservatives, said it was once again denied a
request to set up a booth at the party's convention this week, as it
has been for past conventions. The group called the Texas Republican
Convention's actions "not just narrow-minded, but politically
short-sighted."
However, the group is seeing "no evidence" of other state Republican
conventions adopting similar bans or exclusionary language, Charles
Moran, Log Cabin Republican managing director, told Reuters.
"If anything we are being more included” than in the past, he said,
noting that the 2020 Republican presidential campaign had an
official pride coalition, and the gay Republican vote doubled
between 2016 and 2020. "President Trump was the most pro-gay
Republican that we have ever had,” he added.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Heather Timmons and Lisa
Shumaker)
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