Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick pushed Wednesday for a fourth special session to pass an election audit bill that President Donald Trump has endorsed, but a spokesperson for Governor Greg Abbott said, “there is no need for another special session at this time.”
In a tweet, Patrick, also took a swipe at fellow Republicans in the Texas House for declining to increase the penalty for illegal voting from a Class A misdemeanor to a felony, a measure also called for by Trump.
Patrick wrote, “TX Senate just finished a strong conservative session. But more needs to be done. Senate added felony penalties for illegal voting, but the House cut to a misdemeanor. House needs to pass an election forensic audit bill. I support @GovAbbott calling us back to pass both.”
Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze responded to Patrick indirectly, issuing a media statement. She said, “Texans tasked the Legislature with delivering on key priorities for the state in this most recent special session, including property tax relief, redistricting, and the nearly $16 billion American Rescue Plan Act funding, and we went above and beyond to deliver on these priorities as well as solve other critical issues for Texas.”
“Because of the Texas House and Senate’s efforts to get these priorities across the finish line, there is no need for another special session at this time.”
The back-and-forth points to Patrick’s role as a go-between for Trump, who has sought to cast doubts on the outcome of the 2020 election, as well as Abbott’s reluctance to fully accommodate Trump’s demand for a forensic audit of election results in Texas.
Last month, Abbott added the felony penalty for illegal voting to the agenda for the third special session, which finished earlier this week, but he resisted calls from Trump to add the forensic audit bill to the agenda.
During special sessions, the legislature may only pass laws related to the “call” of the governor. Despite that, the Senate took up Trump’s audit bill and passed it on a near party-line vote, while the House did not consider it. Dade Phelan, the Speaker of the Texas House, expressed reluctance to revisit election legislation, which provoked a lengthy and highly publicized quorum break by the Democrats over the summer.
Phelan’s apparent opposition to taking up the Trump audit bill prompted a fierce attack from the former president, who released a statement calling him a “RINO,” or Republican in Name Only, and threatening to back a primary opponent in his district.
Trump also attacked a selective audit of four large counties announced by the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, which is under Abbott’s control. Trump called that selective audit “weak” and accused the Secretary of State’s Office of “slow-walking” the investigation.
But at a campaign event Monday, Abbott defended this audit, saying it was stronger than the audit proposal that Trump had called for, and which had passed the Texas Senate: “If you look at the audit bills that were passed out of the Senate — and did not pass out of the House — what the Texas Secretary of State is charged with doing is far more aggressive.”
Trump carried Texas in 2020 by a vote of 52.1% to 46.5%. That secured him all 38 of the state’s Electoral College votes. Therefore, an audit of the 2020 presidential results in Texas would do nothing to change the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. However, Trump argued in a statement that the forensic audit would help the state avoid cheating in the 2022 mid-term elections and the 2024 presidential election. He calls the outcome of the 2020 election a “scam” and has never conceded defeat to President Joe Biden.
