A federal district judge has issued a stay in the Texas GOP’s lawsuit against open primaries, meaning all legal proceedings will be halted until the conclusion of the 2027 legislative session.
Because Texas lawmakers are expected to pass legislation closing primaries during the session, the court determined that it would be best to hold off on issuing a ruling.
Background
Texas law requires open primary elections, meaning the Republican Party must allow any eligible voter to vote in its nominating contests.
However, the Republican Party desires a closed primary system. Party leaders say the current system allows non-Republicans to select GOP nominees, undermining both the party’s platform and its conservative voters.
The party therefore adopted and ratified Rule 46, requiring voters in its primary elections to preregister as Republicans.
In September 2025, Chip Hunt and the Texas GOP filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Amarillo, asking the court for a consent judgment declaring that Texas’ primary election law violates the Republican Party’s First Amendment associational rights.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk acknowledged that this is a difficult question of constitutional law. He wrote that the “answer to this constitutional question is not a simple matter of applying precedent.”
