Members of Texas’s Republican party are free to associate with Nazi sympathizers without worries of violating internal policy after they held a vote on Saturday.
In a 32-29 vote, the party’s executive committee decided against excluding from their organization those “known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial”. A proposal to ban such individuals was included in a resolution supporting Israel as it wars with Hamas in Gaza.
Although the resolution passed, the clause banning members from associating with Nazi sympathizers did not make it in.
Some members of the executive committee argued that the clause was too vague.
One was committee member Dan Tully, who maintained that the clause “could put you on a slippery slope”.
Committee members in favor of the clause expressed their disappointment of the vote to the Texas Tribune.
Rolando Garcia, a committee member who drafted the language of the clause banning ties to Nazi sympathizers, said its removal from the approved resolution “sends a disturbing message”.
“We’re not specifying any individual or association,” Garcia said. “This is simply a statement of principle.”
Morgan Cisneros Graham, another committee member in favor of the clause, said she did not understand how some of her colleagues “don’t have the discernment to define what a Nazi is”.
Some members of the board also tried to prevent evidence of the vote, the Texas Tribune reported.
The vote was held shortly after the Texas Tribune photographed the Republican state representative Jonathan Stickland meeting with white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
Fuentes is an avowed admirer of Hitler, whose regime murdered 6 million Jews during the Holocaust around the time of the second world war. He has also previously called for a “holy war” against Jews.
After news of the meeting, the committee debated dissociating with Stickland’s political action committee Defend Texas Liberty. Instead, the clause aiming to ban antisemitism was added into the resolution.
The vote in Texas came after Israel launched war in the Palestinian city of Gaza after Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel killed at least 1,200 people. The number of Palestinian people killed by Israeli strikes and bombardments that followed has surpassed 15,200, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Israel – one of the US’s closest allies – has long been supported by the American Republican party.
Nikki Haley and Chris Christie are among the 2024 Republican presidential election hopefuls who have voiced support for more US military aid to Israel in its war with Hamas.
The Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has been less clear about his approach to Middle East foreign policy, but the former president has said in the past that there had been “no better friend or ally of Israel” than his White House.
Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis said he would “stand with Israel and treat terrorists like the scum they are” if he was elected to the Oval Office.
The Texas state Republican party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
