Longview Times

As the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified in Texas, so has Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to curb the spread, but some Republicans say the governor has gone too far.

“He is violating, basically, the Constitution of Texas because he does not have the power to unilaterally make all these decisions he's making,” said Lee Lester, chairman of the Harrison County Republican Party.

Among the decisions Abbott has made to protect Texans from infection is requiring residents of most Texas counties to wear masks in public, which has led to a series of censure resolutions in six counties. Harrison County is one of them.

“It has to do with all of his mandates,” Lester told the Longview Times. “It has to do with the shutting down of the state. It has to do with everything he's doing on COVID that he has unilaterally done by himself without the Legislature being involved at all.” 

There were 641,791 positive coronavirus cases and 13,553 fatalities statewide as of Sept. 8, according to the Texas Health and Human Services dashboard.

“Gov. Abbott has the power to call a special session of the Legislature together and let the Legislature do their job, and he's chosen not to do that,” Lester said in an interview. “That's the reason he was censored. He shouldn't resign. He should just change what he's doing.”

Passing a censure resolution is one way an elected official can be admonished for their conduct or speech.

In addition to Harrison County’s censure, Montgomery, Denton, Ector and Llano counties have also passed censure resolutions, according to media reports. Hood County’s vote in favor of a censure resolution was unanimous.

In late June, Abbott also closed bars a second time and ordered that restaurants limit diners to just 50%.

"I knew that it wasn’t going to be popular," Abbott told KTEN in Sherman. "I knew that it was even counter to what even I wanted, but also I knew that it was something that had to be done. The coronavirus is spreading so rapidly across the state of Texas, the last thing that we want to do is shut Texas back down. The only way we can prevent Texas from being shut down is for everybody to adopt this practice of wearing a face mask."

Abbott did not immediately respond to Longview Times' requests for comment.