The Republican Party of Texas Can Adopt Term Limits and Closed Primaries Without Legislative Approval

Texas voters have a problem: career politicians. There are no state-imposed term limits for any office in Texas. The longer politicians stay in office, the more they cater to special interests and the less responsive they are to voters.

Term limits have proven to be popular among voters as a way to reduce corruption and recapture some of the attention of politicians. For instance, term limits have been shown to be effective in reducing spending growth. Sixteen states now have term limits on state legislators, while 37 have some kind of limits on governors. Before being struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, 23 states had imposed limits on congressional offices.

Another way that voters in political parties have sought to refocus politicians on the priorities of their parties is through closed primaries. Nineteen states currently have some form of closed primary. The concept behind them is that if politicians are nominated only by members of the political party they are supposed to represent, they are more likely to adhere to party platforms and priorities.

Term limits and closed primaries are both examples of political parties exercising their freedom of association under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Courts have consistently upheld this right of political parties, particularly when it comes to the process of parties selecting their nominees. Many Republicans in Texas have expressed interest in using both mechanisms to improve party candidate selection in future elections.

Texas Republicans can’t rely on career politicians to solve these problems for us. Career politicians want to keep their jobs without being accountable to the parties and voters. This history leaves no doubt; if Texans want to regain greater influence over their public servants by imposing term limits on them and selecting them through closed primaries, we cannot rely on the politicians to make this happen.

Fortunately, precedents in Texas, in other states, and in the U.S. Supreme Court provide a path for the Republican Party of Texas to take the extra-legislative step of adopting a closed primary and term limits through its own rules and implementing them in time for the next Republican primary in 2026.