Texas Republicans want closed primaries. How would that work?

Can Texas close its primaries?

In Texas, primaries are open allowing Republicans to vote in Democratic primaries and Democrats to vote in Republican contests. Some party leaders have called for the state to adopt closed primaries. Political scientist Mark Jones discusses what it would take for the idea to become reality.

HOUSTON - Texas Republicans want to restrict primaries in the state so that only members of that specific party can vote.

Last week, the party met for its State Republican Executive Committee meeting where they took steps to try and block their primary elections from "outside interference."

What they're saying:

"As Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, I am fully committed to upholding the rules, priorities, and platform adopted by our delegates," Chairman Abraham George said. "This is not just about a rule change—it’s about protecting the integrity of our elections and defending the voice of our conservative base."

But is it even possible to restrict who votes in a party's primary election, and where does that leave independent voters and voters who do not identify with either party?

Open or closed primary

Texas is one of 15 states with completely open primaries, meaning that anyone who is registered to vote can vote in a specific party's primary without being a member of that party.

In contrast, only 10 states operate a closed primary where only members can vote in a party's primary.

The rest of the nation operates under rules that either allow independent voters to choose at the polls or allows the state to decide ahead of an election is they will allow unaffiliated voters or voters from another party to vote in their elections.

During last week's SREC meeting, they attempted to restrict Texas Republican primaries to only allow voters registered as Republican to vote.

"For too long, open primaries have allowed Democrats and progressive activists to manipulate Republican outcomes, weakening our candidates and diluting our values," the party said in a release. "With this amendment, the Republican Party of Texas sends a clear message: we will not allow our nomination process to be hijacked."

Voters in Texas do not select a party when they register to vote.

Dr. Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University, said the easiest way to change the way Texans vote in primaries is through legislative action. The current legislative session ended earlier this month.

"The Republican Party of Texas is a day late and a dollar short," Jones said. "If they wanted to change the rules regarding primaries, they had a great opportunity to do that. That was during the 2025 regular legislative session that ran from January towards early June. That time has now passed."

Jones said changing the primary requirements would require voters to register with a party with the secretary of state and require changes to state laws concerning elections to allow parties to restrict their elections. A change that would require each of the nearly 20 million Texans who are registered to vote to re-register.

A major concern about closed primary elections is the alienation of independent voters in the state.

"The principle knock against closed primaries is that they just increase the level of extremism and polarization in our society today because they restrict the primaries to the hyper-partisans, and those hyper-partisans tend to hold more extreme positions, more conservative on the Republican side, more progressive on the Democratic side," Jones said.

With closed primaries, the need for either side to appeal to independent voters is eliminated until the general election, and Jones said, even then, it's unlikely those voters would make a difference.

"Even there, with our gerrymandered districts, in most districts the election is for all intents and purposes decided in the primary," Jones said. "In the Texas State Senate right now, you can say that only one of the 31 districts is competitive in November."

A change to closed primaries could in essence lead to the disenfranchisement of millions of Texas voters.

"If you adopt closed primaries, you're effectively disenfranchising from the primary process anyone who isn't a hyper-partisan with one party or the other, and that includes many independents, or people who really just don't have a strong partisan opinion or support a minor party," Jones said.

The other side:

Supporters of closed primaries, like the Texas Republican Party, believe the system would protect election integrity and party sovereignty.

"Open primaries are like letting Eagles players choose the Cowboys’ quarterback — it makes no sense," George said on X. "So why on earth would Republicans let Democrats decide who represents us on the November ballot? This is our team, our values, our future. Let Republicans pick Republican nominees — period."