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The only two Republican senators to vote for articles of impeachment towards Attorney General Ken Paxton — Robert Nichols of Jacksonville and Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills — are other manufacturers of Texas conservative.
According to their vote casting information this previous legislative consultation, Nichols is one in every of the least conservative contributors of the state Senate, whilst only 3 senators had a extra conservative vote casting historical past than Hancock, a Texas Tribune analysis found.
But on Saturday, they discovered commonplace floor on a significant vote that separated them from the leisure in their celebration in the Senate once they every voted in prefer of 13 impeachment articles casting off Paxton from place of work.
Hancock stated his votes were no longer taken flippantly.
“It was my constitutional obligation to seek the truth based on the facts made available through witness testimony and all documents admitted into evidence, then vote accordingly,” Hancock stated in a commentary. “My vote on each article reflects that responsibility.”
Nichols didn’t reply to requests for remark.
But longtime Texas politicos say the votes from those two lawmakers were no longer fully sudden.
“They’re principled individuals, and they weren’t going to be bullied,” former state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, informed The Texas Tribune.
Bill Miller, an established Austin lobbyist, stated he at all times anticipated Nichols to vote to convict and was once no longer stunned that Nichols broke from his celebration.
“He’s the kind of person who, once he makes up his mind, there’s no use talking to him about an alternative view,” Miller stated. “He’s just that kind of guy.”
Nichols, who was once first elected in 2006 to constitute East Texas, has had a gentle cling on his district. Last 12 months, he received reelection with just about 80% of the vote and wasn’t challenged in the number one. The final time he confronted a number one opponent was once 2012, and he defeated the Tea Party-inspired candidate through 50 share issues.
Representing the Dallas suburbs, Hancock served in the Texas House from 2007-13, when he was once elected to the Senate. During final 12 months’s reelection race he additionally didn’t face a number one challenger and received the common election with 60% of the vote.
Nichols and Hancock subsequent face reelection in 2026. Neither have made public statements about their reelection plans.
But Miller stated it’s an open secret that Nichols does no longer plan to run for reelection, despite the fact that the senator had no longer publicly showed that.
“There is a certain freedom that that gives an elected official who is not seeking approval from voters again,” he stated.
Nichols has broken from his party before on a lot of problems.
He was once the first Republican to say he would vote for a rape exception to the state’s new abortion regulation. He wouldn’t pass along side Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s makes an attempt to make it tougher for the minority celebration to smash quorum after Democrats left Texas for Washington, D.C. to save you law from passing. And he was once the only Republican in the Senate who voted towards Senate Bill 8, Patrick’s invoice to create training financial savings accounts that folks may just use to pay for non-public faculty.
While Republicans who dollar their celebration normally face primary pushback, political mavens say Nichols has controlled to keep away from that remedy in the Texas Senate.
“There’s really less attention on this,” Mark Owens, a political scientist and previous professor at the University of Texas at Tyler, informed the Tribune previous this 12 months. “I think it’s also the fact that he has those years of service. … He is a force in and of himself.”
Hancock has additionally driven again towards political developments in his celebration, though he paid a price.
In 2021, Hancock refused to aspect with Patrick’s proposal to drive power firms to pay off $16 billion in electrical energy fees that amassed all through the statewide energy outages in February of that 12 months.
Hancock agreed with House leaders and Gov. Greg Abbott who feared the transfer would create chaos inside world power markets.
Patrick stripped him of his management of the Senate Business and Commerce Committee and put him accountable for the Veterans and Border Security Committee, a much less distinguished place. Patrick additionally got rid of border safety from the purview of that committee, a transfer extensively noticed as a punishment for Hancock.
“[He] was treated terribly and unjustifiably for it,” Seliger stated. “And so he knows better than most people just what the implications are of bucking the mainstream.”
Seliger, a average Republican from Amarillo, additionally is aware of what it’s like to face the wrath of an offended Patrick after he voted towards two of the lieutenant governor’s precedence expenses in 2017. The subsequent consultation, he misplaced his identify as chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee. When districts were redrawn in 2021, the Senate shifted inhabitants clear of Seliger’s house base and towards Midland, the place one in every of his number one challengers lived. He didn’t search reelection after the 2021 consultation.
The two lawmakers can be expecting a backlash, Seliger stated.
“There will be pushback and there will be accusations that they’re RINOs and terrible and mindless things like that,” he stated. “And that’s the definition of principle: that you do what you think is best regardless of those things.”
As response to Paxton’s acquittal poured in on social media, a long way proper conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan posted footage of the two lawmakers.
(*2*) he wrote. “The ‘R’ next to their names stands for ‘reprobate.’”
After Saturday’s votes, Hancock exited the Capitol in a rush, having modified from his go well with right into a white golfing blouse to discuss with his new child grandchild.
Asked about his votes, Hancock spoke back that he “wasn’t siding with anyone” however declined to remark additional.
Nichols was once one in every of the few senators who didn’t liberate a commentary explaining their vote.
But he and the remainder of the Senate may just quickly go back to the Capitol. Abbott is predicted to name a unique consultation to go faculty voucher law — every other factor on which Nichols has damaged with celebration management.
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