Is the Texas GOP moving away from Former President Donald Trump?

AUSTIN, Texas - Has the Trump tide in Texas started to turn? Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan took a Donald Trump post from Truth Social and called out the former president. 

Trump blamed the poor GOP showing in the midterm on how Texas Republicans handled the abortion issue. In response, Phelan tweeted, "GOP has lost control of the Senate three cycles in a row, and it was not the fault of the pro-life movement. It was your hand-picked candidates who underperformed and lost bigly. The GOP New Leadership Proud to Protect the Unborn."

Matt Mackowiak, president of the Travis County Republican Party, and Democratic analyst Ed Espinosa, joined FOX 7 Austin's Mike Warren to discuss.

MIKE WARREN: Matt Mackowiak. Does this tweet represent a core change in the relationship between Texas Republicans and the former president?

MATT MACKOWIAK: Well, there's certainly broad and deep frustration among leading Republicans that the underperformance we had in the 2022 midterms, we should have won 20 to 30 House seats. We should have taken the Senate back probably a couple of governorships we should have taken in addition to some state legislatures. Look, there's a lot of blame to go around. And I think it's oversimplification if we just blame Trump. But I think it's oversimplification if we act like the abortion issue is the sole determinant for our underperformance. I don't think we had a bold enough agenda that we communicated to the electorate. I think that's a problem. I do think the president, the former president endorsed some unproven, unvetted, untested candidates for key U.S. Senate races in Georgia and Arizona and Pennsylvania and key governorships in Arizona and Pennsylvania and a number of other races around the country. But look, we got a lot of work to do. I do sympathize with speaker feelings of frustration, though. Donald Trump has cost us the House. He cost us the White House in 2020, and he's now cost us the Senate at least twice with the Georgia Senate races, including the runoff in 2020 and now in 2022. And so, you know, President Trump, like I say, you get tired of all the winning. I think for a lot of Republicans, we're getting tired of the losing. That said, he very well may be the nominee. We'll see what Florida Governor Ron DeSantis does. Texas GOP did a poll in November and found it that I think Republicans supported DeSantis 43% and Trump only 32%. So we'll see how that develops. 

MIKE WARREN: Ed Espinoza, can Texas Republicans break free from Trump? And as a Democrat, do you want them to?

ED ESPINOZA: The question is, can they break through is a good question. Will they? It's another question. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is the chairman of Trump's campaign in Texas, proudly. Greg Abbott, the governor, stands proudly with with with Trump. You have had Republican voters. The electorate of a primary electorate in this state overwhelmingly support Trump over figures like Ted Cruz in this state. So can they, I think as a philosophical question, will they, is a more practical question. And that's really hard to say because they can express their frustrations with Trump. But this party, its Trump is simply a reflection of where the party has gone. And yeah, they do need to break away from him. But what is their alternative? You might look to somebody like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, but two years from the first primary or what are we a year or two years away? I mean, that's still an eternity in politics. Six months is an eternity. I don't know where these guys go. I think they're in they're in the congressional majority, yet they're in the wilderness. 

MIKE WARREN: Matt Mackowiak, is there some truth to what Trump said about abortion? Should lawmakers have allowed exceptions for rape or incest?

MATT MACKOWIAK: Yeah. I mean, it's it look, that's a really thorny policy question. You know, there are kind of two arguments on the exceptions question, right? On the one hand, the baby doesn't have less value because of the method of contraception. But on the other hand, when you have a crime that was committed, that obviously is a terrible way for a human being to come into the world and a burden that the mother has to deal with in terms of the reminder of that crime having been committed. Generally, I think most Republicans are in favor of the exceptions, or they're in favor of voting for most pro-life bills, whether they have the exceptions built in or not. I do think the abortion issue was a motivator in the suburbs for college educated women, and I think along the margins that mattered. We needed to have a better message on that, but we needed to be, I think, clearer about what we were going to do if we were given the majority of the House and the Senate. I think arguing that Biden was bad, inflation was bad. The border is a disaster. Only gets you so far. You have to earn power when it comes to the federal government becomes a state government. 

MIKE WARREN: Okay. Ed, your thoughts real quickly, then we got to wrap it up.

ED ESPINOZA: I don't know what crime Matt is talking about, but I know that if you're a pro-life party, and you don't care about the life of the mother, that the voters are going to have some backlash. And that's not maybe that I don't know if that's the case in Texas, but look, that's happened all around this country, and it's going to continue to happen. Women are leaving the Republican Party in droves over this issue. Yes, Matt, I agree. That's not the only issue, but it's a really big one.

MIKE WARREN: Okay, Matt, Ed, thank you both very much.