Friday morning U.S. Representative Blake Farenthold formally requested that his name be removed from the Republican Primary ballot, but because of arbitrary election code statutes with conflicting dates, the Republican Party of Texas was unable to grant that request. 

In a lawsuit filed Friday afternoon, the Republican Party of Texas presented the specifics of the case, the differences in the dates in the election code, and the principle that, “the State cannot constitutionally force any political party to be represented on the primary election ballot by a candidate with whom it does not wish to associate.” 

A hearing has been scheduled in the case for 10:30 am CST on Tuesday, December 19, 2017.

RPT Chairman James Dickey issued the following statement:

“Congressman Farenthold has formally requested to withdraw from the race, and the Party believes it’s in our best interest to accommodate his request and remove him from the ballot. 

“Unfortunately, there are provisions in Texas law that interact to prevent this from happening. With this filing we are asking a federal court to resolve this issue and achieve the common-sense result that all parties want and that respects our right of freedom of association.

“It is our expectation that this matter will be resolved quickly and we look forward to focusing our energies on electing more Republicans throughout the great state of Texas.”

To see the lawsuit, please visit: https://txgop.us/2AS5TGQ

For an audio version of the statement read by Chairman James Dickey, please visit: https://txgop.us/2BIEivs