On August 10, the new Texas Secretary of State notified the U.S. District Court that the new Secretary of State has the same position as the former Secretary of State, and that position is that he will defend the Texas open primary system in court.  However, he also predicted that the 2027 Texas legislature will change the law and established closed primaries.

It might have seemed obvious that the Secretary of State would defend the state’s election law, and normally of course defendant state officials do defend their state’s laws in court.  But in this case, the Attorney General believes the law is unconstitutional and is not defending it.  That forced the Secretary of State to hire outside attorneys to defend the law.