The Texas Republican Convention begins Thursday. How much drama will there be?

The Texas Republican Party, which has been virtually unassailably dominant for more than two decades, will meet in San Antonio at the end of the week with a subplot of disagreement that is not uncommon when one party does not have to fear what competition the other party is also coming at her.

The Texas GOP convention, which formally opens Thursday and closes Saturday, will feature speeches from elected officials with deep ties to the party’s base. Several elected officials, Republican candidates and a handful of conservative advocacy groups, including two gun rights organizations, are listed as sponsors of the event.

Conspicuously missing from the list of high-profile Republicans participating in the gathering of some of the state’s most conservative grassroots activists is Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, whose political future hangs in the balance two days after the convention in the 28 primaries May. Republican voters in his Beaumont-anchored district will decide whether to nominate him for another term or go with his challenger, David Covey, a former Orange County GOP chairman.

But Phelan’s top two Republican opponents from Texas will feature prominently at the gathering of nearly 10,000 delegates and alternates, once again making the state’s GOP convention larger than its national counterpart.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the powerful president of the Texas Senate, has repeatedly accused Phelan of making the House a roadblock to a conservative agenda. Patrick has a speaking engagement on the opening day of the convention and will host an “ice cream social” for delegates that evening.

And state Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose war with the speaker goes beyond the political and the personal, is also an opening day speaker. Phelan set the wheels in motion for Paxton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives last year on a well-documented list of bribery and obstruction of justice charges, in which accusations of marital infidelity and inappropriate political favoritism provided the soap opera’s backstory.

Both Paxton, who was acquitted in the Republican Party-controlled Senate, and Patrick are actively supporting Phelan’s opponent in the runoff and have gone after many of the House of Representatives’ allies in the Republican primaries. So did former President Donald Trump, an ally of both Patrick and Paxton.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who is seeking a third term in November against challenger Colin Allred, D-Dallas, will speak on the final day. And U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a conservative firebrand from Florida, is also an invited guest. Gov. Greg Abbott’s office did not respond to a question about whether he plans to participate in the convention.

It is not surprising that Phelan, who was first elected to the House in 2014 and has been speaker since 2021, is choosing to skip the once-every-two-year meeting of Texas Republicans. In February, as the key campaign saw the speaker face a multi-candidate challenge in his own backyard, the Texas Republican Party’s executive committee voted to censure him for what they said was “a lack of loyalty” to the principles of the Republican Party.

Phelan’s office responded, noting that the state party’s executive committee was “the same organization that rolled out the red carpet for a group of neo-Nazis and refused to distance itself from anti-Semitic groups.” It was an apparent reference to outgoing Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi’s association with a conservative organization that has been linked to self-proclaimed white supremacist Nick Fuentes.

The latest entrant in the race to replace Rinaldi as head of the Texas Republican Party — a vote that will take place during the second day of the convention — made an oblique reference to Phelan’s accusation as he announced his candidacy on Friday. Matt Mackowiak, a longtime Republican Party foot soldier and current chairman of the Travis County Republican Party, said such “dark associations” and “blatant anti-Semitism” will likely reflect poorly on Republican candidates in Texas in November.

He specifically went after Rinaldi’s preferred successor, Colin County GOP Chairman Abraham George, and said he will likely continue the current party chairman’s approach. George is supported by Paxton and several conservative members of the Texas House.

The race for the chairmanship is a crowded one and includes Texas GOP Vice Chairman Dana Meyers, Texas House Freedom Caucus Director Mike Garcia, businessman Ben Armenta and former Texas Real Estate Commissioner Weston Martinez.

Texas GOP conventions aren’t always a made-for-TV lovefest. Two years ago, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, booed for then working with Democratic lawmakers to enact a bipartisan bill that would expand background checks for gun buyers.

It is important to note that public division does not always spell doom for a political party in Texas. During the Democrats’ long reign as the party in charge, leaders had to rally the conservative and liberal urban wings to maintain majorities in Austin and in the congressional delegation.

The infighting played out publicly as early as the 1960s, but Democrats retained control of the House of Representatives and the Texas congressional delegation until the 2002 elections.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas GOP convention may feature contentious race for party chairmanship