A common talking point trotted out to defend congressional Republicans’ failure to advance conservative priorities is that the party has slim majorities, and therefore, trying to pass anything outside of the usual “uniparty” slop is next to impossible. But if that’s true, why does the same dynamic exist in states where Republicans have much larger legislative majorities and control the governor’s mansion?

On Wednesday, the GOP-controlled Texas House — which is run by liberal Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows — passed a bill that effectively seeks to criminalize the posting and distribution of certain altered media in political advertising. As noted by Texas Politics’ Daniel Molina, free speech advocates have argued the bill “threatens to criminalize satire, parody, and political expression online.”

Authored by liberal Republican Rep. Dade Phelan, HB 366 stipulates that an officeholder or political candidate “may not, with the intent to influence an election, knowingly cause to be published, distributed, or broadcast political advertising that includes an image, audio recording, or video recording of an officeholder’s or candidate’s appearance, speech, or conduct that did not occur in reality, including an image, audio recording, or video recording that has been altered using generative artificial intelligence technology.”

The bill lists a few exceptions to this rule, including media that have had their light and/or saturation adjusted and media with government-approved disclaimers noting it has been altered.

“Violators could face up to a year in jail under the proposed law,” Molina wrote. (Read more from “Conservatives Can’t Make America Great Again Until They Hold ‘Red State’ Rinos Accountable” HERE)

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