Republican gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines says Gov. Greg Abbott doesn't really support a Texas vaccine mandate ban.
Huffines said Abbott has been waiting for federal courts to rule, rather than rallying Republicans to pass a state law banning vaccine mandates once and for all.
"Greg Abbott needs to call a special session and pass (a) bill to ban vaccine mandates for good," Huffines wrote on Twitter. "No Texan should be forced to take a vaccine they don't want to take."
"No one should be forced to get a vaccine if they don't want it, whether it's by business or the government or anyone else. We must outlaw vaccine mandates in Texas," Huffines said.
The U.S. Supreme Court said this week it would hold a "special hearing" on President Joe Biden's federal vaccine mandates, ordered in November. Huffines said Texans wouldn't have to worry about the high court's decision if a state law was passed.
The Texas COVID Vaccine Freedom Act failed to pass during an October Special Session. It had public support from Abbott, who previously opposed a ban on vaccine mandates, allowing private businesses the choice to mandate COVID vaccines and to punish or fire workers for not taking them.
But that was before Biden's federal order.
Huffines and the measure's chief sponsor, State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian), have asked Abbott to call a special session to pass the bill, which they believe will now pass.
"(The bill) was designed specifically to evade Biden's ability to preempt it," said Harrison, who formerly served as a top aide in the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. "Texans deserve more from their government than relying on the judiciary to protect them from (Biden's) tyrannical mandate."
Houston Methodist Hospital fired 153 employees in June for refusing to take COVID-19 jabs. Health care workers in Waco were fired in November over COVID-19 vaccines.
Huffines, 63, is a Dallas entrepreneur and real estate developer who served in the Texas State Senate from 2015-2019. He announced his campaign for the Republican nomination for governor in May 2021.
Abbott, 64, is a lawyer who served as a Texas Supreme Court Justice and as Texas Attorney General before being elected governor in 2015.
