It’s 2021, and lawmakers are called back to Austin for a third special legislative session after months of bickering and gridlock, primarily over redistricting and bills targeting transgender student athletes.

During the regular session, lawmakers passed a bill banning local governments from requiring masks, vaccines, or business shutdowns to mitigate the spread of a pandemic.

Abbott’s signature issue this year, an effort to pass a bill to create “education savings accounts,” the wonky name for the crux of a program that would offer taxpayer dollars to parents who enroll their kids in private schools, has stalled in the House because some Republicans remain opposed to it.

Should a ban on mandates pass, there will be almost no room for Abbottt’s far-right detractors to say that he’s weak on the issue (as they did in 2020), as he’ll be able to say he’s taking the same hard-line positions as GOP gubernatorial darlings like Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

Next year’s primaries are inching closer, and Republican lawmakers—especially those who played an active role in impeaching Attorney General Ken Paxton—want a win to bring back to their voters.

As state representative Rafael Anchía, of Dallas, noted during a House committee hearing, under this bill, private businesses might not be able to sufficiently protect their immunocompromised employees from colleagues who refuse to get the vaccine.

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