Suzanne Bellsnyder Is Sounding the Alarm on Closing Texas Primaries — and Fighting for Rural Voices

Suzanne Bellsnyder has spent her life in rural Texas, living the independence, local pride, and neighbor-first culture that defines so much of the state.

She’s also spent decades inside Republican politics: working on campaigns, shaping legislative policy, and organizing at the grassroots level.

“My life prior to being in the news media, I was a Republican Party activist,” she says. “I actually was the chairman of the College Republicans of the state of Texas when I was in college. So I literally have been in that sort of grassroots component of our party for many, many years. I know kind of how it works inside out.”

Today, Bellsnyder brings that insider understanding to her work as a rural newspaper publisher. She owns two local Texas newspapers — the Hansford County Reporter Statesman, and the Sherman County Gazette — and she’s using her personal platform, the Texas Rural Reporter, to defend what she sees as a core principle of democracy: rural voters should have a real say in the elections that shape their communities.

That fight has become urgent as powerful forces inside the Texas Republican Party push to close the state’s primaries.

“One of the things that I have been seeing happen is this power grab coming from inside the Republican party apparatus,” she says. “They're sort of building this power structure, and that's kind of what has taken over the Republican Party here in the state of Texas. And I've felt like this issue [closing primaries] was their next sort of grab. I've been shocked to learn that it’s literally like a kind of activism within the Republican Party.”

For Bellsnyder, however, this fight is deeply local. In the small towns she covers, the primary is often the election that counts — and closing it would leave many rural Texans without a voice where it matters most.

Local Control — or Control from Austin

Texas politics has long been shaped by a fierce sense of independence. Bellsnyder describes local control as central to the state’s identity.

“What has made Texas work so well over the years is this idea of local control and independence. “Remember the Alamo” is like our battle cry, right? Like it's all about independent thinking, independent working, you know, doing what's best for what is local – it's very much about local control.”

Right now, Texas operates under a relatively open primary system: voters don’t have to register with a political party in advance. Instead, any eligible Texan can choose whether to participate in the Republican or Democratic primary election each cycle. That flexibility has long been part of the state’s political culture, giving independent-minded voters — especially in rural communities — a meaningful say in the races that often decide local leadership.

Efforts to close primaries would change that, requiring voters to formally affiliate with a party ahead of time and narrowing participation in the elections that matter most. It’s part of a broader pattern in which party insiders and well-funded interest groups consolidate control by narrowing the electorate, making it easier for a small faction to decide outcomes before most voters ever have a say.

“Why this issue (open/closed primaries) is important is because there is a movement inside the Republican Party,” she says. “It starts with the grassroots, but then it translates into the kinds of policies that they're pushing to move control out of our communities to Austin.”

At the heart of Bellsnyder’s argument is a simple belief: voters should never be treated as automatic property of a party.

“Our votes need to be earned, not assumed.”

A Republican Holding Her Party Accountable

Bellsnyder is clear that her concern doesn’t come from outside the party. It comes from someone who helped build it.

“I've worked in some capacity for Republicans for 30 years. So I mean, my bona fides of being a Republican are really strong.”

She’s watched Texas Republican leadership rise over decades, and she believes that history gives her both perspective and responsibility.

“I think that sometimes I get accused of being critical of the Republican Party, of the governor and of whoever is at the top of the ticket, but I guess the way I see it is I'm not being critical. I'm holding them accountable to who I know that they are to some level.”

Bellsnyder describes being there through the party’s modern ascent — and feeling a duty to speak up now.

“I was at the Republican revolution in the 1990s. I worked with these candidates. I worked with Governor Abbott to help get him elected back when he was running for the Texas Supreme Court. I've seen every single one of these guys rise up within the Republican Party and I've been right there with them, supporting them, and so I feel like I've sort of earned the right to hold them accountable, and that's kind of what I'm trying to do.”

Protecting a Way of Life Worth Fighting For

Bellsnyder’s urgency comes from love: love for rural Texas, for the culture she grew up in, and for the independence she believes is slipping away.

“I love my upbringing. I love the way I grew up. I love this way of life, and it's worth protecting and it's worth fighting for, and our politics is getting so far away from it.”

To her, closing primaries may seem like a technical change, but it represents something larger: another step away from local control.

“And, you know, closed primaries, while it doesn't seem like a big part of this, it’s another step, you know, to just basically take away that local power and we just can't let it happen.”

She’s far from alone. A strong majority of Texas voters — including Republican primary voters — believe the state’s party primary elections should be kept open, according to a new statewide poll commissioned by Unite America.