HOUSTON—Texas Republicans wrapped up their state convention Saturday after three days of debate over party leadership and the adoption of a platform calling for a ban on abortion, opposition to the Trans-Texas Corridor and staying the course in Iraq.

Few Republican members of Congress showed up. Former presidential candidate Ron Paul, who had been expected to receive a warm welcome, was among those skipping the event.

Paul’s supporters tried to oust the current state party leaders during the convention, but failed.

The platform—a broad statement of principles that isn’t always followed by GOP elected officials—incorporates many of Paul’s positions, like U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations and elimination of the federal income tax. Other suggestions from Paul supporters, such as establishing an initiative and referendum process in Texas and abolishing the Federal Reserve, weren’t even debated by the platform committee, said its chairman, Kirk Overbey.

The committee sought Republicans’ opinions from around the state. One new aspect was soliciting input from state and local officials, from legislators to sheriffs to state education board members, about what the platform’s priorities should be, Oberbey said.

At the suggestion of several state lawmakers, the platform included a call to overhaul the state property tax system and instead fund schools from a combination of consumption taxes, spending cuts and surplus revenue.

Paul supporter Debra Medina, who ran unsuccessfully for party vice chairman, said her group was more focused on enforcing the rules of the party convention than the platform.

“I think there are some things in it that we’re going to be concerned about,” Medina said, without elaborating. But, she said, a change in party leadership and more acceptability is a higher priority at the moment. “We need honesty and forthrightness.”

The platform was approved Friday and made available for view late that night.

It’s more concise than some previous state GOP platforms but contains many of the same principles, such as ban on abortion with no exceptions; opposition to same-sex marriage; no amnesty for illegal immigrants; and allowing taxpayer money for private schools.

The document doesn’t use the word “vouchers,” as it sometimes has in the past to describe school choice. This time it urges that the state “fund the student, not schools or districts” to allow “maximum freedom of choice in public, private or parochial education for all children.” Exact wording on school vouchers has been debated at GOP conventions for about a decade, Overbey said.

The Republican platform proposes removing funding for bilingual education. Instead, Republican officials favor “total immersion,” in which Spanish speakers are immediately taught their subjects in English. That saves money and produces quicker results in learning English, Oberbey said.

Opposition to the Trans-Texas Corridor, the proposed toll superhighway, is in the GOP platform again. Overbey said opponents of the highway were even more vocal this time, often citing secrecy surrounding the project and state contracts with a foreign company as reasons for opposition.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry proposed the corridor in 2003. He did not mention it in his speech to the convention Thursday, though potential 2010 GOP gubernatorial candidates Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst expressed their disagreement with the project.

Some platform planks seem to agree with presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who did not attend the convention and sent former rival Mitt Romney to speak in his place.

“We support our military strategy and the democratically elected government in Iraq ...,” the platform states. “There should be no timetable for pulling our of Iraq or Afghanistan.”