#Farris Wilks

[gwydionmisha]

Vote the whole ticket. Local races matter very much.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Zach Despart at Texas Tribune:

BEAUMONT — Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, the top electoral target for a far-right faction of Republicans intent on controlling the Legislature, emerged victorious Tuesday over a well-funded challenger endorsed by Donald Trump and his allies.

Phelan defeated former Orange County Republican Party chairman David Covey, who also had the backing of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton and former Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi. In doing so, he avoided the ignominious fate of becoming the first House speaker to lose a primary in 52 years. With all precincts reporting, Phelan was up 366 votes — within the margin that Covey can call for a recount. Covey, however, conceded in a speech to supporters at his election night party in Orange shortly after 9:30 p.m. Phelan, 48, who has seen his popularity plummet among Republicans since he backed the impeachment of Paxton on corruption and bribery charges exactly one year and one day ago, was defiant in his victory speech at JW’s Patio in Beaumont. “I will be your state rep for HD 21 and I will be your speaker for the Texas House in 2025,” Phelan said to a raucous crowd of more than 100 supporters. “This was a true grassroots effort — not the fake grassroots.”

Covey, a 34-year-old first-time candidate, not only forced Phelan into a runoff in March but secured more votes than the two-term House speaker. That outcome shocked many in the district, as Phelan was previously reelected four times without Republican opposition and hails from one of the most prominent families in Beaumont. Candidates for the Texas Legislature who trail after the first round rarely win their runoffs. Phelan carried the unique advantage of being a statewide leader with a prolific roster of political donors. Through May 20, his campaign reported spending $3.8 million on the runoff, more than double Covey’s $1.6 million. Their combined hauls amounted to what was almost certainly the most expensive state House race in Texas history. It was also an ugly contest — Phelan accused Covey of running on “lies and deceit” — where the candidates attacked each other in a flood of mailers and television advertisements.

[...] Phelan’s win is a major blow to the party’s ultraconservative faction that is led ideologically by Patrick and Paxton and financed by megadonors like West Texas oil magnate Tim Dunn. It is a group that rejects compromise and bipartisanship, demonizing Democrats and the Republicans willing to work with them. This ascendant wing has supplanted the party’s traditional focus on taxes and regulations with highly divisive social issues like transgender rights and book bans. In defeat, that group did not go quietly. Covey called Phelan an "Austin swamp creature" who only secured reelection through the support of Democrats, which he said was a "brazen act of betrayal." Paxton, an early endorser of Covey who had campaigned for the challenger as late as Tuesday afternoon, echoed the claim. The attorney general, who had vowed revenge against Phelan for supporting his impeachment, said the speaker had "blatantly stolen an election from the hard-working people of his district" by courting Democrats. Paxton said Republicans should move to closed primaries — a priority of the far right — and he issued a warning to members of the House.

[...] But whether Phelan can hold on to the speaker’s gavel is unclear. One of his own committee chairmen, Republican Rep. Tom Oliverson of Cypress, declared his candidacy for speaker in March. But no members have publicly endorsed Oliverson, and while his reelection was in doubt, Phelan was able to keep the rest of his caucus from open rebellion. [...] Attacked by his enemies as a RINO, Phelan was also widely considered more conservative than his predecessors, Phelan secured passage of the state’s near-total ban on abortion, permitless carry of handguns and several first-in-the-nation border security bills. Phelan was easily reelected speaker in January 2023 with all Democrats and almost all Republicans in support; conservative rumblings of dissatisfaction amounted to a paltry three votes for another candidate. And he batted away far-right criticism of the House’s longstanding practice of appointing Democratic committee chairs, appointing them to lead eight of 34 committees.

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) staves off MAGA wing/Farris Wilks/Tim Dunn-funded candidate David Covey to narrowly keep his seat and his Speakership gavel.

[msclaritea]

Meet Tim Dunn & Farris Wilks—two billionaires from West Texas.

They bought Paxton’s acquittal for $3 million. Now they’re pushing a private school voucher scam.

Their ultimate goal is even more ambitious: transforming Texas into an authoritarian, Christian Nationalist state.

Dunn & Wilks are oil and gas oligarchs.

They’re also both Christian pastors.

These two billionaire-pastors are spending their fortune enacting an extreme Christian nationalist worldview in the second-largest state in the country.

And no one is talking about it.

Dunn & Wilks have bought the top politicians in Texas with $100+ million in contributions.

And it’s not just politicians. They fund a sprawling network of PACs, think tanks, and media outlets.

Every right-wing policy that's come out of Texas lately goes back to them.

When they’re not buying politicians, Dunn & Wilks both preach at far-right churches.

They push a theology of power, control, and domination — not universal love.

Now their toxic theology is becoming law in Texas.

Just this week, a Dunn & Wilks operative espoused the racist Great Replacement Theory.

She followed it up with a claim that white people are being “genocided.”

This is the Dunn & Wilks worldview.

How significant is their influence?

Every Republican State Senator and over half of Republican House members in Texas have taken money from Dunn & Wilks.

For some Republicans, nearly HALF of their total campaign contributions are from these two billionaires.

And our statewide officials are in their pockets too.

Greg Abbott takes free trips on Wilks' private plane.

Dan Patrick acquitted Ken Paxton after taking $3 million from the Dunn & Wilks PAC fighting the impeachment.

Pro-Paxton group gives $3 million to impeachment trial judge Dan PatrickDefend Texas Liberty was the lieutenant governor’s largest benefactor in late June, providing a $1 million donation and $2 million loan to his campaign.https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/18/ken-paxton-impeachment-dan-patrick/

Dunn & Wilks have zero tolerance for opposition.

Their PAC—Defend Texas Liberty—recruits far-right candidates to primary Republicans who don't do their bidding.

It's a win-win: they beat the moderate incumbent or force them to take extreme positions.

Dunn & Wilks also control influential legal, policy, & advocacy organizations.

One of those orgs argued in court that pharmacies shouldn't sell birth control.

The lawyer who argued that case later became a federal judge.

He banned the abortion pill.

How a Right-wing Law Firm Shaped the Judge Who Will Rule on the Abortion Pill

Matthew Kacsmaryk cut his teeth at First Liberty Institute, a “religious liberty” law firm with Texas roots—and a growing national reach.https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/first-liberty-abortion-pill-lawsuit/

And they've even created their own right-wing media bubble.

Dunn & Wilks fund Texas Scorecard, the top far-right publication.

Wilks owns the Daily Wire and bankrolls PragerU, a right-wing "education" platform they’re trying to force into our schools.

Texas fracking billionaire brothers fuel rightwing media with millions of dollarsFarris and Dan Wilks’ deep pockets fund climate denialism education, conservative politicians and pro-fossil fuel projectshttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/05/texas-fracking-billionaire-brothers-prageru-daily-wire

Now they’re taking on their most ambitious project: replacing public schools with Christian schools.

Abbott just called a special session to pass Dunn & Wilks’ voucher scam.

Republican Sen Bob Deuell said: “They want to destroy the public school system”

http://houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/dunn-wilks-paxton-texas-theocracy-democracy-18380689.php

Dunn & Wilks are executing their plan to dismantle public education:

✔️Fund manufactured controversies to discredit public schools

✔️Pass private school voucher scam to defund public schools

✔️Close public schools and shift our entire system to private, Christian education

Comments from Twitter

There’s been a lot of bad news out of Texas lately.

Paxton’s acquittal, private school vouchers, no-exceptions abortion bans, CRT hysteria, weakened gun laws, Christian nationalism…

It’s all connected to a couple billionaire mega-donors.

Texas is too big and too great to be sold to the highest bidder.

We cannot let two billionaires turn our beloved state into a Christofascist theocracy.

Two billionaire mega-donors bought Ken Paxton’s acquittal. Now those same billionaires are funding the effort to privatize our public schools with a voucher scam. Follow the money. 🧵 #txlege #tribfest23 

Just weeks before he presided over the Paxton impeachment trial in the Texas Senate, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick received a $3 million dollar check. It came from Paxton’s two billionaire benefactors: Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. texastribune.org/2023/07/18/ken…

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These billionaires bought Ken Paxton's acquittal. According to the Republican Speaker of the Texas House: "The fix was in from the start." beaumontenterprise.com/opinions/colum…

Greg Abbott's voucher scam would divert taxpayer dollars out of public schools and into private schools. But private schools aren't accountable to taxpayers—no transparency, no oversight, no standards. Watch how they struggle to answer my basic questions about accountability… 

“You said you don’t want to take the STAAR test. Public schools don’t want to take the STAAR test either. But they have to because there are strings attached to public money.” 

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

“Could a child be denied admission because of behavior problems? Could a child be denied admission because of academic performance? Could a child be denied admission because they’re not a cultural fit?” 

Texas Republicans are trying to force public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. I told the bill author: “This bill is not only un-constitutional and un-American, it’s deeply un-Christian.” #txlege 

The bill author says she’s a champion of “parental rights.” So I asked her if state-sponsored religious indoctrination violates the rights of parents. This was her response. 

Would you be comfortable with adding language to receive parental consent from all the students and parents in the classroom before putting it up?” 

In high school, I played Danny Zuko in our production of Grease! Today the House passed a school finance package that includes my bill funding fine arts education. This is the first time in Texas history we’re dedicating funding specifically for the arts in our schools! #txlege

I filed a bill to create a fine arts allotment in our school finance formula. Currently, schools struggle to come up with $ for the arts—relying on booster clubs and private donations. Today Rep. Ken King added the language from my bill to his school finance package (HB 100)!!

If the Texas Senate passes this bill, school districts will receive per-student funding SPECIFICALLY for fine arts. This means hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding for music, dance, art, and theater programs! It’s a game changer.

Billionaire mega-donors are trying to destroy Texas public schools with a private voucher scam. They say it’s what parents want. But thousands of parents just showed up at the Texas Capitol to defend our schools. These PTA moms have a message: Come and Take It. #txlege

Texans love our public schools. Public schools are enshrined in our Texas Constitution, and there’s nothing more Texan than Friday night lights. That’s why voucher scammers are spending millions of dollars to demonize our schools…

These billionaire mega-donors have a simple strategy: 1) Demonize, then 2) Dismantle public education. They've paid politicians to attack our teachers, our librarians, and even our students. Now they're paying politicians to defund and close our schools with a voucher scam.

When I was a public school teacher, I struggled to make ends meet. 40% of Texas teachers work a second job. Thousands are leaving the profession to find work that can pay the bills. Today I’m introducing legislation to give every teacher in Texas a $15,000 pay raise. 

We can do this. Texas has a $47 billion budget surplus. That’s billion with a b! We can give every teacher a $15,000 raise, give all support staff a 25% raise, and still have more than HALF the surplus left over.

Hoarding this surplus while teachers and students are suffering is immoral. But it’s also bad business. You don’t stick your money under a mattress—you put it to work by making smart investments. And the smartest investment we can make is in the next generation.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the entire Republican Party were in on creating a huge, stinking distraction in Congress just so Greg Abbott could shaft the state of Texas.

[socialjusticeinamerica]

We live in an Information Age but ignore the oligarchs controlling us and ruining our country.

[oldshowbiz]

Religious propagandist Dennis Prager has been at it for a long, long time.

In the 1980s, he campaigned against Martin Scorsese and wanted to ban the Last Temptation of Christ.

In the 1990s, he initially blamed the Oklahoma City bombing on the Middle East. He later claimed right-wing rhetoric had nothing to do with Timothy McVeigh's belief system.

Today he operates the influential propaganda outfit PragerU. PragerU is funded by the Bradley Foundation (Harry Bradley was one of the original financiers of the John Birch Society), the Koch Brothers' Donors Trust (their father co-founded the John Birch Society), and evangelical billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks (who also fund Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire).

He's a bum.

[tearsinthemist]

"Money talks," or so they say. Unfortunately, in the United States, a pair of billionaires have been sending money to some media outlets to talk about the supposed benefits of oil and gas and deny the existence of human-caused global heating.

What's happening?

According to the Guardian, Farris and Dan Wilks have been sending millions of dollars to pro-dirty-energy and evangelical organizations.

The Wilks brothers, who made their fortune from oil and gas fracking, are trying to promote the narrative that the world is not experiencing a climate crisis.

Among the media entities to have received funding from the Wilks brothers is PragerU, an unaccredited university that provides "edutainment" videos for classroom use. The Guardian cited Texas financial records that show the Wilks have handed over at least $8 million to PragerU.

[talkingpointsusa]

Ben Shapiro doesn't want the separation of church and state anymore because "secularism is a form of religion"

Dullard media has absolutely erupted around the state of Louisiana moving to display the Ten Commandments in schools. This is clearly something that flies in the face of the establishment clause of the constitution which these guys have been trying to tiptoe around with predictably painful results.

Ben Shapiro, the sketchy bus stop ad lawyer of the modern conservative movement, has thoughts on it and they're all stupid. Lets get into it.

00:02, Ben Shapiro: "One of the great lies that is told by the international left, particularly the American left, is that the idea that if you have no religion, if you are an atheist, if you are somebody who is in the post Christian world, well that really means that you have an alternative ideology called secularism and that secularism is in fact not a form of religion, it is a form of reason and logic. That's not true, it just simply is not true."

You hear this strain of thought that secularism is "a form of religion" a lot on the right and it makes absolutely no sense. The most glaring flaw in Ben's argument here is that secularists and atheists don't pray to any deity, they don't worship a god. Worshipping and praying to an otherworldly deity is the literal definition of religion and secularists don't do that.

Ben will later argue that the otherworldly deity that secularists worship is nature because he's a big oil shill that doesn't like people acknowledging the reality of climate change but that still doesn't make sense. Your average climate activist isn't saying prayers to Mother Nature every night before bed or going to a religious gathering where everybody worships a natural entity. The worshipping of an otherworldly entity aspect is the literal definition of religion and Ben is awkwardly trying to dance around that fact.

00:22, Ben Shapiro: "There are a wide variety of belief systems across the world and one of them is in fact secularism and secularism has turned into a weird version of paganism in which nature is to be worshipped. One of the ways that you see that is in protestors against the climate, against the heating up of the world which again, some of that is anthropogenic meaning human caused some of it is probably not."

This also makes absolutely no sense.

First of all, climate change advocates aren't literally praying to a pagan deity or worshipping nature when they are rightfully pointing out that climate change is a massive threat to the survival of the human race. While there probably are practicing pagans out there, it's absolutely insane to just assume that everybody who's concerned about climate change is literally worshipping nature. That is however the conclusion that you might make if you are bought and paid for by the fossil fuel industry, which Ben Shapiro absolutely is.

To understand why Ben Shapiro is a shill for big oil who's views on climate change should never ever be taken seriously, first you need to understand two brothers by the names of Dan and Farris Wilks. Dan and Farris are two billionaires who made their money off of an oil and gas company called Frac Tech. When Ben Shapiro started to create what would become the Daily Wire as a young conservative influencer, Farris Wilkes provided Shapiro's first big donation to the tune of $4.77 million. Wilkes also is an owner of the company, if you don't see the obvious conflict of interest than I don't know what I can do to convince you of the obvious facts here.

By the way, most scientists agree that 100% of global warming is caused by humans. There are some natural occurrences like volcanic eruptions that contribute to climate change but they don't explain the overall heating that we are experiencing.

In short, Ben claims to own the libs but the oil industry owns him. His views on climate change should be immediately viewed through that filter.

00:45, Ben Shapiro: "Well, these protestors believe that they are going to make the world a better place by destroying, or defacing, monuments."

That's still not religion Ben, unless I missed the part in the dictionary where it said "a core element of religious thought is practicing vandalism".

00:58, Ben Shapiro: "So, yesterday environmental protestors decided it would be an amazing idea to go and spray paint Stonehenge in order to demonstrate that oil is bad."

Yeah, I'm not a massive fan of these guys who deface historical monuments either but they don't exactly represent the majority of climate activists. A lot of climate activists don't like these guys either because they make the cause look bad in the overall eye of the public. Just because somebody did something that you disagreed with or is even morally reprehensible (not saying that what these protestors did was that but for the sake of example) in the name of a cause, it doesn't mean that the cause itself is now something that should be abandoned by society at large. If that strain of thought were correct we'd have stopped practicing Christianity after the crusades.

To be entirely fair to these protestors who tagged Stonehenge, the monument was entirely undamaged and it appears that the group that organized this protest, Just Stop Oil, was being honest when they said that the substance used by these activists was cornflour which easily washes away. Ben plays some video of the activists vandalizing Stonehenge and gets back to yapping.

04:11, Ben Shapiro: "The reason I point this out is because the great lie that I talked about a couple of minutes ago-"

Is everything that you've said on your show for the entire duration of your professional career?

04:15, Ben Shapiro: "This great lie that secularism is not it's own form of religion is a lie that has been telescoped into American law. This comes up today because the Louisiana governor has now declared that he is going to put the ten commandments back in schools and the left is losing it's absolute mind."

I wouldn't say that I am "losing my mind" per se but I do think that this is an objectively bad decision and I hope that for once the Supreme Court will do the right thing and strike this law down.

This law flies in the face of the Constitutions Establishment Clause, the section of the first amendment that enshrines both freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. Since these "public", which is the word of the day here, schools are receiving government funding this can easily be read as public schools trying to establish a form of religious indoctrination into public schooling, which is ironic because I heard from Ben not too long ago that it was LGBTQ people trying to indoctrinate children into an ideological system. If these were the five pillars of Islam being put into classrooms, Ben would be losing his mind right now.

05:09, Ben Shapiro: "Opponents naturally jumped into action suggesting that this was wildly unconstitutional. Under the law, state funds will not be used to implement the mandate. The posters will be paid for through donations."

Doesn't matter, they're still in public schools which means that a religious text has now entered a venue of public education. What that does is essentially make religion a part of normal schooling and pressure children into religious beliefs - which is wildly unconstitutional because of the establishment clause.

Ben does an ad for gold because these guys are all running the exact same kind of con on old people and then launches into his explanation for why this clearly unconstitutional thing is in fact not unconstitutional.

08:01, Ben Shapiro: "The problem is that the United States is not a fundamentally secular country. What I mean by that is that it's not the French Republic. This is a point that was made by Justice Scalia in a 2005 case in which the constitution of France says France is a secular republic in which religion is to be excluded in a public forum, that is not the United States of America."

Still not acknowledging the establishment clause which outright states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". Ben does, to be fair, later acknowledge the clause in a very wrongheaded and dumb way but we'll get to that when we get to it.

In the meantime, lets talk about Ben's argument that America isn't a secular nation because he's completely incorrect. Look at Article 11 of the Treaty of Tipoli, a document ratified by the United States senate in 1796, which states explicitly that quote:

“Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion - as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

This was unanimously approved by congress at the time. Anyway, Ben tries to address the establishment clause.

09:01, Ben Shapiro: "Number one, this was never supposed to originally be implemented in the states. It took all the way until the 1940's for the Supreme Court to declare that this is now going to be applied at the state level."

But....it's a law now Ben. This argument makes absolutely no sense, are we saying that we're just tossing out every Supreme Court decision that was made after a select date?

I thought these guys were supposed to like the First Amendment.

Conclusion:

Yeah, that was pretty painful. I started writing this before the debate broke out and so this ten commandments thing is probably not the biggest thing on the forefront of peoples minds right now, however I still thought it was important to write about.

Ben Shapiro is one of the people at the forefront of pushing the lie that LGBTQ people are trying to indoctrinate children into....not being straight I guess? I'm still not sure how these guys think sexuality works but whatever. Well, here you go Ben, here's some actual indoctrination of children. I guess he doesn't care about THAT kind of indoctrination. Yeesh, guess that big tenet of Ben Shapiro lore is meaningless now.

Cheers and I'll see you in the next one.

Sources:

“How Fracking Billionaires, Ben Shapiro, and PragerU Built a Climate Crisis–Denial Empire.” Www.vice.com

Hausfather, Zeke. “Analysis: Why Scientists Think 100% of Global Warming Is due to Humans.” Carbon Brief, 13 Dec. 2017

“Stonehenge Not Visibly Damaged by Protest Paint. It’s Clean and Ready to Rock the Solstice.” MooseJawToday.com, 20 June 2024

Schoenherr, Neil. “WashU Expert: Ten Commandments Display Likely Unconstitutional - the Source - Washington University in St. Louis.” The Source, 20 June 2024.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

More pitchfork fodder.

[everetterice]

Ever wonder who is behind the attacks against public education, destroy the teaching of Black, Brown, & Indigenous history, and anti-CRT, the story above explains it well! ER.

[dankusner]

29. Homosexuality: Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice. We believe there should be no granting of special legal entitlements or creation of special status for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin, and we oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values. No one should be granted special legal status based on their LGBTQ identification. Retained with No Changes; 2022 Plank

For four decades, Hotze, an indicted election fraud conspiracy theorist, has helmed hardline anti-abortion movements and virulently homophobic campaigns against LGBTQ+ rights, comparing gay people to Nazis and helping popularize the “groomer” slur that paints them as pedophiles. 

Once on the fringes, Hotze said Saturday that he was pleased by the party's growing embrace of his calls for spiritual warfare with “demonic, Satanic forces” on the left.

Texas GOP Skews Further Right

While the primary runoffs had a few bright spots, the state party grew more extreme

Texans emerged on the other side of the Republican primary runoffs with some wins worth celebrating. 

But the overall picture is troubling.

State House Speaker Dade Phelan, who led his chamber to impeach Ken Paxton, survived a challenge from a political newcomer seeking to avenge our ethical mess of an attorney general. 

While Phelan prevailed by only 366 votes, David Covey conceded the race. 

That is a relief in a day and age when distrust in American elections has become central to the GOP’s identity.

In congressional races, state lawmaker Craig Goldman’s more moderate message won over voters deciding the nominee for Rep. Kay Granger’s seat. 

And Rep. Tony Gonzales fended off a challenge from a pro-gun rights YouTube influencer.

A group of staunchly conservative state House representatives, however, lost their seats for crossing Gov. Greg Abbott on school vouchers, while a handful were made to pay for supporting the Paxton impeachment. 

These are party members who went along with just about every issue except one.

That is the cost of being an elected official in the Texas GOP today. 

The governor and the state party apparatus demand ideological purity — matters of conscience and constituents’ wishes aside.

Redirecting tax money to pay for private schooling is a policy matter that deserves debate, particularly as it might help low-income families stuck in under-performing public schools. 

But Texans are in trouble once their elected representatives are targeted and expelled from office for thinking independently or for representing the will of a broad base of their constituents. 

That means that vital policy matters such as how to pay for our kids’ education will be decided based on fear, and by a narrow band of the electorate, not on the merits of the policies themselves.

The Republican Party of Texas had a chance to repudiate this backwards absolutism, to reject the divisive politics of former party chair Matt Rinaldi. 

Under his leadership, the party cozied up to the likes of antisemite Nick Fuentes and to billionaire donors Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, whose goal is to tilt Texas to the far right.

Instead of changing course and opening the tent to more Texans, the state GOP doubled down and elected Rinaldi’s hand-picked successor, Abraham George, as party chair. 

His rhetoric is yet another serving of the same tired tropes of the far right. 

It’s the kind of stuff that certain primary voters eat up but that most Texans, and many conservatives, find nauseating.

At its convention over the weekend, the party embraced a ban on candidates who have been censured by the party, which now occurs frequently when an official dares to disagree with any of the Texas GOP’s extremist platform. 

This ban includes judges, even though many conservatives would agree that judges should make decisions based on the law and not their personal politics.

The state party’s proposed platform, presented at a convention last week, includes language that declares abortion is “homicide,” that calls for military bases to restore the names of Confederate “heroes” and that demands the right to use gold and silver as legal tender. 

We worry about what will emerge after the delegates’ votes are tallied.

The Republican Party of Texas may feel comfortable ratcheting up the extremism in the safety of a red state and in the midst of an unpopular Democratic administration. 

But the party’s longevity depends on appealing to a growingly diverse electorate. 

The Texas GOP is sacrificing broad appeal for the gain of an ever-insular inner circle.

Texas Republican party platform wants rural votes to count more

Texas Republicans have a clever idea to guarantee they remain in power, even if their candidates can’t win the popular vote in statewide elections.

Delegates to the state party convention have ratified a new platform that would change how statewide officials, from governor to land commissioner, are chosen. 

To take office, a candidate would have to win the popular vote in a majority of Texas’s 254 counties.

The proposal, akin to the federal Electoral College, would give voters in Loving County, population 64, more power than those in Harris County, where 4.7 million people live. 

King County, with 265 people, would wield a vote equivalent to Bexar, with 2 million.

Does this sound like a political party that has won every statewide election for 26 years? 

Or a party that has confidence in its electoral future?

This shameless bid for autocracy comes as many Republicans recognize a demographic reality: 

Hispanics are the majority, and soon, residents of Democrat-controlled big cities will outnumber the older, whiter, rural voters who make up the GOP base.

Given a choice between recruiting more people of color or rigging the system, delegates at the Republican convention in San Antonio chose to change the rules. 

This way, only candidates popular with rural voters can win statewide office.

Tomlinson's Take

After all, there is plenty of precedent for this kind of thing.

Political historians quickly remind us that the United States has never been a true democracy. 

From the beginning, the founding fathers gave some voters more weight than others to determine our nation’s future.

Their most shameful compromise was counting enslaved people as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of allocating congressional seats. 

Enslavers in Southern states knew Northern states would dominate the national legislature unless Black lives mattered at least a little bit.

The intellectual hypocrisy of simultaneously treating someone as sub-human and yet insisting they count for political representation is galling. 

Then there’s the U.S. Senate.

Today, 18 states with populations smaller than Houston elect 36 senators. 

But that’s not enough power, so the cloture rule gives those 36 senators the power to block any legislation they don’t like. 

Wyoming votes carry far more power than Texas votes.

Lastly, there is the anti-democratic Electoral College. 

States are allotted electoral college votes based on two senators plus the number of representatives in the House, and the winner typically takes all. 

Votes cast in Delaware, therefore, have greater weight than Californians. 

Five presidents have won the White House while losing the popular vote as a result.

Texas Republicans, therefore, see plenty of precedent for their anti-democratic proposal. 

Why not elect statewide officials based on the number of counties they win?

Many readers will scoff at the idea that such a radical change has a chance of becoming law, and I hope they are correct. 

But as a longtime observer of Texas politics, I remember when a near-complete abortion ban and the permit-less carrying of pistols in public spaces seemed absurd.

Outrageous ideas can become law, especially in places where a single party controls all the levers of power for decades. 

The Republican Party of Texas’s 50-page platform supplies plenty of fodder for dystopian fiction writers looking for inspiration.

Republicans want to require Bible lessons, servant leadership training and Christian self-governance in public schools. 

They also want elected judges to give the party platform primacy, even where it contradicts state or federal law.

As a student of Texas history, I am fascinated by the party’s commitment to white supremacy. 

The platform calls for protecting Confederate monuments erected by Ku Klux Klan activists and demands the U.S. military restore base names that honored enslavers and traitors.

If these reindeer games strike you as unconstitutional, you’re probably right. 

That’s why the GOP platform calls for a Convention of the States to rewrite the Constitution. 

If that doesn’t work, new Republican Party Chairman Abraham George and Vice Chair D'rinda Randell have promised a referendum on Texas seceding from the United States.

Lastly, the party rules state that any elected Republican not advancing these ideas will face censure. 

The party has already penalized several reasonable Republicans, including House Speaker Dade Phelan and Rep. Tony Gonzales of San Antonio.

This is not my grandfather’s Republican Party, focused on small government, low taxes and free markets. 

Conventional wisdom says the holier-than-thou activists will eventually push the GOP too far to the right, and Republicans will lose elections.

These new measures are designed to ensure that doesn’t happen.

https://texasgop.org/official-documents/#platform

TexasGOP 

The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) is proud to announce the 2024 Legislative Priorities and Platform.

These documents are the culmination of thousands of hours of work by activists, delegates, committee members, and other dedicated volunteers. 

A heartfelt thank you is required to all of them for the multitude of ways they have shaped this final product.

Delegates to the RPT Convention vote yes or no on every one of our platform planks, which gives the RPT one of the strongest and most grassroots lead platforms in the country. 

Planks must receive a majority vote of the delegates to be passed in the final version. The 2024 platform contains 252 planks and 7 resolutions, which passed with an average vote of 95%. You can view the final platform here:

2024 Platform

Delegates also vote on the top 8 Legislative Priorities for the coming legislative biennium. 

The Legislative Priorities Committee selects 15 issues based on resolutions passed from Senate District and County Conventions, and then Delegates vote on the top 8. 

This grassroots led model is being copied in other states and is the pinnacle of Republican directives to their elected officials.

The Legislative Priorities for the Republican Party of Texas for 2024-2025 are:

1. Border Enforcement

To repel invasion and deter illegal immigration: • Creating a Texas Department of Homeland Security to prevent illegal entry and trafficking, and to deport illegal aliens to Mexico or to their nations of origin. • Prohibiting, with mandatory fines and jail time, individuals, corporations, non-profits, governments, and social media entities from assisting or inciting illegal entry. • Requiring the use of E-Verify by all employers in Texas with significant penalties for business owners who violate this requirement. • Ending all subsidies and public services, including in-state college tuition and enrollment in public schools, for illegal aliens, except for emergency medical care.

2. Secure Texas Elections

Securing elections from each citizen’s registration to the final count of legal votes by: • Requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. • Requiring the Counties and the Secretary of State to update the voter rolls at least quarterly. • Requiring a mandatory photo ID for every election, without exception. • Restricting mail-in ballots to disabled, military, and eligible citizens who are out of their county for the entire voting period. • Using only hand-marked, sequentially numbered paper ballots on anti-counterfeiting paper that are signed on the back by the election official at the voting location. • Standardizing in-person voting, with early voting limited to a period of no longer than nine (9) days, no gap before Election Day, and assigned-precinct voting locations only. • Counting ballots in precinct using a dumb-scanner method as soon as the ballot is returned by the voter and with publication of the results prior to submission to the County. • Closing party primaries for only registered Republicans. • Explicitly codifying the ability of the Attorney General to prosecute violations of the Election Code. • Removing existing Secretary of State waivers to comply with current Election Code.

3. Stop Sexualizing Texas’ Kids

Stopping the sexualization of minors, which leads to abuse, exploitation, and trafficking, by: 

• Prohibiting taxpayer funding to any entities that permit or promote sexually inappropriate content to minors and legislatively banning instruction on sexual orientation and gender ideology in schools and libraries. 

• Repealing affirmative defenses in Texas Penal Code (43.24, 43.25) and redefining “harmful materials” to remove loopholes provided by the modified Miller Test. 

• Establishing an independent Inspector General for Education to investigate fraud, waste, abuse, and criminal conduct within schools and refer findings to prosecutorial authorities.

• Compelling superintendents to report sex crimes within schools to outside law enforcement and removing immunity from civil liability for schools and their employees.

Human Sexuality: We affirm God’s biblical design for marriage and family between one biological man and one biological woman, which has proven to be the foundation for all great nations in Western Civilization. We oppose homosexual marriage, regardless of state of origin. We urge the Texas Legislature to pass religious liberty protections for individuals, businesses, and government officials who believe marriage is between one man and one woman. We oppose the granting of special legal entitlements or creation of special status for sexual behavior or identity, regardless of state of origin. We oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose non-traditional sexual behavior out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values.

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Ilana Berger at MMFA:

Google is allowing right-wing propaganda organization PragerU to run climate-denying ads on its search engine even though the tech giant previously committed to prohibiting ads that feature claims that contradict the “well-established scientific consensus” about climate change. In 2021, Google updated its ad policy to prohibit ads for or on content that “contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.”  Yet, nearly three years later, Google is still profiting from ads that contain climate change misinformation.  When Media Matters searched for phrases like “climate change,” “global warming,” and “climate crisis” on Google Search, the search engine returned PragerU ads that promised its website reveals “the truth about climate change” — or what it calls the “fake climate catastrophe.”  “Climate policies are causing inflation and keeping poor countries trapped in poverty,” the ad-description text read. “Get the facts with our Climate Change and Energy playlist.”

[...]

PragerU is deeply rooted in climate change denial

Along with the Daily Wire, PragerU is financially dependent on generous donations from fossil fuel billionaire Farris Wilks.  Recently,  PragerU Kids, a PragerU offshoot that produces conservative “educational” content targeted at school age children, has partnered with five different states to bring right-wing propaganda into public school classrooms.  Media Matters reviewed PragerU Kids’ ”educational” content and found it was rife with misinformation about climate change. In one video, a cartoon narrator explains why embracing climate denialism is akin to participating in the Warsaw uprising, when Polish Jews attempted to liberate Warsaw from German occupation during WWII.  

Google profits off of right-wing propaganda factory PragerU's climate change denialism ads.

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Amid white supremacist scandal, far-right billionaires see historic election gains in TX - Alternet.org

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Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi worked for billionaire Farris Wilks | The Texas Tribune

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