dan patrick lt gov

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pow --> mofo wacko political ambition? gov after abbott?

no merri

sparked talk radio tag?

see academic suppress pinko

SEE ISLAMOPHOBE 2 26

rww Tags: Charlie Kirk Dan Patrick

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CA = CCP 9? 26

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RWW

07/07/2026

Kyle Mantyla

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick featured Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton on his most recent podcast.

Rick Green claims that the American healthcare system is terrible because "we have a socialist healthcare system in America, thanks to their candidate, Barack Obama."

Sean Feucht was honored to receive the Pennsylvania Freedom Medal from Christian nationalist state Sen. Doug Mastriano.

Dale Partridge asserts that "restoring order will require not being moved by the screeching of women, the manipulation of foreigners, or the cries of liberals."

Brian Sauvé wrote a song about the dangers of young women getting an education, a job, and independence, proving that Christian nationalists can take just about any topic and turn it into terrible, heavy-handed art.

Finally, Hank Kunneman declares that "our country was founded on Christian principles": "Most of our documents were based on the Bible; the way that our civic government and laws and things and the way that our Constitution was framed." None of that is true.

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AN 6 26

Republican Dan Patrick says James Talarico will 'go to hell' for his view of the Bible - Alternet.org

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an 7 25

You’d be forgiven if among all the scary national and international headlines of the past few weeks you missed the first meeting of the newly formed Religious Liberty Commission.

You may not have even heard of this Trump-appointed commission of almost entirely Christian Nationalists tasked with “safeguard(ing) and promot(ing) America’s founding principle of religious freedom.” If religious freedom is something you value, you need to add this to your list of things to follow, because the first meeting made it clear that we are headed towards the end of religious freedom for all in our country. As an atheist, that really scares me.

President Donald Trump announced the commission during the National Day of Prayer event May 1. It is responsible for creating a report with recommendations for the president, due on July 4, 2026 (the 250th anniversary of our independence, just in case their intent to push the falsehood that the USA was founded as a Christian nation isn’t clear enough). The commission is just one of Trump’s many actions to appease his evangelical base, including his establishment of a “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias” in February.

Religious extremists have been messaging around “Christian discrimination” for decades. They have fabricated a narrative where they are victimized by anyone who believes, lives, loves, or looks different than they do. This effectively scares the public into putting its trust into officials who say they will protect them against “the other.” Evidence of these anti-Christian offenses that the commission is meant to investigate is twisted to privilege extremist religious beliefs over the safety and wellbeing of others.

As an example of so-called anti-Christian offenses, Attorney General Pam Bondi cited the arrest of 23 anti-abortion activists who were charged in 2020 with conspiring to storm an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C. Kansans are intimately familiar with the violence directed toward abortion clinics and providers after the assassination of physician George Tiller in 2009, and we don’t need to look beyond last month’s assassination of Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband to see how religious extremists target Planned Parenthood and their supporters. Instead of understanding this, Trump pardonedall 23 activists this January.

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The commission is made upof almost entirely of known right-wing Christians — including Texas Lt. Gov. and Chair Dan Patrick; former HUD secretary and vice chair Ben Carson; son of Billy Graham, disgraced evangelist Franklin Graham; former Miss California Carrie Prejean Boller; lawyers from Project 2025-affiliated organizations such as First Liberty Institute and Ethics & Public Policy Center; and right-wing TV and radio hosts such as Dr. Phil. A bishop, cardinal, and rabbi round out the members in what they tout as a “diverse” representation of faiths in America.

The commission will hold several more hearings over the next year to investigate the tired list of Christian Nationalist priorities, including so-called parent rights and “school choice,” prayer in schools, vaccine mandates, government displays of religious iconography, and “anti-Christian offenses.” As expected, the other key priority voiced throughout the day was to attack the LGBTQ+ community — especially trans kids.

During this first hearing, the real objectives of the commission became abundantly clear:

Rewrite history to make America a Christian nation. A key tenet of the Christian Nationalist political ideology is that America was founded as a Christian nation, and must return to this status to secure our future success. The commission repeatedly embraced this very narrow interpretation of key historical documents, including writings by the founders and the Free Exercise and Establishment clauses of the First Amendment. Both commissioners and witnesses denied the principle of church-state separation and a secular government.

Remake the courts with “courageous” Christian Nationalists. The courts, specifically the U.S. Supreme Court, will be the subject of many recommendations in the final commission report. The commission discussed which cases should be overturned, how Trump’s administration can assist with that, and how to make sure pesky state and local courts don’t get in the way. The Supreme Court has been chipping away at church-state separation for the past decade with crucial victories this term, but for this commission, this isn’t happening fast enough.

Promote religion in all parts of American culture, politics, and public life (but only if it’s their version of “Christianity”). Expert witnesses referred to a divine truth — the existence of a Judeo-Christian God — as the foundation for a moral, happy, and politically good society. Many devout Americans hold similar beliefs about their faith, but also recognize that our government should not prioritize one religion in a pluralistic society. Not only does this push minority faiths and nonbelievers such as myself outside of the bounds of this “virtuous citizenry,” but it asserts that one religion (Christianity) must be imposed on every person to create and maintain this good society.

In a world where we are facing very real threats to our physical, mental, and financial health, why did I spend five excruciating hours listening to a commission whose only job is to make recommendations? The obvious answer is because these individuals were hand-selected for holding a world view that advances the Christian Nationalist agenda and threatens any religious beliefs that fall outside of this ideology. The uncomfortable truth is that this rhetoric justifies hate crimes and the dissolution of rights for women and minorities has a new platform with the divine weight of presidential approval. As a lifelong atheist, I’m scared that we’re looking at the end of church-state separation and the rise of a theocracy weaponizing religion against people who don’t fall in line.

American Atheists just announced that it will no longer be hosting the 2026 World Humanist Congress in Washington, D.C., because the “Trump Administration’s actions … have created an environment that is not only incompatible with our values but also inhospitable to members of our global secular community.” They feared for the safety of their attendees because we are no longer a country welcoming of visitors, and especially not visitors who fall outside of a specific Christian identity.

But it’s not just the secular community who should be worried right now. Every person who has found within their faith the mission to love their neighbor, feed the hungry, protect the vulnerable, and embrace the stranger should be fighting for the sanctity of their beliefs. The members of the Religious Liberty Commission will not be including these priorities in their final report, and you will not find a place for your faith in their new America.

*Laurel Burchfield is the advocacy director of Mainstream Coalition, where she advocates under the dome and in local communities to protect church-state separation. Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com.

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6 25

'This is stupid': Texas Republican's latest push draws rare backlash — from the right

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was clear from the start.

Weeks before this year’s legislative session began, and before he announced any other priorities, the Republican Senate leader said he wanted lawmakers to ban, at any cost, products that contain the psychoactive compound in weed. His target was the multibillion-dollar hemp industry that had sprouted up thanks to a loophole in a 2019 state law that legalized products providing a similar high to marijuana.

Patrick justified his conviction by contending that retailers had abused that loophole to sell products with dangerous amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. He accused the retailers of preying on the state’s young people with shops posted near schools and marketing aimed at children.

“I couldn’t, in good conscience, leave here knowing if we don't do something about it in the next two years — how many kids get sick?” Patrick said in March, talking about his willingness to force a special legislative session by blocking must-pass legislation from making it through the Texas Senate.

And ultimately, Patrick got his way — and an explosion of backlash.

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As pressure mounts on the governor to veto a THC ban sent to his desk, Patrick finds himself in the unfamiliar position of taking flak from conservative activists and media personalities outside the Capitol, many of whom typically march in political lockstep with a man who has long been a darling of the right and done more than perhaps any other elected official to drive Texas rightward.

After spearheading the THC ban, Patrick has been accused by some on the right of creating a nanny state and giving Mexican drug cartels a business opportunity to fill demand in the black market. He has been labeled a booze lobby shill for beer distributors who stand to benefit. A hardline conservative state lawmaker who voted against the ban said it contradicted “the Texas mantra of being pro-business, pro-farmer and pro-veteran.”

A Patrick spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

“This is stupid,” Dana Loesch, the former National Rifle Association spokesperson who is now the host of a nationally syndicated conservative talk radio show, wrote on social media in response to Patrick’s argument that the ban would keep THC away from children. “It's like the gun ban argument with a different variable. Kids aren't buying it anymore than any other controlled product (alcohol, cigarettes, et al) and if they are, do your job as a parent and parent instead of idiotically expanding government.”

Before the blowback erupted from inside his house, Patrick courted Republicans in both chambers of the Legislature to pass Senate Bill 3. The law bans products containing THC — and would eradicate the state’s $8 billion hemp industry and its estimated 50,000 jobs if it survives Gov. Greg Abbott’s veto pen and expected legal challenges.

Abbott, whose office has been inundated with calls to veto SB 3, has not revealed his intentions for the proposed law. The governor could sign SB 3 into law, veto it or do nothing and let it become law without his signature.

Proponents of the ban have argued it is needed to rein in a wild west industry that’s selling products with dangerously high levels of THC and without proper oversight. Patrick has argued it would be unrealistic to regulate the industry under tighter guardrails — as hemp business leaders and others proposed — because doing so would require an impossible amount of manpower.

Lawmakers also passed a bill to expand the state’s medical marijuana program by offering more products and adding more qualifying conditions, an olive branch extension to vets and THC users with chronic conditions who opposed the retail ban.

Patrick said the medical expansion “will help those in true need of relief.” But he and his allies have remained steadfast behind the THC ban, even amid pushback from the right.

“Retailers across Texas have exploited a state agriculture law to sell life-threatening, unregulated forms of tetrahydrocannabinol to Texans,” said Sen. Charles Perry, the Lubbock Republican who carried SB 3, when the upper chamber approved the bill. “These rogue retailers are selling THC products containing several times more THC content than marijuana purchased from a drug dealer off the street. These dangerous products must not be allowed to permeate our communities and endanger Texas children.”

Criticism on the right has come from veterans who say they use the products as alternatives to opioid painkillers to help with a variety of ails, industry leaders who say the Republican-controlled state is turning its back on small businesses, and conservative politicos who have no shortage of arrows they have been aiming at Patrick.

“What lives were destroyed by low grade THC shops, Dan? Can you name one?” Kenny Webster, a Houston conservative talk radio host, posted on social media. “Just one. Go ahead.”

Some recent scrutiny was driven by a news conference Patrick called to push back on criticism of the ban, even after it had already cleared both chambers and was on its way to Abbott’s desk. Flanked by senators and law enforcement officials, Patrick stood in front of a variety of THC products laid out on a table and made his case.

The lieutenant governor said he wanted to encourage the news media to write about the dangers of THC. He also said he had “total confidence in the governor. … I’m not worried about the governor understanding it. I’m worried about you all understanding it.”

At one point Patrick lobbed a bag of edibles at a reporter. He later asked another reporter if he was “crazy” for inquiring about the move to limit adults’ access to the products.

“If he was trying to make a case for a THC ban, I can’t think of a more bizarre and counterproductive spectacle than yesterday’s press conference,” said Rolando Garcia, a member of the State Republican Executive Committee who routinely criticizes GOP lawmakers for perceived breaches of conservative orthodoxy. “We have a mad king surrounded by courtiers and yes men afraid to tell him he’s making a fool of himself.”

Some opponents of the total ban have vowed retribution against Patrick, who is running for reelection in 2026 armed with an endorsement from President Donald Trump and more than $33 million in his campaign coffers. Those factors — and Patrick’s long history of promoting policies that most primary voters see as higher priorities than preserving THC access — mean it is unlikely the blowback will cost Patrick much, according to political observers.

“It’s hard to imagine given Patrick’s position and where he is now that somehow this is going to be in and of itself the source of some fundamental political threat,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. “Honestly I think we’re not used to seeing Dan Patrick criticized very much from within his own party and so it’s really sticking out, and that’s fair.”

Meanwhile, another member of the SREC, Morgan Eakin, on social media questioned Patrick’s conservative bona fides by pointing to when Patrick came under fire from his own party over gun rights.

As the Legislature in 2021 contemplated letting most Texans carry a handgun without a license or training, Patrick at first said the Senate did not have the votes to pass the measure.

Lawmakers ultimately passed the bill, often referred to by Republicans as constitutional carry because of their belief that it is an American’s constitutional right to pack heat without involving the government.

“We have to ask ourselves how so many were gaslit into believing the Senate and Dan Patrick were consistently more in line with basic constitutional principles and that [former House Speaker Dade Phelan] and the House were unequivocally liberal,” Eakin wrote.

Phelan, a Beaumont Republican who clashed with Patrick during his time as speaker, weighed in on SB 3 Monday, writing on social media that “Texans do not want a total ban.”

“They do want a reasonable, regulated hemp market free of dangerous products — especially those advertised and sold to minors,” Phelan, who voted for the bill, wrote. “The gas station garbage must go while Texans enjoy the freedom they expect from conservative governance.”

Despite the blowback, Patrick remains a champion of conservative policies and key player in GOP victories. This session alone, state lawmakers passed stiffer bail laws, required that most sheriffs work with federal immigration authorities and approved measures allowing time for prayer in public schools and requiring classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.

Patrick has rarely taken much heat from his own party. One notable instance was also related to guns after a pair of mass shootings.

In 2019, a gunman wanting to quell an “invasion” of Hispanic immigrants went to a Walmart in El Paso, where he opened fire and murdered 23 people and wounded 22 others. Shortly after that attack, a gunman terrorized Midland and Odessa with a shooting spree that resulted in the deaths of eight people.

Patrick said it was high time the state required background checks on gun sales between strangers.

"Someone in the Republican Party has to take the lead on this," he said at the time, adding that he was “willing to take an arrow” for the stance.

The backlash, once again, was swift. His conservatism was called into question and some on the right even painted him as a bigger threat to guns than Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who had infamously said during a presidential debate the same year, “Hell yes, we are going to take your AR-15.”

Patrick withstood the pushback. And lawmakers never approved legislation he called for regulating private stranger-to-stranger gun sales. Since allowing permitless carry in 2021, lawmakers have expanded access to firearms, including with a bill this year to legalize sawed-off shotguns, among other victories for gun rights advocates.

The lack of fallout from Patrick’s push to regulate private gun sales may offer a clue about how the SB 3 situation will shake out. Patrick received 77% of the 2022 GOP primary vote against only token opposition, and he was easily reelected in November.

*Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/10/dan-patrick-texas-thc-ban-republican-gop-backlash/.

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an 225 tex trib

Emboldened by recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings and President Donald Trump’s second term, conservative Christians are rallying behind a series of Texas bills that would further infuse religion into public education and potentially spark legal fights that could upend church-state separations.

Last week, the Texas Senate advanced a bill that would allow public taxpayer money to flow to private, religious schools via vouchers. And on Monday, Sens. Mayes Middleton of Galveston and Phil King of Weatherford filed bills, respectively, that would allow time for prayer in public schools and require classrooms to display the Ten Commandments — both of them priorities for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and co-sponsored by all 20 Republican senators.

The impact could extend beyond Texas. In the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, those on the religious right see an ally in their decades-long fight to crater the church-state wall and allow more Christianity in classrooms across the country.

“Our schools are not God-free zones,” Middleton said in a statement announcing Senate Bill 11, the school prayer legislation. “We are a state and nation built on ‘In God We Trust.’ … There is no such thing as ‘separation of church and state’ in our Constitution, and recent Supreme Court decisions by President Trump’s appointees reaffirmed this.”

Legal experts and religion scholars say those arguments misrepresent history or potentially overestimate the effects of recent high court rulings.

“The Christian Right feels very empowered by this particular moment,” said Mark Chancey, a religion professor at Southern Methodist University who focuses on movements to put Christianity in schools. “They see the present configuration of the U.S. Supreme Court as sympathetic to their efforts.”

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/sXI0TSELvFQRSzr8zEos7JNvoo4=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/3fe9b28556c1d2115474869059d79a99/0624%20Capitol-Austin%20File%20OA%2027.jpg)

A monument to the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Capitol in Austin on June 24, 2024. Credit: Olivia Anderson/The Texas Tribune

The religious right entered this legislative session amid a string of legal and political victories. In just the last few years, state Republicans have required classrooms to hang donated signs that say “In God We Trust”; allowed unlicensed religious chaplains to supplant mental health counselors in public schools; and approved new curriculum materials that teach the Bible and other religious texts alongside grade-school lessons.

Those moves have corresponded with a broader normalization in the GOP of claims that church-state separation is a myth, or that the nation’s founding was ordained by God and its laws and institutions should therefore reflect fundamentalist Christianity. Some lawmakers began the 2025 session with calls for “spiritual warfare” with demonic spirits that they believe seek control of the Capitol.

A new legal landscape

In his statement introducing Senate Bill 10 on the Ten Commandments, King said the legal landscape favored more opportunities for religion in school following the 2022 Supreme Court case Kennedy v. Bremerton School District decision.

In that landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled along ideological lines that a Washington state school district could not prevent a high school football coach from engaging in prayer with students on the 50-yard line after school games. Justices said the school district’s efforts to discipline the coach and prevent his praying violated his free speech rights and right to freely exercise his religion.

In issuing that opinion, the court outlined that it was moving away from the long relied upon legal test

— called the “Lemon test” — to determine if the government is unconstitutionally allowing the infusion of religion in public spaces.

The more than 50-year-old test has been used by courts to make sure that laws involving religion have primarily non-religious purposes. For example, in the 1980 case Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court relied on the Lemon test — named for a 1971 case — when it struck down a Kentucky law requiring the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

In the Kennedy decision, justices suggested they were replacing the Lemon test with a consideration of “historical practices and understandings” that is based on an analysis of “original meaning and history.” Legal experts describe the new test as vague and unclear.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/joeZNO6ZS2aiQCgVYcPT_wqf3us=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/b325befd99680ddcd4b266d703c25751/1104%20SCOTUS%20File%20JG%20TT%2008.jpg)

The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington on Nov. 4, 2022. Credit: Jason Garza for The Texas Tribune

Christian conservatives see hope in their path to put religion back in public schools, with the court’s move to sideline the Lemon test. They view the new history-based test as a pathway to reverse long-standing precedents that prohibit school-sponsored prayer or putting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

Rep. Mike Olcott, R-Aledo, who has proposed his own Ten Commandments bill, said in an email that “after the Kennedy decision, there is no merit in prohibiting expressions of faith or our collective history.”

Under a new history-based test, Matt Krause, a former Texas House member and attorney for the First Liberty Institute, a conservative legal organization, said he thinks a law putting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms would survive given their “very conspicuous history” in the U.S. and purported influence on the nation’s laws and government. Among other high-profile cases, First Liberty Institute represented the football coach in the Kennedy case, and Krause has previously testified in favor of putting the Ten Commandments in classrooms in part to prompt a “restoration of faith in America.”

Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro, holds a similar view to Krause. This session, he’s introduced separate bills that would put the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms and allow prayer during the school day. Because of the Kennedy ruling, Spiller said he believes both bills are constitutional — though he wasn’t confident they would have survived prior. A new history-based test would bode well for his Ten Commandments bill, he added, since “most of our laws are based on principles that are contained” within them.

But Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Freedom, which advocates for a strong wall between church and state, said the Constitution and American law are not rooted in Biblical texts.

“There is this zombie myth that all of American law is based on the Ten Commandments,” Tyler said. “But when you look at the U.S. Constitution, there is no mention of God. There is no mention of Christianity. The only mention of religion is to prohibit religious tests for public office.”

Moreover, she takes issue with those arguments, which she said reframe a sacred text as a secular document in order to justify its inclusion in public schools.

“There are so many different translations, and there's just such a rich and diverse depth of the Holy Scripture, she said. “And when the government gets its hands on the Holy Scripture, it standardizes it in ways that really cheapen the mystery and the beauty.”

Religious and legal experts say it isn’t immediately clear exactly how the Supreme Court will apply the history-based test in future cases. There are lingering questions about the specific type of history that would be considered as part of the test.

Chancey, the SMU religion professor, expects those laws, if passed, will prompt lawsuits that could end up in front of the Supreme Court. But he isn’t confident the Ten Commandments bill could survive a test on historical merits.

“There was no time in American history when the Ten Commandments were routinely placed in American public school classrooms,” Chancey said.

School prayer, however, presents a slightly different history. Chancey said while school-endorsed prayer was common in early American history, it was not universal and sometimes divisive.

Steven Collis, director of the First Amendment Center and the Law and Religion Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin, said he’s also not convinced that the Lemon test has been completely thrown out. It’s possible that some parts of the test could still apply, he added.

The school prayer bill, he said, may address the legal question of whether a school cannot endorse prayer or simply cannot coerce prayer, by directly or indirectly forcing students to partake. The current court appears to be leaning toward the latter, he said, which could mean they’d allow a bill similar to the one proposed to go unchallenged. Prior to Kennedy v. Bremerton and under the old test, however, a similar law likely would have been struck down by lower courts, he said.

In the 1962 case, Engel v. Vitale, the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot hold prayers in public schools even if the prayer is not tied to a specific religion and participation is optional. The ruling has since been consistently upheld by subsequent decisions, but conservative groups have pushed for it to be overturned.

Regardless, Collis said parties on both sides of the school prayer and Ten Commandments bills would likely try to get the Supreme Court to “bite off on it.”

Efforts to challenge related bills are already underway. Last November, a federal judge said it was “unconstitutional on its face” for Louisiana to require the Ten Commandments be posted in public school classrooms. In January, a federal circuit court heard an appeal on the case. A decision is pending.

Freedom from religion

The religious right’s legal and legislative pushes have come as America continues to diversify and secularize. At roughly two-thirds of the population, Christians still are by far a majority.

Even so, some Christians have been alarmed by the steady decrease in their share of the population — and the simultaneous rise of religiously unaffiliated Americans. So-called “nones” — short for believing “nothing in particular” — now make up 28% of the U.S. adult population — a 12% jump since 2007 that makes them a larger group than Catholics or Protestants, according to Pew Research.

Religion experts say that trend has been accelerated by broader discontent with organized religion, namely Christianity. Interfaith groups have said as much for years, warning that the push to redefine America as a Christian nation is actually driving people away from religion altogether.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/g0HiYHcR6CVlaGZmYj2Hz2_uV1w=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/3aec7e3283c98f92299b73a39910cbb7/0210%20Religion%20Bills%20LW%20TT%2004.jpg)

Members of atheist and anti-Christian nationalism groups speak with Rep. Jon E. Rosenthal, D-Houston, at his office at the Capitol in Austin on Feb. 10, 2025. Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune

“They are interfering with the right of every American in Texas to practice religion freely, which includes practicing no religion, if that’s what you choose,” said Bee Moorhead, executive director of the interfaith group Texas Impact.

Benjamin Clodfelter counts himself among the 4% of U.S. adults who are atheist — though he has not always been up front about his views. During his 7-year stint in the Army, Clodfelter was a closeted atheist, fearing his disbelief in God would draw unwanted attention and cut off career opportunities.

The U.S. Military is supposed to be secular. But Clodfelter said those rules were openly flouted by his unit leader, who required those in his command to attend prayer breakfasts and, at the same time that he had broad authority over their promotions, told soldiers that “you have to have faith to be a good leader in the Army.”

Ten years after leaving the military, those remarks still stick with him. Clodfelter has since dedicated his life to maintaining a strong church-state wall, serving as a board member for the Atheist Community of Austin and, on Monday, joining about 25 other Texans as they lobbied state lawmakers to preserve those separations.

It’s at times felt like an uphill battle, with increasing hostility crowding out nuanced conversations about religion and government.

“It used to be more of a conversation,” he said. “It was an actual dialogue. And I noticed that there was more thought terminating cliches, where they are just denying the existence of our side. It is both perplexing and really frustrating.”

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/12/texas-ten-commandments-school-prayer/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

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at Texas GOP convention, Republicans call for spiritual warfare]

(https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/28/texas-gop-convention-elections-religion-delegates-platform/)" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

SAN ANTONIO — From his booth in the exhibit hall of the Texas GOP’s 2024 convention, Steve Hotze saw an army of God assembled before him.

For four decades, Hotze, an indicted election fraud conspiracy theorist, has helmed hardline anti-abortion movements and virulently homophobic campaigns against LGTBQ+ 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.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/JFkqsROPRlcFcL99azhBNmhW0bY=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/ee33b4da54577749111fe238d8b0bd90/0905%20Impeach%20Trial%20Day%201%20BD%20TT%2013.jpg)

From left: Conservative activists Steven Hotze and Jared Woodfill enter the Senate gallery during the afternoon session of Day 1 of the Ken Paxton impeachment trial in the Texas Senate on Sept. 5, 2023. Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune

“People that aren’t in Christ have wicked, evil hearts,” he said. “We are in a battle, and you have to take a side.”

Those beliefs were common at the party’s three-day biennial convention last week, at which delegates adopted a series of new policies that would give the party unprecedented control over the electoral process and further infuse Christianity into public life.

Delegates approved rules that ban Republican candidates — as well as judges — who are censured by the party from appearing on primary ballots for two years, a move that would give a small group of Republicans the ability to block people from running for office, should it survive expected legal challenges. The party’s proposed platform also included planks that would effectively lock Democrats out of statewide office by requiring candidates to win a majority of Texas’ 254 counties, many of which are dark-red but sparsely populated, and called for laws requiring the Bible to be taught in public schools.

Those moves, delegates and leaders agreed, were necessary amid what they say is an existential fight with a host of perceived enemies, be it liberals trying to indoctrinate their children through “gender ideology” and Critical Race Theory, or globalists waging a war on Christianity through migration.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/fzcMrsQQEKXRO3FPEF7YT6aOTHo=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/da9c4842dbc8e8cb35ddbcee11590f3b/0523%20GOP%20Convention%20EH%20TT%2031.jpg)

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick speaks during the Texas GOP Convention on Thursday, May 23, 2024 in San Antonio. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

Those fears were stoked by elected officials in almost every speech given over the week. “They want to take God out of the country, and they want the government to be God,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Thursday morning.

“Our battle is not against flesh and blood,” Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, said Friday. “It is against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

”Look at what the Democrats have done,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Saturday. “If you were actively trying to destroy America, what would you do differently?”

*[“The house is on fire”: Texas GOP plots its next chapter amid civil war, depleted staff, funding drops]

Controlling elections

The Texas GOP’s conventions have traditionally amplified the party’s most hardline activists and views. In 2022, for instance, delegates approved a platform that included calls for a referendum on Texas secession; resistance to the “Great Reset,” a conspiracy theory that claims global elites are using environmental and social policies to enslave the world’s population; proclamations that homosexuality is an “abnormal lifestyle choice”; and a declaration that President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected.

The 2024 convention went a step further.

It was the first Texas GOP convention set against the backdrop of a civil war that was sparked by the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton and inflamed by scandals over white supremacists and antisemites working for the party’s top funders:{, West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. This year’s convention was also sparsely attended compared to past years, which some longtime party members said helped the Dunn and Wilks faction further consolidate their power and elect their candidate, Abraham George, for party chair.}:

“What we're seeing right now is a shift toward more populism,” said Summer Wise, a former member of the party’s executive committee who has attended most conventions since 2008, including last week’s. “And the [party’s] infrastructure, leadership, decision-making process, power and influence are being controlled by a small group of people.”

(https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/_X93OkVqWjKf0MF0YqIovXarXM4=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/37d777dfbb61f282f112bd04a575cbbc/0523%20GOP%20Convention%20EH%20TT%2055.jpg)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, wave to attendees during the Republican Party of Texas convention in San Antonio on Thursday, May 23, 2024. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

That shift was most evident, she said, in a series of changes to the party’s rules that further empower its leaders to punish dissent. The party approved changes that would dramatically increase the consequences of censures — which were used most recently to punish House Speaker Dade Phelan for his role in impeaching Paxton, and against U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales for voting for gun safety legislation.

Under the changes, any person who is censured by the party would be banned for two years from appearing on GOP primary ballots — including judges, who are elected in partisan races but expected to be politically neutral once on the bench. The party also voted to unilaterally close its primaries, bypassing the Legislature, in a move intended to keep Democrats from voting in Republican primaries.

“It’s pretty hypocritical,” Wise said of the changes, which legal experts and some party members expect will face legal challenges. “Republicans have always opposed activist judges, and this seems to be obligating judges to observe and prioritize party over law — which is straight-up judicial activism.”

The convention came amid a broader embrace of Christian nationalism on the right, which falsely claims that the United States’ founding was God-ordained and that its institutions and laws should reflect their conservative, Christian views. Experts have found strong correlations between Christian nationalist beliefs and opposition to migration, religious pluralism and the democratic process.

*[Proposed Texas GOP platform calls for the Bible in schools, electoral changes that would lock Democrats out of statewide office]

Wise said she has seen parts of the party similarly shift toward dogmatic political and religious views that have been used “to justify or rationalize corrupting the institution and stripping away its integrity, traditions, fundamental and established principles" — as if “‘God wants it, so we can rewrite the rules.’”

“Being Republican and being Christian have become the same thing,” she said. “If you're accused of being a (Republican in Name Only), you're essentially not as Christian as someone else. … God help you if you're Jewish.”

The “rabbit hole”

Bob Harvey is a proud member of the “Grumpy Old Men’s Club,” a group in Montgomery County that he said pushes back against Fox News and other outlets that he claims have been infiltrated by RINOs.

“People trust Fox News, and they need to get outside of that and find alternative news and like-minded people,” Harvey, 71, said on Friday, as he waited in a long line to meet Kyle Rittenhouse, who has ramped up his engagement in Texas politics since he was acquitted of homicide after fatally shooting two Black Lives Matter protesters.

Rather, Harvey’s group recommends places such as the Gateway Pundit, Steve Bannon’s Breitbart News or the Epoch Times, a far-right website that also had a booth at this year’s convention and is directly linked to the Falun Gong, a hardline anti-communist group.

Such outlets, Harvey said, are crucial to getting people “further down the rabbit hole,” after which they can begin to connect the dots between the deep-state that has spent years attacking former President Donald Trump, and the agenda of the left to indoctrinate kids through the Boy Scouts of America, public schools and the Democratic Party.

Harvey’s views were widely-held by his fellow delegates, many of whom were certain that broader transgender acceptance, Critical Race Theory or “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives were parts of a sinister plot to destroy the country and take over its churches.

The culprits behind the ploy differed — Democrats, socialists or “globalists,” to name a few. But their nefarious end goals loomed over the convention. Fearing a transgender takeover of the Republican Party of Texas, delegates pushed to explicitly stipulate that the party’s chair and vice chair must be “biological” men or women.

At events to recruit pastors and congregations to ramp up their political activism, elected leaders argued that churches were the only thing standing between evil and children. And the party’s proposed platform included planks that claim gender-transition care is child abuse, or urge new legislation in Texas that's "even more comprehensive" than Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits the teaching of sexual orientation or gender identity in public schools.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/ciJpskJjFVkA32MexM-6q3bGI6M=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/8fc7586ac950819feeeabb4760560fb8/0523%20GOP%20Convention%20EH%20TT%2072.jpg)

Kyle Rittenhouse shakes hands with conventioneers at a meet and greet during the Texas GOP convention on Thursday in San Antonio. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

“Our next generation is being co-opted and indoctrinated where they should have been educated,” Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, said at a Friday luncheon for pastors and churches. “We are in a spiritual battle. This isn't a political one.”

For at least a half-century, conservative Christian movements have been fueled by notions of a shadowy and coordinated conspiracy to destroy America, said Mark Chancey, a religious studies professor at Southern Methodist University who focuses on movements to put the Bible in public schools.

“It's like the boogeyman that won't go away, that gets summoned whenever a justification is needed for these types of agendas,” he said. “They say that somebody is threatening quintessential American freedoms, and that these threats are posed by some sort of global conspiracy — rather than just recognizing that we're a pluralistic democracy.”

In the 1950s, such claims were the driving force behind the emergence of groups such as the John Birch Society, a hardline anti-communist group whose early members included the fathers of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Trump. After decades of dwindling influence, the society has seen a revival since Trump's 2016 election. And in the exhibit hall last week, so-called Birchers passed out literature and pamphlets that detailed the New World Order's secret plans for "world domination."

Steve Oglesby, field director for the Birch Society's North Texas chapter, said interest and membership in the group has been on the rise in recent years — particularly, as COVID-19 lockdowns and international climate change initiatives have spurred right-wing fears of an international cabal working against the United States.

"COVID really helped," he said, adding that the pandemic proved the existence of a global elite that has merely shifted its tactics since the 1950s. “It’s not just communism — it’s the people pulling the strings.”

Throughout the week, prominent Republicans invoked similar claims of a coordinated conspiracy against the United States. On Friday, Patrick argued that a decadeslong decline in American religion was part of a broader, “Marxist socialist left” agenda to “create chaos,” including through migration — despite studies showing that migrants are overwhelmingly Christian. Attorney General Ken Paxton echoed those claims in his own speech minutes later, saying migration was part of a plan to "steal another election."

“The Biden Administration wants the illegals here to vote,” he said.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/XrT-lkapyY0opApzI2UV_yF-8JE=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/f65ff0a8564b0acdb321e69bd3b233c7/0523%20GOP%20Convention%20EH%20TT%2011.jpg)

Ella Maulding and Konner Earnest watch as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick speaks during the Republican Party of Texas convention in San Antonio on Thursday, the first day of the gathering. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

As Paxton continued, Ella Maulding and Konner Earnest held hands and nodded their approval from the convention hall’s front row. Last year, the two were spotted outside of a Tarrant County office building where Nick Fuentes, a prominent white nationalist and Adolf Hitler fan, was hosted for nearly seven hours by Jonathan Stickland, then the leader of Dunn and Wilks' most powerful political action committee. They eventually lost their jobs after The Texas Tribune reported on their ties to Fuentes or white nationalist groups.

Maulding has been particularly vocal about her support for Great Replacement Theory, a conspiracy theory that claims there is an intentional, often Jewish-driven, effort to replace white people through migration, LGBTQ+ acceptance or interracial marriage. Once a fringe, white nationalist worldview, experts say that Great Replacement Theory has been increasingly mainstreamed as Republican leaders, including some who spoke last week, continue to claim that migration is part of a coordinated effort to aid Democrats. The theory has also been cited by numerous mass shooters, including the gunman who murdered 22 Hispanic people at an El Paso WalMart in 2019.

Five hours after Paxton and Patrick spoke, Maulding took to social media, posting a cartoon of a rabbi with the following text: “I make porn using your children and then make money distributing it under the banner of women’s rights while flooding your nation with demented lunatics who then rape your children.”

David Barton

Kason Huddleston has spent the last few years helping elect Christians and push back against what he believes is indoctrination of children in Rowlett, near Dallas. Far too often, he said, churches and pastors have become complacent, or have been scared away from political engagement by federal rules that prohibit churches from overt political activity.

Through trainings from groups like Christians Engaged, which advocates for church political activity and had a booth at this year’s convention, he said he has been able show more local Christians that they can be “a part of the solution” to intractable societal ills such as fatherlessness, crime or teen drug use. And while he thinks that some of his peers’ existential rhetoric can be overwrought, he agreed that there is an ongoing effort to “tear down the family unit” and shroud America’s true, Christian roots.

“If you look at our government and our laws, all of it goes back to a Judeo-Christian basis,” he said. “Most people don’t know our true history because it’s slowly just been removed.”

He then asked: “Have you ever read David Barton?”

Since the late 1980s, Barton has barnstormed the state and country claiming that church-state separation is a “myth” meant to shroud America’s true founding as a Christian nation. Barton, a self-styled “amateur historian” who served as Texas GOP vice chair from 1997 to 2006, has been thoroughly debunked by an array of historians and scholars — many of them also conservative Christians.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/Pr4f05aMyQrJ6_1ubGg9az8vwjQ=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/7acf1f2412dd7df9c6f492e50a5f07ee/BD%20INC%20Barton%20David%20748%202012)

David Barton, left, of WallBuilders, at a Texas Eagle Forum reception at the Republican Party of Texas convention in Fort Worth on June 7, 2012. Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune

Despite that, Barton’s views have become widespread among Republicans, including Patrick, Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson. And his influence over the party was clear at last week’s convention, where his group, WallBuilders, maintained a booth and delegates frequently cited him.

This year’s platform, the votes for which are expected to be released later this week, included planks that urged lawmakers and the State Board of Education to “require instruction on the Bible, servant leadership and Christian self-governance,” and supports the use of religious chaplains in schools — which was made legal under a law passed by the state Legislature last year.

Warren Throckmorton, a former Grove City College professor and prominent conservative, Christian critic of Barton, told the Tribune that the platform emblematized Barton’s growing influence, and his movement’s conflicting calls to preserve “religious liberty” while attempting to elevate their faith over others. The platform, he noted, simultaneously demands that students’ religious rights be protected, and for schools to be forced to teach the Bible.

“What about the other students who aren’t Christians and who don't believe in the Bible?” he said. “This is not religious liberty — it’s Christian dominance.”

As Zach Maxwell watched his fellow Republicans debate and vote last week, he said he was struck by the frequency and intensity with which Christianity was invoked. Maxwell previously served as chief of staff for former Rep. Mike Lang, then the leader of the ultraconservative Texas House Freedom Caucus, and he later worked for Empower Texans, a political group that was funded primarily by Dunn and Wilks.

He eventually became disillusioned with the party’s right wing, which he said has increasingly been driven by purity tests and opposition to religious or political diversity. This year’s convention, he said, was the culmination of those trends.

“God was not only used as a tool at this convention, but if you didn’t mention God in some way, fake or genuine, I did feel it was seen as distasteful,” he said. “There is a growing group of people who want to turn this nation into a straight-up theocracy. I believe they are doing it on the backs of people who are easily manipulated.”

Nancy Leclerc poses for a photo in front of a GOP elephant statue during the Texas GOP convention in San Antonio on Thursday, May 23, 2024. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/28/texas-gop-convention-elections-religion-delegates-platf

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an 4 24

months after a scandal over his ties to white supremacists, far-right political operative and former state lawmaker Jonathan Stickland has created a new group — with help from outgoing Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi.

On March 5, Stickland registered “RaTmasTeR Holdings LLC” with the Texas secretary of state, and Rinaldi is listed as the new group’s organizer. A week later, the chief operating officer of Pale Horse Strategies — a far-right consulting firm Stickland owns — separately registered another group, “Patriot Service Alliance LLC,” according to the Texas Voice, a conservative website that first noted the new groups on Friday.

“RaTmasTeR” is a reference to the alias that Stickland has used for decades in online gaming forums, where he was an infamous troll. Stickland parlayed the skills he honed during his early life as an internet antagonist to help lift him from a job in pest control to the Texas House and, eventually, one of the most powerful political positions in the state.

Stickland and Rinaldi, who is stepping down as Texas GOP chair next month, did not respond to requests for comment Friday afternoon.

Stickland has been at the center of a white supremacy scandal since October, when The Texas Tribune reported that he had hosted infamous Adolf Hitler fan Nick Fuentes at Pale Horse’s offices for several hours. Rinaldi was also spotted outside Pale Horse’s one-story office building in rural Tarrant County, but denied knowing Fuentes was inside.

The meeting — as well as subsequent reporting by the Tribune that uncovered other white supremacists in Stickland’s orbit — prompted House Speaker Dade Phelan and other Republicans to call for party members to redirect money they received from Stickland’s group, Defend Texas Liberty, to pro-Israel charities.

:{:{Defend Texas Liberty is a powerful political action committee that West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks have used to give more than $15 million to far-right groups, lawmakers and candidates.}:

Dunn and Wilks are also Attorney General Ken Paxton’s biggest donors, and Defend Texas Liberty gave $3 million to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick last summer, before Patrick presided over Paxton’s impeachment trial in the state Senate.}:

In the fallout from the Fuentes meeting, nearly half of the Texas GOP’s executive committee called for the party to cut ties with Stickland and Defend Texas Liberty, which was the party’s biggest donor last year.

Stickland was quietly replaced as Defend Texas Liberty’s president in October, and Pale Horse Strategies later rebranded as “West Fort Worth Management LLC.” (Not long after it was registered last month, “Patriot Service Alliance” filed paperwork to operate under the name “West Fort Worth Management LLC”). Rinaldi, meanwhile, has continued to attack critics of Stickland and Defend Texas Liberty — while quietly working as an attorney for Wilks, one of the group’s billionaire funders.

In November, the Texas GOP’s executive committee narrowly rejected a resolution that banned the party from associating with Holocaust deniers, antisemites and neo-Nazis — language that some members argued could create a slippery slope and complicate the party’s relationship with donors or future candidates. After backlash, the party in January passed a resolution that banned it from associating with antisemites — a significantly watered-down version of previous proposals that specifically named Stickland and Defend Texas Liberty.

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texas-lt-gov-wants-to-remove-biden-from-ballot-after-colorado-booted-trump-video

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an 10 23

texas GOP chair stays silent on allies’ connections to antisemitic extremists" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Faced with ongoing scandals this month involving his allies' ties to antisemitic extremists, the leader of the Republican Party of Texas has come out strongly — to attack other conservatives who’ve criticized his friends.

For three weeks, Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi has been defiant in the face of calls from members of his own party to cut ties with Defend Texas Liberty leader Jonathan Stickland, who recently hosted avowed white supremacist Nick Fuentes at his office for nearly seven hours. And he’s gone after those who’ve been critical of Defend Texas Liberty, a political action committee that is funded by two of the Texas GOP’s most prolific donors.

Separately, Rinaldi is at the center of a parallel controversy involving a group for young conservatives that he recently embraced despite warnings about its leaders’ openly antisemitic views and ties to white nationalist figures.

*[Nick Fuentes is just the latest white supremacist embraced by Defend Texas Liberty]

For some Republicans, the dual scandals have raised serious questions about the party’s willingness to denounce racists — and its leader’s proximity to those who embrace them.

“He has put his friends’ interests above what is in the best interest of the party,” said Mark McCaig, an attorney and chair of the Texas Republican Initiative. “He is more concerned about protecting them and their gang.”

To be sure, Rinaldi was quick to distance himself from Fuentes. The Texas Tribune spotted Rinaldi earlier this month at the office building where Fuentes, an Adolf Hitler admirer who has called for a “holy war” against Jews and encouraged his followers to beat women, was being hosted by Stickland.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/Tx3aOZlJrASWXLs0KnK2qMjNwb8=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/58ae5caba94100de08d475567b4f1c15/1006%20Fuentes%20TT%2008.jpg)

Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi is seen entering the offices of Pale Horse Strategies outside of Fort Worth on Oct. 6, 2023. Credit: The Texas Tribune

Asked about the Oct. 6 meeting, Rinaldi told the Tribune that he had no idea Fuentes was inside and would never meet with him. As for Stickland? Rinaldi said he would wait until more facts came out before commenting on his longtime political kin.

“I’m not going to make assumptions based on what I'm told by a reporter,” he said on Oct. 8.

Since then, neither Rinaldi nor the Republican Party of Texas has commented on Stickland, even as other major figures — including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Kyle Rittenhouse — have issued statements that confirmed the Tribune’s reporting. Nor has Rinaldi responded to concerns from fellow Republicans and some party executive committee members who’ve called for a break with Defend Texas Liberty, which has donated $257,000 to the party since 2021.

Instead, Rinaldi has reserved his ire for House Speaker Dade Phelan, accusing the Beaumont Republican of politicizing antisemitism before demanding his resignation. Phelan has also demanded Rinaldi step down as the party’s leader and give money the Texas GOP received from Defend Texas Liberty to pro-Israel charities.

Since news of the Fuentes meeting broke, Rinaldi has posted or amplified attacks on Phelan or the Texas House on X, formerly Twitter, more than 40 times. He has not, however, publicly criticized Stickland or Defend Texas Liberty at all — even as new information continues to emerge about their close ties to white supremacists.

:{*:{[Here’s who gets money from Defend Texas Liberty, the PAC whose leader met with white supremacist Nick Fuentes]}:

On Monday, the Tribune reported that, in just the last month, at least five current and former Fuentes associates have worked with groups that are closely tied to Stickland, Rinaldi and Defend Texas Liberty. That includes True Texas Project, whose leaders have sympathized with the racist gunman who murdered 22 people at an El Paso WalMart in 2019, and who are set to host Rinaldi for a fundraiser and softball game this weekend.

On Wednesday, the Texas Observer reported that a swastika-clad neo-Nazi who was spotted handing out antisemitic flyers in Fort Worth this month had previously interned for Luke Macias, a longtime GOP consultant and Rinaldi ally who just replaced Stickland as president of Defend Texas Liberty, according to the group’s website.

And this week, the Tribune reported that the president of Texans For Strong Borders, Chris Russo, has for years been a prominent figure in Fuentes’ racist movement, and has continued to post on anonymous, hate-filled social media accounts as his group —with help from Rinaldi and Defend Texas Liberty — has emerged as an influential voice that’s pushed lawmakers to crack down on legal and illegal immigration.

Rinaldi and the Texas GOP did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

‘A moral obligation’

The controversies come amid an internecine fight between the state’s far right and the Texas GOP’s more moderate, but still deeply conservative, wing. That strife has exploded into all-out war since the impeachment and acquittal of Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Rinaldi ally who has received nearly $4.65 million from West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris and Dan and Farris Wilks. Those billionaires also fund Defend Texas Liberty and, before that, bankrolled Rinaldi’s career in the Texas House.

Defend Texas Liberty has been one of the most important players in the state party’s ongoing civil war. Campaign finance records show that, since 2021, it has given nearly $15 million to right-wing movements and candidates. The group made headlines this summer after giving $3 million to Patrick, months before he presided over Paxton’s impeachment trial. Defend Texas Liberty also gave $3.6 million to Don Huffines, a former state senator who helped push Gov. Greg Abbott to the right by attacking him on immigration and other issues during last year’s Republican primary.

Meanwhile, the Texas GOP’s far right has continued to embrace groups and individuals that others have warned are a bridge too far. Fuentes was the best-known of those extreme figures; but his visit and the ensuing controversy were punctuated by a separate-but-related, scandal involving the party and white supremacists.

That ordeal dates back to August, when the 66-year-old Texas Young Republican Federation voted to end its partnership with the Texas GOP until Rinaldi — who the group accused of initiating a “smear campaign” and partnering with far-right figures to undermine their newly-elected leadership — was removed from his position.

Things escalated last month, when Rinaldi pushed for the Texas GOP to bring a newly-formed spinoff group into the party despite warnings that its leaders included avowed white nationalists.

The warnings proved to be right: Days after the Tribune first reported on Fuentes’ visit with Stickland, an independent journalist reported that leaders of the new young Republicans group had praised Hitler online, and published photos of some of its leaders outside of an event for Fuentes’ vitriolically antisemitic “groyper” movement.

“There was a time in my life when I hated Nick Fuentes and his white supremacy views,” one of the group’s leaders, Rylie Rae, reportedly wrote on social media last year. “Now I recognize that he is one of the smartest people in our country and we need white nationalism. Oh how the tides have turned.”

Responding to the controversy, the new group’s leadership said in a statement that it “condemns bigotry in all forms” and had removed the individuals in question.

But before that, other young Republicans said they made clear to Rinaldi and the leaders of the new group that they were in bed with extremists. Those concerns were rebuffed, a move that one person said is emblematic of a broader problem and power struggle that has allowed extremists to flourish in Republican circles.

“There is a tendency among the populist right to essentially say, ‘It doesn’t matter how awful the person is, as long as they are on our side,’“ said Matt Wiltshire, finance director for the Young Republican National Federation. “We believe that we have a moral and ethical duty to be uncompromising in our stance that there is right and there is wrong.”

One of those removed was Konner Earnest, who led the group’s Parker County chapter and also recently became involved with the European American Community, a white nationalist group that argues American citizenship should be based on European ancestry.

![](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/HK5Swe5A-hEjGNXJHBmn64A1VbQ=/1200x804/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/d7f8232dbebbc8c49e23f6ff0c924add/Konner%20Earnest%20TT%2003.jpg)

Konner Earnest outside of the offices of Pale Horse Strategies outside Fort Worth on Oct. 6, 2023. Earnest is an associate of Nick Fuentes and also worked on former state Sen. Don Huffines' gubernatorial campaign in 2022. Credit: The Texas Tribune

Earnest has other ties to Rinaldi and Defend Texas Liberty: He was spotted outside the Fuentes meeting with Stickland, and has appeared in videos for Russo’s Texans For Strong Borders, which has received considerable financial support from Defend Texas Liberty. Earnest has also written anti-immigration articles for Texas Scorecard, a prominent right-wing media website that is financed by Defend Texas Liberty’s billionaire funders.

Rinaldi does not appear to have released any public statement or made any comment on social media about the young Republicans scandal.

Meanwhile, the Texas GOP’s executive committee remains at an impasse over how to respond to the party’s ongoing white supremacist problem.

Last week, after Stickland was quietly removed as Defend Texas Liberty’s president, roughly one-third of the executive committee's 64 members, including Vice Chair Dana Myers, signed a letter saying that the party had a “moral obligation to speak boldly, publicly, and clearly on this matter” and demand an explanation for the Fuentes meeting.

“Fuentes' views and Stickland’s tactics are abhorrent and totally antithetical to the principles of the Republican Party of Texas and to the conservatives who have trusted [Defend Texas Liberty] for the cause of liberty and patriotism,” they wrote. “Whether this was caused by a lapse in judgment, conscious disregard, poor leadership, or a faulty moral compass –– Stickland and [Defend Texas Liberty] must ultimately accept responsibility.”

*..."}:

Since then, the party’s disagreements have continued to escalate in public view, as Rinaldi and his allies remain largely silent on the scandal. Two weeks ago — and after a Tribune reporter reached out to more than a dozen members of the party’s executive committee regarding Defend Texas Liberty — the Texas GOP removed contact information for executive committee members from its website.

The Texas GOP did not respond to a request for comment on the move, which has been publicly blasted as an attempt to keep members from being contacted by the public.

“You don’t stand for ‘we the people’ unless they have access to you,” said Cat Parks, a former executive committee member and vice chair of the Texas GOP. “It’s not like controversy didn’t happen during my tenure.”

For now, it’s unclear what comes next for the Texas GOP and its relationship with Defend Texas Liberty, which released a two-sentence statement saying it opposes Fuentes’ “incendiary” views but has yet to provide any other details on the meeting. Stickland may no longer be leading the group, but his removal is likely cosmetic given that he also owns Pale Horse Strategies, a consulting firm that is used heavily by Defend Texas Liberty-funded groups and candidates.

Members of the party’s executive committee have said as much this week, and reiterated their calls for the party to speak out against Defend Texas Liberty and Stickland.

The Texas GOP “must renounce [Defend Texas Liberty] until a full explanation of the Fuentes meeting is provided, those responsible are held accountable and there’s new entirely new leadership (not just the same players swapping job titles),” executive committee member Rolando Garcia wrote this week on social media.

“Don’t excuse the inexcusable just to spite your political enemies,” he added.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/10/27/matt-rinaldi-texas-gop-republicans-nick-fuentes/.

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west Texas A&M University has received a $20 million gift — the largest gift from an individual donor in the university’s history — to create a new institute to promote American values.

The donation is a gift from Amarillo businessman Alex Fairly and his wife, Cheryl. Both graduated from West Texas A&M.

The new university center will be called the Hill Institute, named after the university’s second president, Joseph Hill.

“The mission of The Hill Institute is to encourage reflection upon the importance of ten West Texas, Texas, and American values and, through study and scholarship, promulgate the values among students within the diverse disciplines of the University and the extended community,” a flier for the new institute reads.

The institute’s website lists those ten values: trust; family life; hard work and persistence; regard for others; personal responsibility and free will; compatriotism and patriotism; exercise of virtue; the free and open exercise of faith; personal and civic loyalty; and rugged individualism.

“Ultimately, the goal is to have the work of scholars impact every profession and area of study represented on [West Texas A&M’s] campus through the firmly held and highly esteemed values of The Institute,” the newly created website reads. “A challenge in contemporary higher education is the retreat of disciplines into silos with little common ground from which to produce engaged citizens. The Institute will illuminate the founding values of our nation as embodied in our region as a means of cementing intellectual processes to make the world a better place to live.”

The Texas A&M Board of Regents approved the creation of the institute in February 2022 and the university had been searching for a donor to fund the center since. West Texas A&M President Walter Wendler said he worked with Fairly on crafting the institute’s mission for three years. He said he sees the university and this new institute as a “launching pad for the future of higher education.”

“Higher education is in the need to continually be reshaped, especially now with forces at work that affect every aspect of university life and the students who come here to study [and] the faculty and staff who come here to work who take care of their families,” Wendler said Wednesday during an event to announce the new center. “The enterprise of higher education is being drawn into a universalist perspective, one which says all institutions should all look the same. There are many forces at work that drive us in that direction and it's a mistake.”

Wendler, who has served as the university’s president since 2016, is known for being outspoken about his Christian beliefs, often publishing articles about his faith on his personal website and in messages to the university community.

In the spring, the university's facultyissued a vote of no confidence in Wendler's leadershipafter he canceled a student drag show on campus, which he called “derisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny.” They accused him of abusing his role as president by running the university based on his own religious ideology and said he has exhibited a pattern of “divisive, misogynistic, homophobic and non-inclusive rhetoric that stands in stark contrast with the core values of the university.”

Wendler emerged from the controversy unscathed. He’s also received early support from a federal judge who is overseeing a lawsuit that a campus LGBTQ student group filed against Wendler in March, alleging he violated their free speech rights by banning the drag performance. Recently, the judge declined the student’s request for injunctive relief, stating that Wendler acted within his authority when he canceled the campus drag show.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who attended the event announcing the donation Wednesday, said he supported the center as a way to bring Texas “panhandle values” to the rest of the country.

“This is the America that all America used to be, it should be again,” Patrick said of the sprawling, pastoral region whose rural counties and smaller outposts have long been a Republican stronghold. “These are American values here.”

The Hill Institute will seek to embed students and faculty members “to better understand how these values impact daily life, create a better community, prepare us for engaged citizenship and shape our nation,” Wendler said. “We want the mission of the Hill Institute to have an impact far beyond our region.”

“Hill scholars” will also share their ideas and insights through regular publications and speaking engagements, according to a press release announcing the institute.

University officials said the institute will be funded through private donations, not state resources.

Alex Fairly, the donor funding the Hill Institute, told the crowd Wednesday that when Wendler approached him to serve on the committee for the university’s comprehensive fundraising campaign, the One West campaign, he was skeptical that his values aligned with those of higher education broadly.

“We wrestled with the decision to give to higher education because we were no longer sure we trusted the direction we saw higher education taking,” Fairly said. “What Texas and America need today is a leadership of intelligence and virtue. Education must take more account of permanent values.”

Fairly said he and his wife were convinced to make their donation because of Wendler, who they believe is leading higher education in the right direction, and the principles of Joseph Hill, who often spoke publicly about the values of the region.

According to the Texas Ethics Commission, Fairly has sporadically donated to local and state Republican lawmakers over the past few years. In 2022, Fairly and his entity, dealOn LLC, donated $100,000 to Attorney General Ken Paxton and $250,000 to Patrick. He has also made smaller donations to House Speaker Dade Phelan.

This year, Fairly and his wife donated $145,000 to the Defend Texas Liberty PAC, a political action committee led by former Rep. Jonathan Stickland. The PAC was a vocal supporter of Paxton after he was impeached by the Texas House this spring and throughout his impeachment trial in the Senate. In June, the PAC donated $3 million to Patrick, who presided over the trial.

At the event Wednesday, Patrick told Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp that he would work with him to get similar institutes at all A&M campuses by the end of Sharp’s tenure.

“Start from here, make this a national policy program because we need leaders in America,” he told the crowd. “We need to turn our face back to God. Stand on that foundation.”

This isn’t the first time Patrick has supported an institute at a public university that had the financial backing of conservative donors.

In 2021, Patrick worked with private donors and university leaders at the University of Texas at Austin to create the now-called Civitas Institute. Originally called the Liberty Institute, the proposed think tank would be “dedicated to the study and teaching of individual liberty, limited government, private enterprise and free markets,” according to draft plans of the center.

Patrick later said the original concept for the center was “shot down” by UT-Austin professors because they wanted to have control of hiring. Faculty who were involved in the creation of the institute told the Tribune that university leaders diverted from the original plans after faculty pushed back against the idea.

===

Right Wing Round-Up: All Is Lost

By Kyle Mantyla | October 12, 2023

Sarah D. Wire @ The Los Angeles Times: At far-right roadshow, Trump is God’s ‘anointed one,’ QAnon is king, and ‘everything you believe is right.’
Eric Hananoki @ Media Matters: Trump Doral event with Eric Trump will feature a Hitler-promoting antisemite who killed someone.
Angry White Men: Terry Schilling: Indigenous People Were ‘Barbaric’ And The Americas ‘Needed To Be Conquered.’
M.L. Nestel @ Raw Story: Mike Lindell begs for donations after declaring he’s ‘lost everything.’
Justin Baragona @ The Daily Beast: MyPillow Goes Dark: Mike Lindell Pauses TV Ads Amid Financial Struggles.
Matt Ford @ The New Republic: The MAGA Lawyer Who’s Draining a Nevada School District’s Coffers.
Robert Downen @ The Texas Tribune: Dan Patrick says PAC leader’s meeting with white supremacist was a “blunder,” but will keep group’s $3 million contribution.

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https://www.alternet.org/texas-am-leaders-text-messages/

an 8 23 no lnx

Texas A&Mleaders’ text messages reveal desire to counteract perceived liberal agenda in higher education

Kate McGeeandThe Texas Tribune August 05, 2023

"Texas A&M leaders’ text messages show desire to counteract perceived liberal agenda in higher education" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

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Two years ago during M. Katherine Banks’ first six months as the president of Texas A&M University, she announced a major academic reorganization of the flagship campus to help it become an internationally recognized top-tier institution. Her plans included dozens of structural changes meant to streamline and better organize the largest public university in the state.

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But text messages released by the Texas A&M University System this week revealed another largely unspoken focus among system leaders that might have also been at play as the school reorganized.

“Kathy [Banks] told us multiple times the reason we were going to combine [the colleges of] arts and sciences together was to control the liberal nature that those professors brought to campus,” regent Jay Graham wrote to regent David Baggett in June as they were discussing the university’s plans to hire journalism professor and former New York Times editor Kathleen O. McElroy. “[W]e were going to start a journalism department to get high-quality conservative Aggie students into the journalism world to help direct our message. This won’t happen with this type of hire!”

Those messages were released as part of an internal investigation conducted to review the failed attempt to hire McElroy, which has rattled the Aggie community in recent weeks amid concerns over how political considerations impact A&M’s operations and academic freedom.

The messages show that many board members, who are gubernatorial appointees, had concerns with McElroy’s perceived left-leaning credentials, including that she taught at the University of Texas at Austin and previously worked at the New York Times. At least some of them displayed a desire to promote conservative causes at the flagship campus and a blatant resistance to recruiting someone who they believed would work counter to those goals.

“While it is wonderful for a successful Aggie to want to come back to Texas A&M to be a tenured professor and build something this important from scratch, we must look at her résumé and her statements made an opinion pieces and public interviews,”regent Mike Hernandezwrote to former president Banks and Chancellor John Sharp, expressing disappointment that the board learned of the hire after it had been announced.

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“The New York Times is one of the leading main stream media sources in our country. It is common knowledge that they are biased and progressive leaning. The same exact thing can be said about the university of Texas,” he continued.

Those perspectives are consistent with Texas conservatives’ recent attempts to counteract what they view as a liberal agenda within Texas’ public universities.

“People on the right think that the left controls education and they've been trying to wrestle that control away,” said Jennifer Mercieca, a communications professor at Texas A&M who focuses on the intersection of democracy and communication. “Unfortunately, our journalism program got caught in the middle of that.”

In Texas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has largely led that crusade within the state’s public universities. A few years ago, he was part of initial discussions with UT-Austin leaders and donors to create a conservative-leaning think tank that would bring “intellectual diversity” to the school. This year, he championed legislation that eliminates diversity, equity and inclusion offices on college campuses, offices that are largely viewed by conservatives as pushing left-leaning ideologies onto students. Patrick also tried to eliminate tenure for faculty, a longstanding tenet meant to bolster academic freedom on campuses.

“People have had it with the intolerance of any ideas but progressive, DEI, propaganda-ish kinds of ideas on campus,” said Sherry Sylvester, a former aide for Patrick who now works as a public policy fellow at the conservative-leaningTexas Public Policy Foundation and was an ardent supporter of the legislation to eliminate DEI programs this past session. “That is a big effort, a big movement.”

The impact of that movement was on display in the records Texas A&M released this week surrounding the failed effort to recruit McElroy.

Soon after making an initial offer to McElroy, Banks communicated that she wanted to push the announcement until after the most recent legislative session ended. At the time, university leaders, including those at Texas A&M, were negotiating with lawmakers over the DEI legislation, as well as state funding for public universities.

“Bottom line is that the NYT connection is poor optics during this particular legislative session,” Jose Bermúdez, interim dean of the college of arts and science, said to Hart Blanton, chair of the communications and journalism department, via text message on May 11.

Meanwhile, regents expressed disdain for media and academics they saw as liberal leaning. While regents approve tenure, it is typically unusual for them to get involved in university-level hires. The Texas A&M regents oversee 11 public universities and eight state agencies that employ more than 26,000 faculty across the state.

Higher education experts say that education has long been characterized as political. Recent efforts in places likeTexas, North Carolina and Florida have picked up partially due to how well the Republican base responds to the accusations.

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“The notion of woke ideology, and how it supposedly has done all this damage to things has just risen as a political talking point,” said Holden Thorp, former chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a current professor at George Washington University. “It's easy to say the universities are the places that you want to attack this,” citing that the argument has increasingly shown to poll well among conservatives.

According to the internal report A&M released Thursday, Banks received calls from six to seven regents after Texas Scorecard, a conservative website, wrote an article about McElroy that painted her as a “DEI proponent” for her prior research to improve diversity in newsrooms. Board member Sam Torn emailed a quote from the article to Board Chair Bill Mahomes stating he wanted an explanation before he could approve McElroy’s tenure.

The internal report revealed that Banks was heavily involved in behind-the-scenes discussions to walk back the original offer given to McElroy, contradicting Banks’ previous public statements that she had no knowledge of changes to the offer. Banks resigned two weeks before her text messages were made public.

The internal report showed that regents also raised questions about whether they could approve tenure for McElroy, even though she already had been selected through the university’s standard hiring process.

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“Granting tenure to somebody with this background is going to be a difficult sell for many on the [board of regents],” Hernandez said in an email to Banks and Sharp. “My sincere hope is that you both will figure out a way to completely put the brakes on this, so we all can discuss this further. If it’s truly too far down the road for you all to agree to that, the board majority can decide how to proceed and take the heat for the final call.”

Thorp said the regents’ meddling in the university’s hiring process overstepped their role.

“When they approve tenure, what they're doing is saying that they have confidence in the administration to carry out the process that they said,” Thorp said. “The role of the board is to rule against it, if for some reason they think the process wasn't followed. Well, in this case, the process wasn't followed, not because of the content or anything, but because [Banks] didn't put the case forward because of politics.”

Some of the regents also took issue with what they perceived as McElroy’s bias toward conservative viewpoints.

“We can’t just give people a set of facts anymore,” McElroy said in an interview on the public radio program "Here & Now” in 2021. “I think we know that and we have to tell our students that. This is not about getting two sides of a story or three sides of a story, if one side is illegitimate. I think now you cannot cover education, you cannot cover criminal justice, you can’t cover all of these institutions without recognizing how all these institutions were built.”

Sylvester with TPPF pointed to that quote as the reason she was against McElroy’s hiring for the journalism program. She declined to comment on the regents’ text messages but said her organization wants to see more free inquiry within higher education.

“No one is looking for a conservative ideology to drive higher ed,” she said. “But taxpayers and conservative leaders no longer want to underride a left wing divisive ideology that permeates so much of the curriculum.”

Thorp said as the politicization of higher education increases and decisions are made based on politics over policy and procedure, it makes universities “ungovernable.”

“I'm certainly not defending Kathy Banks and her dishonest actions in this, but part of the reason why she resorted to that, probably, is that she didn't have many other choices,” said Thorp, referring to her role in watering down McElroy’s job offer. “Every time you have to do something you're facing this intractable situation where you're either going to get the campus against you or get the board against you. And that's how not functional organizations work.”

Mercieca at Texas A&M said the internal report revealed how McElroy’s hiring was a victim of intervention that creates distrust within what are supposed to be democratic processes within universities.

“What we learned yesterday is that all of those institutional processes and procedures can be overruled by fiat, by powerful others,” she said. “It's not democratic.”

Disclosure: Texas A&M University, Texas Public Policy Foundation, New York Times, Texas A&M University System and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/04/texas-am-mcelroy-texts/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

'It all came flooding back': Trump indictment hard on lawmakers left in House Gallery on January 6

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Ron DeSantis’ 'hostile takeover' could cost a Florida college $29 million in donations: report ›

Critics warn 2024 will be 'Dems vs. 6 GOP members' of SCOTUS after affirmative action ruling ›

Why SCOTUS’ 'inaccurate' affirmative action ruling may not be 'devastating in practice': columnist ›

Group supporting suspended TX AG Paxton gives $3 million to impeachment trial judge Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

Patrick Svitek The Texas Tribune

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April 21, 2023

Claire Goforth @ The Daily Dot: Police confirm ‘active’ case after report filed against Ali Alexander, who has been accused of soliciting nudes from teen boys.
Decca Muldowney @ The Daily Beast: Prez of Trumpy Zionist Org Hit With Lawsuit Over Racist, Sexist Behavior.
David McAfee @ Raw Story: Infamous Ohio doctor who said vaccines make people magnetic could be suspended.
Alex Griffing @ Mediaite: Mike Pence Fully Supports Taking ‘Abortion Pill Off the Market’: ‘I’m Pro-Life and I Don’t Apologize For It.’
David Badash @:(style="background-color:#ffffffff"):}::{The New Civil Rights Movement: Texas Lt. Governor Brags Just-Passed Senate Bill Is Bringing ‘Prayer Back to Our Public Schools.’
John Fea @ Current: Court evangelical Robert Jeffress is “now solidly behind Trump.”
Media Matters: Ben Shapiro says local communities should be able to ban “men wearing traditional female clothing in public.”

Tags: Ali Alexander Ben Shapiro Dan Patrick Mike Pence Morton Klein Robert Jeffress Sherri Tenpenny Round-Up

===

February 14, 2023 rww

Josh Dawsey @ The Washington Post: Trump campaign paid researchers to prove 2020 fraud but kept findings secret.
Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: The problem with the GOP’s new Covid committee is its members.
Anya Zoledziowski @ Vice News: South Dakota Is Going to Force Trans Kids to Detransition.
James Barragán @ The Texas Tribune:Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priority bills signal another swing at pushing Texas to the right.
Asawin Suebsaeng and Patrick Reis @ Rolling Stone: Trump Plans to Bring Back Firing Squads, Group Executions if He Retakes White House.
Media Matters: Charlie Kirk says the Ohio train derailment is part of a “war on white people.”

Tags: Charlie Kirk Dan Patrick Donald Trump Round-Up

===

https://phys.org/news/2023-01-board-shake-ups-threats-tenure-money.html

usatoday

florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's decision to overhaul the board of trustees at a progressive public college was his latest move in a larger movement against so-called "woke" education.

"Like so many colleges and universities in America, New College of Florida has been completely captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning," Bryan Griffin, DeSantis's press secretary, told USA TODAY, attributing low student enrollment and other financial challenges to the college's "skewed focus and impractical course offerings."

The shake-up is part of a years-long effort by DeSantis and a growing contingent of conservative leaders to chip away at what they view as higher education's liberal bias. They're shepherding legislation targeting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and critical race theory, including bills explicitly addressing colleges through provisions that would reduce tenure. They're shaping higher education in more subtle ways, too, including through philanthropic giving.

Observers say these trends will continue into 2023 as legislative sessions kick off and key players ramp up their campaigns for national elections.

What happened at New College of Florida?

New College has a reputation as a left-leaning college. All but two of the new appointees to New College's board of trustees are prominent conservatives.

DeSantis's chief of staff has said the hope is to make New College into something "more along the lines of a Hillsdale of the South."

Hillsdale is a private Christian college in Michigan that has been lauded by some on the right for championing conservative values. The college doesn't receive any federal funding, exempting it from some of the civil-rights mandates typically applied to higher education institutions.

The prospective New College trustees "are committed to refocusing the institution on academics and truth and ensuring that students are receiving a quality education," said Griffin. "The campus will become a place for learning and discourse, as it was designed to be."

New College students have said they're drawn to the school precisely because of its offerings and because its values contribute to its academic rigor, as reported by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, part of the USA TODAY Network. Among those values: building a "just, diverse, equitable and inclusive community" on campus.

In a statement, New College President Patricia Okker said she sees "tremendous opportunity for New College and I believe that our new trustees will bring fresh ideas and new perspectives. New College has a long history of embracing change, all while being true to our mission of academic excellence."

Is there a liberal bias in higher education?

College students tend to skew more liberal than the general population. In a 2020 survey of 20,000 students across 55 colleges, the most comprehensive analysis of its kind, 50% of respondents identified as liberal, versus 26% as conservative. Roughly a quarter of Americans generally say they're liberal.

However, just 19% of Gen-Z adults—the group of people most likely to attend four-year colleges now—identify with the right, suggesting there are more conservatives on college campuses than among their age group as a whole.

"Most colleges and universities are not extreme," said Samuel Abrams, a visiting scholar at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and politics professor at Sarah Lawrence, a liberal arts college in New York that is often ranked as one of the country's most liberal colleges. With the exception of some liberal-arts schools, particularly in the Northeast, "students are pretty centrist."

Abrams' research suggests administrators and other leaders—from department heads to dorm staff—are the ones driving colleges' leftward shift. "We have undergrads who are a little bit more liberal than the average American, we have faculty who are understandably liberal but not crazy, as well as some conservatives," Abrams said. "And then you have administrators who are extremely liberal activist progressives."

Students continue to prize free speech rights on campus but increasingly feel those rights are being trampled upon, according to 2022 polling data from the Knight Foundation and Ipsos. The percentage of students who say speech rights are secure has dropped every year since the survey first asked the question in 2016.

Just last week, news broke that Harvard—where roughly eight in 10 faculty identify as liberal—had rescinded a fellowship offer to Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch. Roth is a prominent critic of Israel, which his organization has regularly accused of war crimes against Palestinians.

Critics are blaming the decision on pro-Israel bias within Harvard leadership and describing it as yet another example of the ways in which colleges—particularly elite ones—police thought.

Board shake-up part of larger movement against CRT, DEI

Since 2021, lawmakers in dozens of states have introduced legislation restricting lessons on race and systemic discrimination—often described as critical race theory—as well as on sexuality and gender identity.

For the most part, the bills have centered on K-12 schools. Increasingly, though, the legislation has focused on higher education. Thirty-nine percent of bills in 2022 targeted higher ed, compared with 30% in 2021, according to an analysis last year by PEN America, a free speech and literacy organization.

Another trend: Legislation targeting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives—for example, DeSantis's "Stop W.O.K.E. Act," whose higher education provisions are on hold for now because of a lawsuit. DeSantis is appealing.

Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and one of the four prominent conservatives appointed by DeSantis to the New College board of trustees, has been at the forefront of the anti-CRT, anti-DEI movement. He and one of the other new appointees—Matthew Spalding, a dean and professor at Hillsdale—also played key roles in the Stop W.O.K.E. act's creation.

Rufo, through his chief of staff, said he would only consent to an interview if the reporter removed her pronouns from her email signature for 90 days. USA TODAY rejected the request and reiterated its desire for an interview but did not hear back. People state pronouns in email signatures for a variety of reasons, including to avoid being misgendered by people with whom they communicate.

"I was honored to be appointed to this board, along with friends and colleagues from the conservative movement," Rufo wrote in a blog post Thursday. "Governor DeSantis has tasked us with something that has never been done: institutional recapture. If we are successful, the effort can serve as a model for other states."

Is New College replacing 'one set of extremism with another'?

Mark Bauerlein, a fellow conservative and recent appointee to New College's board, distanced himself from Rufo, however, saying he'll take a different approach.

"I don't have goals in mind," the Emory University English professor emeritus said, stressing the DeSantis administration hasn't given him any policy prescriptions and he doesn't have an agenda for the role. Bauerlein said he'll start by listening and getting "a feel for the atmosphere of the place."

While "the leftward tilt (in higher education) has certainly happened, it's not a problem if we find that academic standards are being maintained—if we find that the ideals of inquiry and discussion and peer review are held to a good level of rigor," he said.

Bauerlein, who has written about and helped the state of Florida develop K-12 standards, said one of his first tasks might be to compare student projects from the 1990s and more recent work to assess whether "there is some deterioration, whether the standards significantly lower quality than before." He's also curious as to why so many students—close to 70%—are female, and whether DEI efforts are crossing the line.

While having little prior knowledge about the college and living in another state, he's prepared for the host of issues he may have to chime in on, from facilities and athletic programs to administrator salaries and contracts.

"I think that the 'transformation' may be a lot slower and less striking than people expect," Bauerlein said.

USA TODAY reached out to the other new appointees but didn't receive responses.

In a statement, Hillsdale's Spalding said, "I appreciate the complimentary nods to Hillsdale College, but we are not going to serve New College's mission by remaking it into a carbon copy of another institution."

AEI's Abrams emphasized the importance of a cautionary approach. "What Florida has to do very carefully is they can't swing too far in the other direction," he said. "Florida needs to make sure that they showcase how viewpoint diversity works. ... We don't want to replace one set of extremism with another."

Another target of conservatives: Academic tenure

In addition to targeting DEI, DeSantis's Stop W.O.K.E Act aims to weaken tenure protections on the grounds that academics need to be held accountable for promoting critical race theory.

Reports indicate some professors in Florida adjusted or altogether removed classes in response to the law.

Tenure,which protects professors from being fired except in extreme circumstances, has long been in decline and for many reasons, including financial ones, said Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors. But "what we're seeing right now is really a war," and the renewed focus on tenure by "right-wing conservatives" is one aspect of it, she said.

Proposals to erode or eliminate tenure has come up recently in roughly half a dozen states, she said, primarily targeting professors who teach about race and racism, equity and justice, and gender studies.

"Tenure is what protects academic freedom for faculty in higher education—it's necessary so faculty can promote the free and vigorous open exchange of ideas ... without fear of being fired," Mulvey said. "Trying to take away tenure from faculty is an age-old strategy from the totalitarian playbook to attack education to stop students from learning ideas the state disagrees with."

Pressure could continue to mount this year as more states are expected to consider or implement tenure restrictions, according to reporting by the Associated Press. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, for example, has vowed to revoke tenure from professors who teach critical race theory.

"The larger strategy is to create divisions ... and then exploiting those divisions in order to win elections and build power," Mulvey said. "It's cynical, it's disingenuous, and the consequences for higher education and democracy are really devastating."

see alec cleta gerry BS

gOP state Rep. Phil Kingannounces he'll run for new Republican-friendly Senate seat held by Democrat Beverly Powell

State Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, questions a fellow lawmaker regarding a proposed amendment to HB 10 on March 30, 2021.

State Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, announced Monday he is running for the newly redrawn Senate District 10, which has been primed for a GOP pickup under the proposed map.

Within half an hour of declaring his bid, King got the endorsement of the Senate's presiding officer, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

"Since a new Texas Senate map has been proposed that places Parker County in Senate District 10, I have received many encouraging calls from conservatives urging me to enter the race so we can defeat a liberal Democrat," King said in a statement. "After prayerful consideration with my wife Terry and my family, should this map be adopted, I will make a formal announcement that I will be running for this seat."

SD-10 is currently held by Democratic Sen. Beverly Powell of Burleson, who flipped the seat in 2018. Powell has denounced her proposed new district as an "act of intentional discrimination."

Under the proposed new map, SD-10 would reach beyond Tarrant County into more conservative Parker and Johnson counties. The district would go from one that elected President Joe Biden by 8 points to one he would have lost by 15.

King, a former police officer, has served in the House since 1999.

“I have known and worked with Chairman Phil King of the Texas House for 14 years," Patrick, a former senator, said in a statement. "His lengthy legislative experience, his background in law enforcement, and his strong leadership skills are what we need in the Texas Senate."

Warren Norred, an Arlington lawyer who serves on the State Republican Executive Committee, was already running for SD-10 before the new lines were proposed. He is touting the "supportive words and encouragement" from of Matt Rinaldi, the chairman of the state Republican Party. Rinaldi spoke at Norred's campaign kickoff in late August.

Norred confirmed Tuesday morning he is "of course" still running.

"I always expected to see a competitor or two along the way from the status quo side of the GOP," Norred wrote in an email.

Earlier Tuesday, state Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth, said he had been encouraged to run for the newly redrawn SD-10 but would instead seek reelection his House seat.

King is the second new Republican candidate that Patrick has thrown his weight behind since the first draft of the new Senate map was released earlier this month. Patrick has also backed former state Sen. Pete Flores of Pleasanton for the newly reconfigured Senate District 24.

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an 922

In 2021, Republican Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick angrily railed against Wall Street investment firms that he claimed were unfairly discriminating against fossil fuels and showing a bias for green energy, and he vowed to support legislation that would require Texas’ state government to stop doing business with such firms when it came to retirement programs for state employees. Patrick, a vocal supporter of Texas State Senate Bill 13, singled out BlackRock as “the worst offender.” But according to a report in the Texas Monthly, Patrick continued to own BlackRock shares for months after he vowed to take on Wall Street firms he claimed had decided to “boycott” fossil fuels.

Moreover, Patrick “also owned BlackRock mutual funds, along with shares in other companies that have pledged to stop using oil and natural gas,” journalists Russell Gold and Dan Solomon report in a Texas Monthly article published on September 8.

“In recent years,” Gold and Solomon explain, “Wall Street has started to embrace socially responsible ‘ESG’ — environment, social, and corporate governance — investing. In general terms, this means considering factors beyond financial performance, such as commitment to sustainability and good working conditions. BlackRock and its chief executive, Larry Fink, are leading voices in the movement. In a letter to shareholders on January 17, Fink argued against the notion that ‘going woke,’ as he wrote, was the driver of the movement. Rather, he suggested, gradually moving investments away from fossil fuels and toward green industries such as wind and solar power is a sound investment strategy for growing resilient businesses that are viable for the long term.”

According to Gold and Solomon, Patrick “hoped that through SB 13, which charged the Comptroller’s Office with compiling a list of offending firms, Texas could use the weight of its large retirement funds — the Teacher Retirement System of Texas has nearly $200 billion under management — to turn Wall Street against ESG investing.”

On January 19, Patrick wrote to Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar and specifically asked him to include BlackRock on the list of firms he considered anti-fossil fuels. Patrick told Hegar, “As you prepare the official list of companies that boycott energy companies, I ask that you include BlackRock…. BlackRock is capriciously discriminating against the oil and gas industry…. Texas will not do business with those that boycott fossil fuels.”

But according to Gold and Solomon, Patrick has not practiced what he preached.

“At the end of 2021, according to annual financial disclosures Texas Monthly obtained from the Texas Ethics Commission, Patrick owned between one share and 100 shares in BlackRock, potentially worth as much as $91,000,” the Texas Monthly journalists report. “On top of that, Patrick and his wife owned shares in three BlackRock mutual funds, which together, were worth between $15,000 and $58,000. The lieutenant governor also owned, either directly or with his wife, shares in several other companies that have taken pledges to use only renewable energy in the near future — including Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Walmart.”

Gold and Solomon continue, “At the end of 2021, these holdings were worth between $92,000 and $460,000. Why such a wide range? Despite multiple attempts to ask for more details about how Patrick’s personal investments diverged from the laws he championed, no one from his office or campaign returned Texas Monthly’s calls. We also asked if he still owns those shares, or if he sold them at some point in 2022, but did not receive an answer. We may find the answers when Patrick’s next disclosure is filed, but that won’t be until next January…. (Patrick) seems to have decided that what was best for Texas wasn’t necessarily best for him.”

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no lnx BS?

Analysis: Maps bolster Republicans in the Texas Senate, especially the top one

[State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick speak at a press conference held regarding Democrats breaking quorum and voting legislature at the Texas Capitol on July 21, 2021.

Editor's note: If you'd like an email notice whenever we publish Ross Ramsey's column, click here.

(Audio unavailable. Click here to listen on texastribune.org.)

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Redistricting is when politicians choose their own voters. It’s political as all get out. Officeholders draw districts that contain the highest possible number of supporters and the lowest possible number of opponents, try not to cross any legal lines when they’re doing it and extend their incumbencies by rigging the game from the outset.

It’s a well-known, despised and yet persistent way to hold on to legislative power.

But there’s another game going on after those districts are drawn, best illustrated by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, at the moment the most adept politician in Texas government.

He’s choosing his own senators.

Patrick is backing a current senator, Dawn Buckingham of Lakeway, in her bid for land commissioner, a statewide office. That departure gave Senate mapmakers some room on their redistricting maps, and the redrawn district now includes the home of former Sen. Pete Flores of Pleasanton. Flores lost to Democrat Roland Gutierrez in 2020, and now the Republican is Patrick’s hand-picked candidate for the reconfigured Buckingham district. Patrick wants Flores back in the Senate, where he was a reliable vote for the boss’ priorities.}:

Republican Ellen Troxclair, a former Austin City Council member, was in that contest for a hot minute, but the big donors and influential trade and interest groups — spurred by endorsements from Buckingham, Patrick and Donald Trump — lined up with the lieutenant governor’s pick.

Troxclair is now running for the Texas House.

Last month, Patrick went to Midland to tell a group of oil and gas people that they weren’t well represented in the Senate. That would have been a surprise to Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo — who represents Midland — if he and Patrick hadn’t tussled before.

The redistricting maps included changes that cut into Seliger’s chances, weakening the strength of the Panhandle, where he lives, while bolstering the political clout of the Permian Basin. Midland produced a Republican challenger, a former board member of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation named Kevin Sparks, who quickly won a Trump endorsement.

Seliger decided not to seek another term.

Consider the case of Fort Worth Democrat Beverly Powell, whose Tarrant County district was stretched to the west to include the home of Weatherford Republican Phil King, a House member who wants to move up to the Senate. Patrick likes the idea; he quickly endorsed the new entrant, who would be the difference between a Democratic vote and a conservative Republican vote.

You might hear an echo here. After the 2019 legislative session, freshman Speaker of the House Dennis Bonnen and state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, met with a political activist to talk about the House and the coming election year. Among other things, they listed the members of the House, including fellow Republicans, whose tenure they wouldn’t mind ending.

Patrick is doing what Bonnen threatened, pointing out a difference between the political powers of lieutenant governors and speakers of the House in Texas. Both answer to their constituents, but Bonnen made the mistake of plotting against his.

When Bonnen suggested to an outsider — who recorded the conversation and later made it public — which members should stay and which ones should go, the backlash within the House forced him to give up the speakership. Had he hung on, he’d have been much less powerful in a room of 150 people who choose leaders from their own ranks. Politics is rough and tumble, and the participants have sharp elbows, but electing a speaker is an exercise of trust. Plotting against the people who elected him turned out to be a fatal mistake.

But lieutenant governors aren’t chosen by senators; they’re chosen by the state’s voters. Speakers answer to their members in a way that lieutenant governors don’t. And turning against senators — so long as you don’t turn against too many of them at once — can even enhance a lite guv’s powers. It’s a punishment to whoever is in the dog house, and it’s an object lesson for the rest of the senators: See what happens when you’re in my way?

Redistricting offers a bigger opportunity for ambitious legislative leaders — to do with political maps what might not be possible in elections. Patrick’s political team went after Seliger in his last election and got beat. The duty to draw new maps gave his foes another chance, and now Seliger’s on his way out. Powell got into the Senate by defeating a Republican ally of the lite guv.

:{:{}:

The new maps favor Republicans, as you should expect when they’re drawn by a Republican majority. But the hidden feature is that those Republicans are indebted to Patrick as they enter the Senate.

It’s good to be king. Or lieutenant governor.}:

Disclosure: Texas Public Policy Foundation has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune,a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

===

an 7 222

lt **Governor Dan Patrick**, a far-right Republican, is comparing migrants crossing the border into Texas to Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor that killed 2335 people. He is calling it an “invasion” and says that gives the state the right to “put hands on people.”

Patrick, who because of Texas’ unique structure is more powerful than the governor, told Fox News on Tuesday, “we are being invaded, and if we’re being invaded under the constitution I think that gives us the power to put hands on people and send them back. Put hands on people and send them back,” he said repeatedly.

“These people are a danger to America,” Patrick said in a rant. It was unclear if he was referring to migrants or President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The Lt. Governor, who has hawked the racist “great replacement theory” repeatedly, and used the term “invasion” repeatedly, told Fox News that Texas is now spending $4 billion annually on the border, while Texas National Guardsmen and Texas Rangers complain of being called up to serve, having to abandon their regular jobs, for no apparent reason.

“This is the biggest danger we have, to your family,” Patrick says of the fentanyl crossing the border. “It’s all on Biden,” he claimed.

Last week **Texas Governor Greg Abbott** drew extensive criticism for using the deaths of more than 50 migrants packed into an 18-wheel tractor-trailer as a political opportunity to attack President Biden. Even some conservatives attacked Abbott for his inhumane remarks..

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tex trib 20

...“I think the timing was terrible,” Patrick said of his comments. He later adds that Mattis’ comments are “just another distraction along the way of a country that’s broken deep inside.”

Patrick’s comments come as widespread protests against police violence against black people continue in cities across the state.

In the past, Patrick has been vocally critical of those protest movements, saying in 2016 that the Black Lives Matter movement was responsible for the shooting of five police officers in Dallas. Black Lives Matter leaders in Dallas called those comments “dangerous and irresponsible” at the time. Patrick has also been known to make incendiary comments about people of color, including referring to undocumented immigrants as an “illegal invasion” and boycotting a prayer by a Muslim cleric on the floor of the Senate.

After 10 people were killed in a school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, in 2018, Gov. Greg Abbott suggested considering a “red flag” law. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick nixed it.

After 23 people were killed at a Walmart in El Paso and seven people were killed in Midland-Odessa in 2019,Patrick discussed expanding background checks. Instead, the Legislature passed permitless carry.

But after Uvalde, neither Patrick nor Abbott indicated any interest in reforming the state’s gun laws. On Fox News, Attorney General Ken Paxton said it’s unreasonable to think we can “stop bad people from doing bad things.”

“We can potentially arm and prepare and train teachers and other administrators to respond quickly,” he said. “That, in my opinion, is the best answer.”

While Democrats expressed their outrage — some more immediately than others — none of this came as any surprise to people who study gun issues.

Poliquin’s research shows that Republican-dominated states tend to pass legislation in the wake of mass shootings that make guns more readily accessible. Democrat-led states don’t see a statistically significant increase in gun laws of any kind after these events, in part, Poliquin hypothesized, because they already have strong gun control laws.

Republicans in Texas are acting on their party’s ideology around guns, which emphasizes more guns in more places as a deterrent to acts of violence. And even if that doesn’t reflect public opinion, they have no reason to anticipate backlash in the voting booth.

[Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a press conference at Uvalde High School on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 in Uvalde. Twenty one people were killed after a gunman after a high school student opened fire inside Robb Elementary School on Tuesday where two teachers and 19 students were killed.

Even conversations about compromise are enough to rile up the faithful, and in a polarized and gerrymandered state like Texas, the political fringes are where a politician's career can be made or lost.

“The more the gun control advocates try to put in place what they euphemistically call common sense gun laws … those of us that believe in the Second Amendment and everything it was set in place to protect tend to hold much tighter,” Hupp said. “We recognize what their ultimate goal is, which is to completely disarm citizens.”

Donna Howard, one of a minority of Democrats in the state Legislature, said Texas’ approach to gun policy reminds her of the bumper stickers she would see in the 1960s: “America: Love it or leave it.”

It feels like her fellow legislators are telling her — and any Texans who want gun control — “if you don't like it, you can just leave,” she said.

“That’s not something I have felt until recent years,” she said. “This is my home, and the fact that what I believe and people like me believe, and the way we would like to have society structured, is just totally discounted, it feels like we don't matter.”

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/29/texas-mass-shootings-self-defense-gun-ownership/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

---

"Partisan tactic by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s campaign delays thousands of requests for mail-in ballots from Texas voters" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Thousands of applications for mail-in ballots submitted by Texas voters have been delayed — and some voters may ultimately not receive ballots — because Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's campaign instructed eligible voters to send requests for absentee ballots to the Texas secretary of state’s office instead of their local elections offices.

A mass mailing by Patrick went out to Republican voters across the state in January, ahead of the March primary, and included a two-page letter emblazoned with the seal of his office encouraging voters to submit the requests following “three easy steps.” The problem was the third step, which instructed voters to return the applications in an enclosed reply envelope that was addressed to the state.

The lieutenant governor’s campaign said it used the secretary of state's address because “many Republican voters are rightly suspicious of Blue County election officials.”

“The decision to direct return mail to the Secretary of State (SOS), someone who is trusted and respected, gave voters an added layer of comfort,”Allen Blakemore, a campaign consultant for Patrick, wrote in an email.

But the campaign’s approach forced the secretary of state, which had a stated policy of rejecting applications erroneously sent its way, to sort and forward the Patrick-inspired forms to the counties where they should have been sent originally.

The delayed delivery could put voters’ requests for mail-in ballots at risk as counties continue to see higher-than-normal rejection rates of applications under new ID requirements enacted by Republicans last year. Any issues with defective applications must be resolved by Friday so voters can receive a mail-in ballot.

State workers have been forwarding the waylaid applications to respective counties, which this week were still receiving packages containing hundreds of misdirected applications.

The fiasco has further muddled the first election held since Patrick, as head of the state Senate, presided over last year's passage of new laws tightening voting processes, including a measure making it a crime for local election officials to send out applications for mail-in ballots to people who did not request them.

“Everyone age 65 and older has earned the right to vote early by mail. As Republicans, we have fought to make it easier to vote while protecting election integrity, so we need to make sure we increase our turnout by taking full advantage of this convenient and secure voting option,” Patrick wrote in a letter dated Jan. 20 that was attached with the applications.

Though the letter contains the official state seal for the lieutenant governor, as allowed by law,the materials were labeled as being sent out by Patrick’s campaign and not at taxpayer expense.

The mailing went out to voters in Harris County and central Texas, with Patrick endorsing area Republican candidates in different versions of his letter obtained by The Texas Tribune. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently reported the mailer also reached Tarrant County residents.

Unsolicited mailing campaigns from candidates and political parties are not uncommon. But Republicans’ penchant for encouraging voting by mail for their voters has come under scrutiny as they've worked to limit expansions of mail-in voting during the pandemic and criminalized the mailing of applications by county election administrators to voters who did not request them.

Republican lawmakers last year made it a state jail felony for local election officials to send out unsolicited applications for mail-in ballots, even to voters 65 and older who automatically qualify under the state’s strict eligibility requirements. They also prohibited local officials from even encouraging people to vote by mail.

The full scale of Patrick’s mailing efforts is unclear; his campaign did not answer a question about the reach of the mailings. But the secretary of state’s office previously told some county officials that it had received at least two pallets of applications, and some local election officials have indicated they were receiving hundreds of delayed applications.

“The SOS has always accepted ABBMs and quickly and efficiently routed them to the proper local offices,” Blakemore said, referring to applications for a ballot by mail. “We believe that this will ensure that Blue County election officials are more likely to properly handle our ABBMs when they know they are being watched and monitored by the SOS.”

In an email responding to questions about the misdirected applications, a spokesperson for the Texas secretary of state did not address the mailing campaign by the lieutenant governor.

“Generally speaking, we request that voters do not mail, fax, or email completed applications for Ballot by Mail to the Secretary of State Office,” wrote Sam Taylor, the spokesperson, noting that the office would forward applications to early voting clerks “as a courtesy to help the voter.”

“It is not the voter’s fault if a third party put the incorrect return address on an ABBM, so we want to ensure voters are not adversely affected by that,” Taylor said.

This appears to be a departure from the office’s previous stance on applications wrongly sent to its office. The secretary of state’s website previously warned voters against sending applications to its office, noting that “all applications received by this office will be rejected.” That language was removed from the website at the beginning of the month, according to a screenshot of the same page archived by the Wayback Machine.

County election officials receiving the waylaid applications this week are now under a time crunch to process them and reach out to voters if their applications are defective. Hundreds of applications to vote by mail in the primary have been initially rejected in recent weeks after voters did not fill out new ID rules that require them to provide a driver’s license number or partial Social Security number.

Voters can correct the issue but must do so by the Friday deadline for counties to receive applications for the primary election. Otherwise, their application will be finally rejected.

Taylor said the secretary of state’s office had been working to “expedite” the forwarding of applications it received and planned to label those that came to them before the deadline to request mail-in ballots.

The unsolicited mailings come as the Texas attorney general argues in federal court that the restrictions on county election officials in regard to voting by mail are intended to limit “official encouragement” of voting by mail. In a hearing for a related case, a lawyer for the attorney general indicated to a federal judge last week that the state preferred people vote in person even if they qualify to vote by mail.

On Thursday, Blakemore defended the new prohibitions as “guard rails” established by the Legislature following Harris County’s unsuccessful attempt to send applications for mail-in ballots to all of its registered voters in 2020.

“It was that overreach, as well as drive-thru-voting, that brought about SB1,” Blakemore said.

In 2020, Patrick referred to vote-by-mail expansion efforts as a “scam by Democrats to steal the election,” saying there was no reason anyone under 65 should be “able to say I am afraid to go vote” during the pandemic. Patrick himself has used the voting option, opting to vote by mail in a 2007 Houston municipal election and an ensuing runoff.

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white genocide

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/dan-patrick/

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portland boycott

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/dan-patrick-slams-planned-protest-against-state-s-anti-abortion-law/

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critics denounce Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick's 'invasion' rhetoric on immigration

https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/dan-patrick/

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/texas-lt-gov-patrick-claimed-that-most-non-white-texans-dont-drive-but-the-data-clearly-says-otherwise-report/

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there’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud so Texas' Lt. Governor Patrick is offering $1 million to anyone who can find it

The Texas Tribune

By Shawn Mulcahy, The Texas Tribune

Nov. 10, 2020 AN

Moloch!

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/restart-the-economy-is-a-prayer-to-a-conservative-god-who-demands-human-sacrifice/

no lnx

‘Restart the Economy’ is a prayer to a conservative God who demands human sacrifice

GDANSK, POLAND - APRIL 10, 2009: Anonymous actors play Mystery of the Passion of Jesus Christ. April 10, 2009. Gdansk, Poland.]

Written by Stephen Young / Religion Dispatches March 25, 2020

According to classic interpretations of the Jewish and Christian Bibles, a Canaanite deity named Moloch demanded the sacrifice of children. There is a long history of writing about this bloodthirsty god spanning the ancient world to John Milton’s Paradise Lost to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” to modern social commentators. One recurring point is that the depravity of Moloch was reflected in his insatiable lust for innocent flesh.

How could anyone worship such a monster?

Readers have drawn further connections: human sacrifice marks not only Moloch as evil, but also the population who offers their children to him. This is the biblical justification given for why Israelites should exterminate Canaanites, the worship of their gods, and their customs from the Promised Land.

But although the prevalent understanding of Moloch as a rapacious child-consuming god falls short in the minds of many scholars,* some deep truth remains. We should absolutely judge a deity by the offerings and piety it demands! Furthermore, what people are willing to sacrifice for their god should likewise be a commentary on their deepest values.

Let us call this an ethics of religious responsibility: we are responsible for the deities we follow.Many people tacitly accept this point when they opine that folks who follow other gods, or at least not their God, deserve to burn in hell. So, if one’s deity demands things like human sacrifice, genocide, or partiality to rapists and autocrats, then this should give some pause.

In a society founded partly on the concept of religious liberty people can, in theory, choose to worship such deities. But in a society also founded on the concept of free speech, shouldn’t people who follow these gods at least have to answer uncomfortable questions about their sociopathic deities? Why should it be bad manners to question people who worship such gods instead of bad manners to promote those gods in the first place?

You can see where this is going. At the moment an influential contingent of conservative leaders and commentators are advocating that we put a stop to measures meant to suppress the spread of COVID-19. Most of these measures fall under the category of social distancing, which has deeply impacted corporations by restricting us from our usual purchasing and employment movements. Combined with broader uncertainties brought by the pandemic, the Stock Market has likewise been tanking.

The developing cry to end social distancing predictably centers on reversing these obstacles. “Restart the economy” is becoming a refrain. President Trump has already tweeted in this direction: “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF.”

WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2020

His top economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, has spelled-out things further: “The economic cost to individuals is just too great … we’re going to have to make some difficult trade-offs.” And one conservative talk radio host went still further, declaring that “If given the choice between dying and plunging the country I love into a Great Depression, I’d happily die.” Better for a whole lot more people to suffer and die than for the free market to be stifled any further. It’s the economy, stupid!

Given the prevalence of religious voices among support for Trump, perhaps we could think about our situation with the ethics of religious responsibly as outlined above. A simple translation of “restart the economy” suggests itself: the economy or the free market is God. It rules over and defines reality. And this God demands human sacrifice to rescue us from Coronavirus.

Those who know our history will not be surprised. The God of the Economy has long subsisted on human sacrifice in ways that reveal his character. When the Cotton Gin was invented, enslavers needed to increase cotton picking output to feed the machines in order to realize their profits. As Edward Baptist has vividly documented, they didn’t hire more workers or even invest in the large scale acquisition of additional slaves. Instead they intensified their system of slavery into an even more brutal form that exponentially multiplied suffering as a technology to increase production. The God of the Economy got his fill of human flesh.

If the blood of human sacrifice was the seed of the free market, its god remains hungry as ever today. As historians such as Kim Phillips-Fein, Kevin Kruse, and Lawrence Glickman have shown, wealthy followers of this god have been successfully proclaiming their gospel as the exclusive path to freedom for generations.

Their message now seems obvious and their god feels like the only option. These disciples are sick of losing wealth to social distancing, even if it saves lives. They want their economy of the pre-Coronavirus status quo back. It’s the economy that made them rich.

The surprise is not that this god’s followers are eager to offer human sacrifices, but that anyone is still shocked they would offer the rest of us to him or try to sell us on this approach by warning against the “the false god of ‘saving lives.’”

We should, at the least, stop tiptoeing around this god’s followers as though it’s bad manners to identify him as evil or un-civil to make them own that he is the real Moloch. And if their economy is Moloch, why don’t we demand that our leaders serve a new god, or replace them with leaders who aren’t Moloch’s disciples? Surely there are gods to whom we can turn now whose values are health and human flourishing as opposed to bloodthirsty greed. It doesn’t take a biblical scholar to figure it out.

As biblical scholars such as Francesca Stavrakopoulou and Heath Dewrell have argued, there was no Moloch deity in ancient Canaan. The biblical passages traditionally thought to name him instead refer to a kind of sacrificial offering (mlk). Biblical writers delegitimized this offering—and the idea that their God had commanded it!—by rendering it foreign and evil. Ancient interpreters transformed the mlk offering into a depraved foreign deity, Moloch or Molech. And readers have been off to the races ever since.

links

realize their profits. As Edward Baptist has vividly documented, they didn’t hire more workers or even invest in the large scale acquisition of additional slaves. Instead they intensified their system of slavery into an even more brutal form that exponentially multiplied suffering as a technology to increase production. The God of the Economy got his fill of human flesh.

If the blood of human sacrifice was the seed of the free market, its god remains hungry as ever today. As historians such as Kim Phillips-Fein, Kevin Kruse, and Lawrence Glickman have shown, wealthy followers of this god have been successfully proclaiming their gospel as the exclusive path to freedom for generation

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aN 320

no lnx

Former FBI agent stunned by GOP’s willingness to die for 401ks: I dealt with suicidal cults — this is a ‘new level of craziness’

Written by Sky Palma / Raw Story March 24, 2020

During an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News this Monday, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said that he’s willing to bet there’s plenty of senior citizens in America who would be willing to risk contracting COVID-19 if it meant getting the economy back on track.

:{:{}:

Patrick said that he, as a senior citizen himself, would be “willing to take a chance” on his survival “in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves” for his children and grandchildren, adding that people he’s talked to say the same thing.

The interview went viral and plenty of critics weighed in with reactions, including former FBI Special Agent Ali H. Soufan, who suggested Patrick’s sentiment isn’t unlike the “suicidal death cults” he’s dealt with in the past.

“I dealt with suicidal cults before,” he tweeted. “I encountered people who are willing to die for their faith, ideology, race, etc. But, I never encountered anyone who is willing to die for someone else’s 401k. This is a whole new level of craziness.”

Ali H. Soufan

@Ali_H_Soufan

I dealt with suicidal cults before. I encountered people who are willing to die for their faith, ideology, race, etc. But, I never encountered anyone who is willing to die for someone else’s 401k. This is a whole new level of craziness. https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1242245135129346050 …

Andrew Lawrence

@ndrew_lawrence

Tx Lt Gov Dan Patrick says grandparents would be willing to die to save the economy for their grandchildren

Embedded video

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Patrick_(politician)

Dan Goeb Patrick (born Dannie Scott Goeb;^[1] April 4, 1950)^[2][3] is an American radio talk show host and politician. He is the 42nd and current lieutenant governor of Texas, serving since January 2015.

Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Patrick began his career as a radio and television broadcaster. After forming a chain of sports bars and subsequently going bankrupt, he became a radio host again, this time becoming a conservative commentator. From 2007 to 2015, Patrick was a Republican member of the Texas Senate for the 7th District, which included a small portion of the city of Houston and several Houston-area suburbs located mostly in northwest Harris County.

Patrick defeated three-term incumbent David Dewhurst in the primary runoff for lieutenant governor on May 27, 2014.^[4] He then won the position in the fall general election. He was re-elected in 2018, defeating Democratic nominee Mike Collier.

Early life

Patrick was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 4, 1950. He was raised in a blue-collar neighborhood in East Baltimore.^[3] He is the only child of the former Vilma Jean Marshall (1926–2016) and Charles Anthony Goeb (1926–2002), who worked at the Baltimore Sun for thirty-one years as a newspaper vendor,^[5] before he retired in 1984. In later life, he legally changed his surname from Goeb to Patrick.^[6]^

Patrick graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; he is the first member of his family to graduate from college.^[2][3][7][8]^

Pre-political career

Radio and television

Patrick started his first radio job in 1968 at the age of 18.^[1] After college, in 1977, he became a television broadcaster at WNEP-TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Patrick later held a similar position at WTTG in Washington, D.C., before he became the lead sportscaster^[8] with KHOU-TV in Houston.^[3][9]^

As a broadcaster, Patrick was able to get attention through various stunts, such as painting himself blue in support for the Houston Oilers and wearing a large cowboy hat.^[3][10] He became the second most popular TV personality in Houston by 1983,^[3][10] as well as one of the most well-known,^[8] though surveys also found that he was one of the most disliked.^[8] Patrick also had excellent public speaking skills, which caused him to be nicknamed "the Silver-tongued Devil."^[3] Patrick left his job at KHOU in the mid-1980s after failing to reach an agreement with the station's new ownership for a long-term contract.^[8]^

According to Patrick, as his surname from birth, Goeb, was not pleasant-sounding or spelled as it sounded, he did not use it from his first day as a radio host.^[1] Instead, he used the pseudonym Dan Scott.^[1] When Patrick became a television broadcaster in 1977, he changed his air name at the request of the person who hired him in order to avoid confusing Patrick with another anchor at a competitor station with the last name of Scott.^[1] Patrick chose Dan Patrick, with "Patrick" being his middle name of his wife's brother.^[1] Patrick continued to use this name, and by the time he legally changed his name around 2004, he and his family were known as the Patricks.^[1]^

Sports bar chain and bankruptcy

In November 1983,^[8] Patrick and several investors opened one of the first sports bars in the U.S., which they named Dan and Nick's Sportsmarket.^[3][10] The bar did well for a time, due to "the strength of Patrick’s personality"^[3] and an oil boom in Houston at the time, and they eventually took ownership of five sports bars in the city.^[3][10] Patrick's mother was the company bookkeeper. Questions later arose during the 2014 lieutenant governor's race about the immigration status of one of Patrick's employees, Miguel "Mike" Andrade. Patrick and Andrade offered different recollections about Andrade's employment. The matter was raised by one of Patrick's opponents, Jerry Patterson, who questioned Patrick's declared commitment to halt illegal immigration.^[11]^

When the oil boom ended, Houston's economy fell, something which fatally hurt Patrick's sports bar chain.^[3][10] In 1986, after the sports bars failed, Patrick filed for personal bankruptcy. In October 1992, the case was closed, discharging several hundred thousand dollars in remaining debts.^[12] Patrick, who stated it took him 10 years for him and his family "to regain financial equilibrium," has frequently and openly discussed the ordeal and stated how it shaped him as an individual and conservative.^[12]^

Conservative talk radio host

Soon after his bankruptcy, Patrick "reinvented himself."^[9] He became a conservative talk radio host in the 1990s.^[12] He began by buying a four-hour timeslot at AM 700 KSEV (then called KTBT) in the summer of 1987.^[8] He originally was a sports radio host, operating out of his remaining sports bar.^[3][10] However, he was able to take over the radio station in 1988, and he switched to politics shortly afterward.^[3][10] He hosted a conservative radio talk show. The program, Dan Patrick & Friends, was broadcast in the Houston radio market on KSEV and in Dallas on AM 1160 KVCE.^[13][14]^

Patrick grew successful and influential through his talk radio career.^[9][12] He earned high name recognition.^[9] As a talk radio host, Patrick advocated for fiscal conservatism, evangelical Christian values on social issues, and he became a vocal opponent of illegal immigration.^[9] He was also known as a populist.^[10] Patrick's talk radio career was instrumental to his political rise, including his election and influence in the State Senate and his eventual election as lieutenant governor.^[3][10] One notable decision Patrick made as the owner of a talk radio station was to sign Rush Limbaugh, who was not well known at the time, to be heard on KSEV in 1989, via radio syndication.^[12] Limbaugh's success as a national talk show host helped raise the popularity of Patrick's radio station.^[8]^

By February 2006, Patrick already owned one radio station.^[9] In 2006, Patrick signed a deal to purchase radio station KMGS AM 1160 in Highland Park, Texas (now KBDT).^[15] By 2013, Patrick was the majority owner of two radio stations, in Houston and Dallas radio markets.^[12] Patrick continued broadcasting after his election as a State Senator, and he continued to own KSEV after his election as lieutenant governor.^[10]^

Other

Patrick considered running for the United States House of Representatives in 2004.^[1] According to Patrick, while he was still considering a congressional run he changed his legal name to his air name of Dan Patrick as candidates could only list their legal name on the ballot rather than a pseudonym.^[1]^

In November 2008, Patrick began work to produce The Heart of Texas, a movie based on a real-life story of two families in Simonton, a small Houston-area city. The movie was released the next year on DVD.^[16][17]^

Patrick proposed a boycott of Bill Maher's television show Politically Incorrect over controversial statements made by the comedian following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.^[18] Patrick is also frequently at odds with the Houston Chronicle and announced a boycott of that newspaper in April 2004.^[19] He owned a blog called Chronically Biased, which criticized the newspaper.^[3]^

Texas Senate

First term

Patrick was first elected to Texas State Senate's seventh district in 2006, winning the primary election with 68.8% of the vote and the general election with 69.2% of the vote.^[2] His term began on January 9, 2007 with the convening of the Eightieth Texas Legislature.

During his first month as a legislator, Patrick introduced Senate Bill 186.^[20] If passed, it would have made abortion in Texas illegal should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade. The bill was co-sponsored by fellow Texas state senators Craig Estes and Glenn Hegar.^[21]^

Patrick obtained passage of three Senate bills during his first session, the fewest among the five freshmen senators.^[22] The other four freshmen Senators—Glenn Hegar (32 Senate bills passed), Kirk Watson (15 Senate bills passed), Robert Nichols (14 Senate bills passed), and Carlos Uresti (12 bills passed) – had previous government experience in other capacities.^[23]^

Second term

Patrick at a 2013 press conference on education

:{In the :(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:2010 general election, Patrick was reelected with 86.4% of the vote.^[2] He also endorsed Rick Perry for re-election in the 2010 election.^[24] Soon after winning re-election, Patrick announced, and subsequently created, a Tea Party Caucus in the Texas state legislature, which at its creation had 48 legislative members.^[25]^

W. Gardner Selby, editor of the Austin American-Statesman's "PolitiFact Texas", listed Patrick as third among the top 10 Republican political influencers in Texas.^[26]Patrick is also listed in Texas Monthly as one of the state's most powerful players.^[27]^

In May 2012, acrimony between Patrick and fellow Republican state senator John Carona was widely reported throughout Texas.^{[28][29][30][31]} In an email exchange, Patrick accused Carona of spreading false rumors about Patrick's marriage. Carona denied that, and additionally denied having commented on Patrick's sexuality.^[28][29][31]Carona further said to Patrick: "I've never been shy about sharing my dislike and distrust of you. Put bluntly, I believe you are a snake oil salesman, a narcissist that would say anything to draw attention to himself."^[28][31] News reports suggest that the feud was motivated by positioning to succeed David Dewhurst as lieutenant governor should Dewhurst have won a seat as U.S. senator, in 2012.^[28][29]^

Committee assignments

Committee on Education (Chair)
Committee on Criminal Justice
Committee on Finance
Committee on Health & Human Services
Committee on Intergovernmental Relations
Committee on Finance
- Subcommittee on Fiscal Matters
- Subcommittee on Public Education Funding
- Subcommittee on Higher Education Funding

Lieutenant governor of Texas

2014 campaign

On June 26, 2013, Patrick announced he would challenge incumbent David Dewhurst in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor in 2014.^[32] This challenge came despite Patrick's enthusiastic endorsement of Dewhurst in his failed 2012 bid for the U.S. Senate.^[33][34] Patrick stated that while he had been planning on retiring from politics after his Senate term ended, he decided to run for lieutenant governor after Dewhurst failed to end fellow State Senator Wendy Davis's filibuster of Texas Senate Bill 5 and after Senator Jane Nelson refused to run herself.^[35]^

In his race for lieutenant governor, Patrick was endorsed in July 2013 by Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas who ran unsuccessfully for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. In 2012, Huckabee had also endorsed David Dewhurst for the U.S. Senate nomination for the seat vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison.^[36] Victory went, however, to the Republican Ted Cruz.

At a candidate forum in College Station in January 2014, Patrick said that he and two other challengers to Dewhurst, Jerry E. Patterson and Todd Staples, could have sought re-election in their current positions as Land Commissioner and Texas Commissioner of Agriculture, respectively, but were instead "putting our positions on the line because we need new leadership. ... An energetic, passionate conservative to lead the Senate."^[37]^

At the candidate forum, Patrick described education as a key issue in his campaign because of the 25 percent statewide high school drop-out rate, rising to 40 to 50 percent in the inner cities. He stated that "we do not have a future in the state of Texas if we have half of the next adult population – majority being Hispanic – don't have a high school degree."^[37] Patrick said that as lieutenant governor, he would work to secure the border with Mexico and to abolish sanctuary cities and in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. He also called for lowering property taxes.^[37]^

Patrick led the four-candidate field in the primary with 550,769 votes (41.5%). Dewhurst followed with 376,196 (28.3%); Staples, with 235,981 (17.8%), and Patterson, 165,787 (12.5%).^[38] Election watchers did not expect Patrick to get first place.^[39] In the runoff election on May 27, Patrick won with 487,829 votes (65.1%), defeating Dewhurst, who had 262,086 votes (34.9%).^[40][41] Patrick's victory was one of several notable primary victories by Tea Party movement-aligned Republicans in the election runoff.^[40][42]^

According to Ross Ramsey of The Texas Tribune, Patrick did not shift to the political middle as the general election approached, contrary to what political candidates typically do.^[43] On November 4, 2014, Patrick won the general election against his state Senate colleague, Democrat Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, to become the lieutenant governor-elect of Texas.^[44] He was swept into office in a Republican landslide that saw the party retain all statewide elected offices for the fifth consecutive election.

2018 campaign

On January 9, 2017, the day before the 85th Texas Legislature began its session, Patrick announced he would run for re-election in 2018.^[45] He stated his early announcement was in order to dispel rumors that he would challenge Governor Greg Abbott or U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.^[45] Patrick easily won the Republican primary on March 6, 2018, defeating Rockwall City Council Member Scott Milder.^[46][47]^

In addition to his own campaign, Patrick was active in endorsing and assisting Republican primary candidates in the Texas Senate, including some challengers to GOP incumbents.^[48][49] Patrick's favored candidates won nearly all the races where Patrick made intraparty endorsements.^[50] Later in the year, Patrick donated nearly $175,000 to Texas Senate candidate Pete Flores in a special election; Flores won the election in an upset, increasing Patrick's chances of keeping a three-fifths GOP majority in the Senate after the 2018 elections.^[51][52][53] Patrick succeeded in maintaining a three-fifths majority in the Senate, though Republican Senator Kel Seliger was considered a possible swing-vote.^[54]^

In the November 6 general election, Patrick won re-election to a second term,^{[55][56][57][58]} defeating Democratic nominee Mike Collier. He won about 51% of the vote against Collier's 47%.^[59]^

Tenure

Patrick, third from left, attending an October 2017 meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and FEMA officials, on Hurricane Harvey relief and recovery efforts.

Patrick was sworn in on January 20, 2015.^[60][61] Soon after assuming office, the Texas Senate voted to drop the threshold needed to consider a bill from two-thirds to three-fifths, something that Patrick had long supported.^[9][62][63] Under Patrick, the Senate enforced procedural rules that had long been ignored.^[8]^

Major legislation that Patrick helped pass during his tenure as lieutenant governor include legalization of campus carry^[64] and open carry,^[65] a bill allowing pastors to refuse marrying couples if it violates their beliefs,^[66] and expanded border security and enforcement measures.^[67][68]^

Patrick made legislation prohibiting state or local governments from issuing subpoenas on pastors' sermons a priority in the 2017 session.^[69] Governor Abbott signed the bill into law on May 21, 2017.^[69]^

Political positions

Abortion

Patrick opposes abortion and supported Texas' "Mandatory Ultrasound Bill", a bill signed into law in May 2011 by Governor Perry, which requires women seeking abortion to have a sonogram of the fetus taken at least twenty-four hours before the abortion is performed.[citation ^needed]

Patrick opposes abortion in cases of incest and rape. In January 2014, when he was asked about exceptions to outlawing abortion, Patrick said, "The only exception would be if the life of the mother was truly in danger…but that is rare."^[70]^

Education

Patrick supports increasing the number of **charter schools** in the state.^[71]^

In February 2011, Patrick, who at the time was vice chairman of the Texas senate's Committee on Education, spoke in favor of cutting an unspecified number of non-teaching positions from the state's public school districts, citing positions such as "math department supervisors" or "curriculum experts".^[72][73] At the time, Patrick cited a statistic later determined to be misleading by PolitiFact.com that Texas's 1,200+ public school districts, considered as a group, are the fifth-largest employer in the world.^[74]^

Patrick is on record as determined to establish creationism within the public school curriculum in Texas, despite court rulings that such a policy would violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.^[75]^

In 2019, Patrick pushed to increase Texas teachers' paychecks by $5,000.^[76][77]^

Gun laws

In 2019, Patrick called for requiring background checks for gun sales between two strangers.^[78][79][80]^

Illegal immigration

Patrick opposes illegal immigration. As a talk radio host, he reserved some of his "most hard-edged oratory for illegal immigrants."^[9] Patrick expressed support for Arizona'sSB 1070immigration enforcement law, and supports passing a similar law in Texas that would allow local law enforcement to ask lawfully-stopped individuals about their immigration status and would make it a state misdemeanor to be present in Texas as an illegal immigrant.^[71]^

As Lieutenant Governor, Patrick moved to keep National Guard troops sent to the Texas-Mexico border during the illegal immigration surge of 2014 indefinitely, rather than until March 2015, as originally planned.^[81] Patrick's 2015 budget in the Texas Senate called for spending $815 million on border security, which he said was more than the previous seven years combined.^[81] Governor Greg Abbott signed the measure—for about $800 million—into law.^[82] In a June 2018 interview on Fox Business Network, Patrick estimated that 30 million illegal immigrants lived in the U.S.^[83]^

Same-sex marriage and LGBT issues

On February 26, 2014, following a federal court ruling the Texas ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, Patrick asserted his position that marriage is a union between one man and one woman. He then further stated his intentions to fight such decisions should he be elected to the Lt. Governor's office.^[84][85]^

Patrick strongly opposed HERO, an unsuccessful Houston ordinance intended to establish legal protections for gay and transgender residents along with some other classes, as he claimed that the ordinance would lead to sexual predators being freely able to enter women's restrooms.^[86][87] Patrick has stated that if necessary, he would support legislation to require people to use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender listed on their birth certificates.^[88]^

Hours after the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, Patrick tweeted a picture of the Bible verse, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Galatians 6:7." An adviser released a statement that the tweet had been pre-scheduled, and the tweet was later deleted.^[89][90] Patrick issued a statement on the incident, again stating that the tweet was pre-planned and that "I didn’t pull down the FB post & tweet because God’s word is wrong. His word is never wrong ... I took it down to stop the hateful comments and the misinformation being spread of God’s message to all of us- straight or gay."^[91]^

In May 2016, Patrick criticized the Obama administration after it released a directive stating that all public schools must allow transgender students to use the bathroom and locker facilities that correspond with their identified gender, stating that, on the prospect of the federal government withholding funding for Texas schools for not following the directive, "he can keep his 30 pieces of silver [and that w]e will not yield to blackmail from the president of the United States."^[92][93][94] In 2017, Patrick strongly advocated for a bathroom bill that would prohibit transgender students at public schools from using any restroom other than that of their biological sex.^[95] Patrick described the legislation as a "legislative priority."^[95] Patrick encouraged state Senator Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham to introduce a bathroom bill similar to a previous law adopted in 2016 in North Carolina, and strongly pushed for it at its proposal on January 5, 2017.^[95] Texas House Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio, a moderate Republican, said that the measure is not an important matter for lower chamber.^[95][96]^

In April 2019, Patrick called Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke "light in the loafers", a slur often used to insinuate someone as gay, though O'Rourke is heterosexual. Patrick also called O'Rourke a "moron."^[97][98] Patrick later stated that while he stood by his comments, the insinuation was unintentional.^[99]^

Marijuana

Patrick has advocated against bills that would reduce criminal penalties for marijuana possession. He has expressed skepticism of medical marijuana legalization.^[100]^

Domestic partner benefits

In November 2012, Patrick asked Texas attorney general Greg Abbott's office to issue an opinion on the constitutionality of government entities providing domestic partner insurance benefits. An amendment to the Texas Constitution in 2005 limits marriage to heterosexual relationships and prohibits similar, alternative legal arrangements. Patrick did not disclose his own views on same-sex marriage or civil unions for same-sex couples. He told the Houston Chronicle that his request was prompted by Dallas County's November 2012 decision and an Austin-area public school district's October 2012 decision to join other Texas cities and counties in extending benefits to their unmarried employees' heterosexual or homosexual partners.^[101]^

Statutory rape laws

Patrick was interviewed extensively on ABC's 20/20 segment "The Age of Consent: When Young Love Is a Sex Crime," defending his position favoring very tough Texas statutory rape laws. "While it seems unfair, he was 19, she was 15," says Patrick, "That's the price you pay. Even if you end up getting married."^[102]^

Confederate monuments

Patrick is a strong supporter of maintaining Confederate monumentson public display, despite opposition from civil rights groups who consider the statues as a defense of the institution of slavery. As one of six members of the board that oversees the Texas State Capitol grounds, Patrick described the need: "to learn from history all of our history, including events and times that many would like to forget. ... Our goal should be to have a meaningful dialogue for future generations so those moments in our history are not repeated."^[103]^

Coronavirus comments

In an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson on March 23, 2020, Patrick stated that he was willing to risk his life from the coronavirus pandemic if it would avoid an economic shutdown, which he stated would negatively impact subsequent generations. Patrick also stated that he thought many grandparents agreed with him on this.^[104][105]^

Video games

After the 2019 El Paso shooting, Patrick listed factors that he believed contributed to the shooting, starting off with video games, saying, "We've always had guns, always had evil, but I see a video game industry that teaches young people to kill."^[106]^

Presidential politics

Patrick endorsed Texas Senator Ted Cruzfor the 2016 Republican presidential primaries and served as his Texas campaign chairman.^[107] After businessman Donald Trump became the Republican nominee, Patrick endorsed Trump and eventually became the Texas state chairman for his campaign.^[108] Trump won Texas by 9 percentage points, the closest result since 1996.^[109] In January 2018, Patrick stated that he considered Presidents Trump and Ronald Reagan as the two greatest presidents in his lifetime,^[110][111] and the Austin American-Statesman described Patrick as an "ardent defender" of Trump.^[112]^

At a political rally for President Trump on October 17, 2019, Patrick told a crowd of 20,000 that liberals “are not our opponents, they are our enemy.”^[113]^

Personal life

Patrick's first marriage ended in divorce. His second wife is Janetlea "Jan" Patricia Rankin, a former teacher. The couple was married in 1975 and lives in the Houston suburb of Cypress. They have two children, Ryan and Shane.^[3][114] Ryan served as a district judge from Harris County, Texas, and swore in his father in 2015, for his term as lieutenant governor of Texas.^[60] In July 2017, Ryan Patrick was chosen to be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas by U.S. President Donald Trump, and the United States Senate subsequently confirmed him.

Religious views

While growing up, Patrick and his family were "not very religious."^[35] After moving to Houston, he and his wife attended a Catholic church,^[35] but he joined a Baptist church soon after learning about it.^[3] Though Patrick was a member of the Second Baptist Church Houston since 1992, he stated he was not truly a Christian until March 1994, when, on a television-and-radio convention in Las Vegas, he repented of his sins, committed his life to God, and was saved.^[3][8][35] After this, Patrick's faith became an important part of his life,^[3] and he considered going into Christian ministry for a time.^[35]^

Patrick, an evangelical Christian, is a member of various Christian organizations, including Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the International Bible Society,^[115] and has served as guest pastor of his church, the Second Baptist Church Houston.^[115][116] He is very outspoken about his Christian faith,^[9][35] and he stated in his inauguration speech upon becoming lieutenant governor that "I respect all faiths and religions, but I am a Christian first, a conservative second and a Republican third, and I praise Jesus for this moment and this day."^[60] Patrick was baptized in theJordan River during a trip to Israelin 2016.^[117]^

Electoral history

===

texas’ 2019 inauguration cost millions. Much of it went to fundraising and staff

Shannon NajmabadiNovember 18, 2019

By Shannon Najmabadi and Jay Root, The Texas Tribune Nov. 18, 2019 “The inauguration of Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick cost millions. But much of it went to fundraising and…

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-desperately-look-blame-anything-easy-access-firearms-wake-two-deadly-mass

...

Video games and violent entertainment media

There is no evidence that playing video games leads to perpetrating mass violence, and of course playing video games is popular in many other countries that don’t experience even close to the same levels of mass shootings or everyday gun violence as in the United States. But these facts haven’t stopped pro-gun conservative media figures -- or President Donald Trump -- from attempting to scapegoat shooting games and other violent media when faced with yet another horrific incident of gun violence. The discussion after the shootings in El Paso and Dayton were no exception.

Fox & Friends co-host Pete Hegseth floated that “first-shooter games would desensitize folks to the violence.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [8/5/19]
Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Sebastian Gorka implied that films featuring “violence and cruelty” could be somehow related to shootings, tweeting that actor Jamie Lee Curtis shouldn’t call for an assault weapons ban because she has acted in violent movies. Twitter, [8/5/19]
Right-wing commentator Matt Walsh tweeted about connections between the extremist message board 8chan and video game culture and said that video games “may be one factor of many.” Twitter, [8/5/19]
On Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, host Maria Bartiromo prompted her guest, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), to discuss if “there [is] a conversation to be had” about “video games where they’re using videos of characters with these weapons.” McCarthy responded that he felt video games were “a problem for future generations and others” because they “dehumanize individuals.” The Daily Beast, [8/4/19]
On Fox News’ Fox & Friends Weekend, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick suggested that the federal government should “do something about the video game industry” following the El Paso shooting. Fox News, *Fox & Friends Weekend*, [8/4/19]
:{On Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle the next day, Patrick again pointed to video games and cruel social media comments as factors in an “evil” culture leading to mass shootings. Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*,:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{ }:[8/5/19:{] }:
On Fox News, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer said, “Something in our society is allowing people to think that’s an OK way to end your life or to take somebody else’s,” asking, “Why are kids getting indoctrinated with video game messages, media, and entertainment that says it’s OK to do this?” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [8/6/19]
Former NRATV host and current Fox News contributor Dan Bongino told the Fox & Friends hosts guns aren’t the problem because “there is something going on in our culture,” questioning, “Is it social media over social interaction? It is this disconnect? Is it the breakdown of our family? Is it something to do with entertainment choice? I think all of these things should be looked at.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [8/5/19]

Lack of prayer

...

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/alex-jones/tx-lt-gov-dan-patrick-nearly-indistinguishable-alex-jones-el-paso-white-nationalist-mass

Toxic conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick both attempted to baselessly connect a mass shooting that targeted Latinos to upcoming anti-facism protests.

On August 3, a man armed with an assault weapon opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, TX, killing 20 people and leaving 26 other people injured. Shortly before opening fire, the gunman reportedly posted a manifesto to far-right message board 8chan in which he expressed hatred for Latino immigrants and complained of the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” According to ABC News, the gunman told law enforcement after being taken into custody that “he wanted to shoot as many Mexicans as possible.”

But in the wake of the shooting, both Patrick and Jones pivoted to the boogeyman of “antifa” to distract from the obvious fact that the gunman was inspired by right-wing rhetoric about Latinos and immigration.

Even while media reports on the mass shooting remained hazy, Patrick called into Fox News on August 3 and said, “You know, I was looking at a story recently…where Antifa is posting, you know they want to come down to El Paso and do a 10-day siege. Clear message to Antifa: Stay out of El Paso.” Andy Ngo, an editor of right-wing website Quillette, has recently drawn attention to the upcoming anti-fascism protests, which call for the abolishment of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Jones, who is based out of Austin, TX, pushed similar claims in a video posted to his Infowars website on August 4. After suggesting that the El Paso mass shooting was possibly a false flag attack carried out by leftists -- typical fare for Jones in the wake ofviolent tragedies -- the Infowars host suggested the shooting may have been staged to help the anti-fascism protests:

[video]

JONES: Right as antifa announced nationwide, funded by Alexander Soros, that they are going to be marching across the U.S. and meeting September 1, in like 26 days, in El Paso to crush the Border Patrol and to lay siege to them, these are quotes, they put out graphics showing American flags burning. They put out graphics showing dead ICE officers. And I said what are they planning to stage -- I said this on Friday’s show -- what are they planning to stage -- and on Thursday’s show -- what are they planning to stage ahead of antifa showing up right on time at El Paso so it looks legitimate when they attack physically the ICE agents and call them Nazis and say kids are drinking out of toilets and that people are being killed.

During his August 4 video, Jones claimed to denounce racism against Latinos, but he has made similar claims to the ones found in the El Paso gunman’s reported manifesto. In January 2018, Jones went on a rant in which he declared that Latinos are stealing the “birthright” of Americans as part of “the globalist plan” to “turn Hispanics into anti-American racists and then break the country up” -- the same “great replacement” white nationalist conspiracy theory seen throughout the 8chan manifesto.

For his part, Patrick has also echoed the great replacement conspiracy theory, and he falsely suggested in June that undocumented immigrants are outpacing people born in the U.S. in terms of population growth. In 2014, Patrick described undocumented immigrants entering the U.S. as an “illegal invasion.” Likewise, the manifesto characterized immigration as an invasion.

This weekend, there were two more mass shootings, in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH. As I write this, at least twenty people were murdered in El Paso, and 9 were killed in Dayton. This follows the mass shootings last weekend in Gilroy, CA, and Brooklyn, NY.

NBC News reporter Ben Collins reported on the El Paso shooter’s alleged manifesto, writing, “The screed posted to the anonymous extremist message board [8chan] railed against immigrants in Texas and pushed talking points about preserving European identity in America.”

8chan is a far-right message board where shooters like this are portrayed as heroes; the New Zealand shooter and the Poway Synagogue shooter both posted there. The Gilroy shooter recommended a book that white supremacists there often tout. In his assessment, Collins was blunt: 8chan has a "body count." [DN founder wants it taken down?]

The El Paso shooter's alleged manifesto is built around the "great replacement" theory-- the white supremacist conspiracy theory that immigrants are being brought into the United States to replace white people. That should sound familiar: It is a regular part of Fox News prime time. It's specifically one of the things that Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson have been criticized for pushing.

I spent a lot of time watching Fox News’ Saturday coverage of the El Paso shooting, and it was striking how the coverage bent toward propaganda. There were numerous interviews with survivors and witnesses that could have been done by any news outlet. But in between those interviews, Fox went out of its way to avoid any conversations about easy access to guns and the rash of far-right white nationalist shooters.

Thenetwork multiple times speculatedon a link between video games and the El Paso shootingOn Sunday morning, Republicans Lt. Gov. of Texas Dan Patrick and House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) both talked to Fox News about the dangers of video games as well. NBC's Collins pointed out in return that “Nowhere did this shooter mention video games. The screed shows he had an encyclopedic knowledge of real-life guns, posted to a community of white nationalists, and wrote about doing this as part of a cause against immigration.”

Fox News also speculated on a link to ISIS, given the proximity to the border (their implicit and evidence-free theory being that an ISIS terrorist came over the border). A Fox guest even suggestedthat this type of mass shooting is why the American military is performing "counter-terrorism work" around the globe. But, of course, Fox News also said that now was not the time to talk about gun violence as a systemic problem.

Republicans are already hiding behind Fox News.CNN's Jake Tapper reported that a number of top Republicans declined to appear on CNN today to talk about the mass shootings. The list included the White House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine, and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Patrick instead appeared on Fox & Friends, where he used the El Paso shooting to call for federal government intervention into the video game industry, more prayer in schools, and more saluting of the flag. Patrick has appearedon Fox previously to push the Great Replacement theory.

ggl 5 22

Stand For Christ - Dan Patrick, Lieutenant Governorhttps://www.danpatrick.org › standforchrist

Dan Patrick is a Christian first, Conservative second and Republican third. ... Watch the video below to hear from Dan about his faith and commitment to our ...

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says America must turn to God to heal ...https://www.texastribune.org › texas-dan-patrick-racism

Jun 4, 2020 — The Klan's abiding philosophy is Christian Identity, the idea that "Almighty God created the races" was used as a basis for supporting anti- ...

About - Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrickhttps://www.ltgov.texas.gov › about

BIOGRAPHY. Dan Patrick was first elected lieutenant governor of Texas in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. A preeminent voice for principled conservative ...

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Dan Goeb Patrick is an American radio talk show host, television broadcaster, and politician. He has been serving as the 42nd lieutenant governor of Texas ...

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Political party: Republican

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Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) · Twitter

https://twitter.com/DanPatrick

Over Memorial Day, there are always a lot of war movies on TV. Taking Chance—based on a true story—is a movie about taking a fallen soldier back to his family after his body arrives back in the states. It’s a touching portrait of one soldier’s journey home.youtu.be/MtmiLdzzgGE

Twitter · 29 mins ago

In my morning Fox interview, I said the decision not to go in sooner cost lives. I meant to say & thought I said “may have” cost lives. Talking back & forth with the host I didn’t realize it until later. The investigation of that time period is still ongoing.

Twitter · 2 days ago

As the investigation into the Uvalde school shooting continues, hurt and anger are palpable as facts unfold and are revealed. But there is one truth that we must not lose sight of; there is one villain, Salvador Ramos. Please continue to pray for the families and the community.

Twitter · 2 days ago

Media posted by Dan Patrick

The Sunday before Memorial Day, let us pray for those who lost their lives protecting our country, and please continue to pray for the community of Uvalde.

Twitter · 20 hours ago

Media posted by Dan Patrick

May we never forget the heroes who have laid down their lives for our freedom.

To all who have served, thank you.

Twitter · 3 hours ago

View on Twitter

Dan Patrick urges Americans to read 2 Chronicles after shootinghttps://www.christianpost.com › news › dan-patrick-urg...

4 days ago — Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is urging Christians in the United States to “take hold of our country” through prayer as the nation continues to ...

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Jun 12, 2020 — An evangelical Christian born again in 1994 and baptized in the Jordan river on a 2016 trip to Israel, Dan Patrick believes Americans have ...

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Dan Patrick - Facebookhttps://m.facebook.com › dan.patrick.texas › photos

This is an exciting time for Christians. God is speaking to us from the most unlikely voice, Phil Robertson, about God's Word. God is using pop culture...