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More news from this week’s Texas primary runoffs, and unlike our earlier Nice Time story, this one has some Deeply Unsettling Rhetoric and nigh-fascism, or maybe it’s the full blown kind, you decide.
For context, Gov. Greg Abbott has been trying to purge Republicans who opposed his school voucher plan from the Texas House. Last year, a coalition of Democrats and rural-district Republicans opposed it, there not being a lot of tony private academies in rural Texas. The purge effort was partly successful in the March primary, with nine anti-voucher Republicans being defeated by rightwing candidates endorsed by Abbott. Another six incumbent Goopers fell in Tuesday’s primary runoff election, potentially giving Abbott a pro-voucher majority in the next Lege, but only if his 15 new candidates win in the fall — not a certainty if Democrats can pick a few off by opposing vouchers.
Unfortunately for Abbott, one of the two Republicans who survived the primary runoff is state House Speaker Dade Phelan, who is nobody’s idea of a liberal, or even a moderate, but who didn’t fold to Abbott on the voucher vote, making him basically the love child of Che Guevara and Ann Richards in the eyes of Abbott and his crew, no matter how much Phelan might support the right to carry a gun while burning LGBTQ+ themed books seized from the homes of women suspected of having abortions.
But Dade Phelan also sinned by supporting last year’s impeachment vote against grifty Attorney General Ken Paxton, who just might be a greater fascist even than Abbott — though how could you measure that? Paxton skated in the Senate trial anyway, but why would he let that get in the way of a vendetta? Remember, even after he was acquitted, he accused Phelan of being a “liberal” who pursued impeachment in cahoots with Joe Biden.
Paxton didn’t take well to Phelan’s impertinence in winning the runoff. Following Phelan’s win, Paxton issued a bizarre statement with the heading “Statement On Dale Phelan Stealing Election,” which offered this explanation of how Phelan “stole” his primary win:
“Texans, we can no longer ignore the betrayal we witnessed in this election. Dade Phelan, in a desperate attempt to secure his political future, orchestrated a strategy that relied on Democrats voting for him in the Republican runoff. He knew he couldn’t win on his own merit, so he sought to bolster his chances by courting Democrat support in his district.
“The Covey campaign has identified at least 1,442 Democrats who voted early in Jefferson County, making up 20% of Jefferson County’s early vote numbers. Without Democrats, Dade never would have won.”
This is where we remind you that Texas has open primaries. It is perfectly legal for Democrats and independents to vote in a GOP primary! Also notice that misleading statistic there, invoking only the early vote totals to make it seem to a careless reader that a fifth of Phelan’s votes came from Democrats, who are for some reason still allowed to live and even vote in Texas.
Paxton went on with all sorts of overheated screaming about how representative democracy is a kind of cheating, claiming that Phelan had “not only failed Texans across the state but has blatantly stolen an election from the hard-working people of his district,” because Democrats are all on the dole, too.
Paxton closed with a very clear threat: Any Republican who votes in the next session to keep Phelan will be dead meat.
“My message to Austin is clear: to those considering supporting Dade Phelan as Speaker in 2025, ask your 15 colleagues who lost re-election how they feel about their decision now. You will not return if you vote for Dade Phelan again.”
So far, Paxton hasn’t threatened to arrest Phelan or any Democrats who voted in his district’s primary — yet. Perhaps he’s hoping to become Trump’s AG so he can get to work rooting out election fraud — Democrats winning, ever — at a national level.
PREVIOUSLY!
[Texas Tribune / Combating Nativist Narratives]
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