The Texas Report 10/18

The Texas Report 10/18

What’s happening in Texas:

• Texas Senate Advances Special Session Legislation

• Texas political organization with ties to known neo-Nazi

Update on Special Session #3

Tomorrow, the Texas House Committee on State Affairs will meet on House Bill (H.B.) 4 by Representative David Spiller and hear invited testimony regarding the Colony Ridge development in Liberty County, Texas.

Colony Ridge has become a hot topic in the immigration world for conservative politics.

Colony Ridge is a vast, booming, unincorporated subdivision carved out of Liberty County. It is home to some 40,000 souls, and local law enforcement estimates around 10% undocumented immigrants. Many people move there because the land is cheap, and the developers offer financing for immigrants who lack Social Security numbers and credit scores. Over the past several months, Colony Ridge has become a major target of conservative Republicans as a crime-ridden development running off the locals.

There have been dozens of articles and T.V. interviews, and now the Texas Governor has added Colony Ridge as an issue to be considered during the current Texas Special Session. One of the issues many legislators and their staffs are dealing with is what is there actually to do about the situation. From our sources, there have been few real options about potential legislation addressing the issue many think is perceived instead of accurate.

Tomorrow is intended to serve as a fact-finding opportunity for the Texas House, and the Senate is likely to do something similar later in October.

Significant misinformation is circulating regarding Colony Ridge, including reports of a 2021 meth bust at a lab “inside one of the Colony Ridge dwellings.” The lab was a full thirty miles away, in a different part of the county.

The constable for the area, Zack Harkness, even said the biggest gang problem in Liberty County is with the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist group. There are still legitimate concerns with the development as the local ISD is struggling with increased enrollment, and environmental regulators allege the developers have not heeded erosion-control standards.

Next week

The House Appropriations Committee will consider H.B. 6 by Representative Jacey Jetton (R-Fort Bend), which, if passed, would appropriate $1.5 billion to build more border wall/infrastructure.

Also on the radar are S.B. 4, S.B. 7, and S.B. 11, all priority bills related to border security and banning COVID-19 vaccine mandates by private employers. These bills have passed the Senate and are awaiting House State Affairs Committee votes. The Texas House has not scheduled a hearing on school vouchers/education savings accounts.

There are lots of conflicting opinions about where those proposals currently stand. Some speculate that House Rural Republicans are beginning to open their mind to compromising on the issue and that where at one stage there were 24 Republican Nos, that may be shifting to ten-twelve.

Others think the line in the sand has been drawn, and Rural Rs will refuse to compromise. The only version of the bill that can likely pass is a toned-down version of the legislation, which the Governor has already said is unacceptable.

Defend Texas Liberty names new president after leader met with known white supremacist

Former state Representative Jonathan Stickland has been removed as president of Defend Texas Liberty. Defend Texas Liberty now lists Luke Macias, previously the group's director and political consultant, as president.

Defend Texas Liberty is a major donor to many top Texas Republicans and has been under fire over the last week following a Texas Tribune Report that the organization met with known Hitler admirer and white supremacist Nick Fuentes.

Texas House Republicans led by Speaker Phelan have called for politicians affiliated with the organization to denounce it, either return money received or donate it to pro-Israel causes.

Despite the president leaving, there may be little change to the organization. In a message regarding the news of Stickland, Luke Macias said, "This is a nothing burger." Macias and Stickland are known allies who have long worked together and are all a part of the same network of far-right individuals. This was first reported by the Conservative media organization Current Revolt.

Why this all matters:

• A "nothing burger" makes it sound like there's going to be no real change to the organization, that as of less than two weeks ago was caught meeting with a prominent neo-Nazi.

• Stickland will likely still be intrinsically involved in Defend Texas Liberty and it's network of organizations. This is far from the first scandal by people involved with this group. In reality, they're part of a network of organizations that all share the same funders, of which Jonathan Stickland is a significant cog in the machine.

• Staffers previously involved in one of their other organizations disparaged Governor Greg Abbott and his use of a wheelchair. The staffers were fired from one organization and then shuffled into another role in an outfit controlled by the same people.

• The Defend Texas Liberty group wields significant power with the far-right and Texas State Republican Party. The Texas State Party Chair was in the same office when neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes was there, and they heavily relied on Defend Texas Liberty for a significant portion of their funding.

Defend Texas Liberty and the State Republican Party are amid an intra-party civil war with current House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont.) The impact of meeting and working with neo-Nazis on the political relations of Defend Texas Liberty may be significant.

Defend Texas Liberty has given millions to different Republicans across Texas, including $3 million in donations and loans to Lt. Governor Dan Patrick. House Speaker Dade Phelan has been a significant target of the group and has called on fellow Republicans to disavow the organization and return/donate any money received from Defend.

A little bit on who they met with that sparked the controversy:

Fuentes started his career after Trump's 2016 election and got a boost after he attended the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, the one where alt-right protesters marched with torches and chanted "Jews will not replace us." He dropped out of college to work full-time on his live-streamed show, which has attracted and maintained a young audience by turning his life into a sort of neo-Nazi performance piece.

As a Catholic "integralist," he has praised the Taliban (religious, conservative) as a model for the United States. As an "incel" (that's "involuntarily celibate"), he has argued that "having sex with women is gay." Fuentes praises Adolf Hitler to his followers, who call themselves Groypers—it's a long story—and his life's work is raising the alarm among young right-win

This organization is working against dozens of sitting House members to try and beat incumbent Republicans. The future of Speaker Phelan's tenure as the leader of the Texas House is likely dependent on the status of how many House members he can protect in the upcoming primary.

Major Republican donors anticipate spending millions in the upcoming primary and fear the impact that may have on a tough 2024 General Election.

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