GOP Challengers Run to Right
on Riot, Race Theory and Porn

Capitol Inside
November 28, 2021

The Texas House primary election will be a key battlefield in the GOP culture war with a cast of conservative challengers including an insurrectionist precinct chair, a field general in the fight to stop critical race theory and an activist who's running against public school pornography and political censorship.

The Republicans boast some potential sleepers in statewide contests like Baroness Kandy Kaye Horn - a Rockwall philanthropist who's running against Governor Greg Abbott in the March 1 primary election and four other first-round foes at least. Daniel Miller - the head of the Texas Nationalist Movement - has appeared to be weighing a bid to oust House Speaker Dade Phelan in the GOP primary if he doesn't set his sights on Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick instead.

Miller could expect to have a significant ally in a push to have Texas secede from the United States with Donald Trump loyalist and rioter Mark Middleton of Forestburg taking aim at freshman State Rep. David Spiller of Jacksboro in round one. Middleton wouldn't be eligible to serve if he wins in 2022 if convicted at some point of felony charges that he and his wife are facing in connection with their parts in the mob attack at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The Middletons have been accused of assaulting police officers during the riot that erupted at a Trump rally after hundreds of supporters fell for the stolen election claims and stormed the Capitol when Congress was in the process of certifying Democratic President Joe Biden's victory in November.

Grapevine Republican Mitchell Ryan is gunning for State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake in the 2022 primary election in a suburban swath of Tarrant County where the challenger has been leading a crusade against an attempted indoctrination of Texas students by radical leftists in the schools there. After suing local school districts and portraying a principal as a critical race theory peddler, Ryan is directing his wrath at Capriglione now amid assertions that he'd done nothing to stop the invasion of CRT in the schools.

"Over the last 3 years, Mitchell has helped educate the community on critical theories, stopped local leftist narratives in public discourse, and armed voters of HD 98 with knowledge to confidently reject these poisonous ideologies," Ryan says on his campaign web site for the House bid.

GOP State Rep. Kyle Kacal of College Station has come under fire from the far right with Joshua Hamm as a first-round foe in House District 12, which lost a chunk of McLennan County on the new map and picked up Walker County where Huntsville is based in return.

"The First Amendment was destroyed in the last year in a way that I never thought possible," Hamm said on his campaign site. "Combine that with the pornographic content being given to children in schools. That is not acceptable. Why is Texas consistently trying to lead from behind?"

Hamm might want to pose the question to Governor Greg Abbott, who oversees the Texas Education Agency that's approved the books that the far right views as porn and critical race theory. But Abbott agrees that public school pornography has erupted into a crisis on his watch as governor - and he's ordered the TEA to conduct a criminal investigation into that nonetheless.

The list of House Republicans who've attracted primary opposition includes State Reps. Travis Clardy of Nacogdoches, Cole Hefner of Mt. Pleasant, Bryan Slaton of Royse City and Phil Stephenson of Wharton. Clardy faces a pair of challengers in Greg Caldwell of Appleby and Mark Williams of Carthage.

Republican State Rep. Lynn Stucky of Sanger

Hefner, Slaton and Stephenson have first-round foes in Dewey Collier of Talco, Clyde Bostick of Caddo Millers and Art Hernandez of Waller respectively.

more to come ...

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 

 

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