House Republicans Face First Tests
in Primary Amid Uprising on Far Right

Capitol Inside
November 29, 2021

Republican State Reps. Stephanie Klick of Fort Worth and Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake entered the Texas House in 2013 after winning seats the year before with strong support from grassroots conservatives in the suburbs of Tarrant County. Klick ran unopposed in the primary in her first four re-election bids. Capriglione encountered one primary foe who he easily defeated in 2018.

GOP State Rep. Travis Clardy of Nacogdoches was elected to the Texas House in 2012 as well. Clardy faced perennial primary opposition that he always crushed. Clardy appeared to beef up his conservative credentials when he played a key supporting role in the movement of the GOP's restrictive election regulation plan.

But Klick and Capriglione are the hunted now in the eyes of primary challengers who are portraying them as Republicans in name only - or RINOs - as a result of parts they played on GOP Speaker Dade Phelan's leadership team this year. Clardy has the same basic target on his back in a bid for a sixth term in 2022.

GOP State Reps. Lynn Stucky of Sanger, Bryan Slaton of Roysce City, Kyle Kacal of College Station and Cole Hefner of Mt. Pleasant face primary challengers on their right as well in the initial election on March 1.

David Lowe - a North Richland Hills resident who's taking aim at Klick in the March primary election - is accusing her of using her position as the Public Health Committee chair to kill legislation that would have prevented gender modification procedures in Texas. Lowe is depicting Klick as a pawn of the corporate lobby and old-guard establishment.

House District 91 hopeful Anthony Reed of Haltom City is touting his experience as a strategist for Republican State Rep. Jeff Cason of Bedford and predecessor Jonathan Stickland - two of the most conservative legislators in Texas history.

Grapevine Republican Mitchell Ryan has shifted his focus to his fight to oust Capriglione in House District 98 - having made a name for himself in the past year as a lead warrior in the GOP quest to stop the immersion of the Texas public schools in critical race theory.

Ryan has castigated Capriglione for his vote for an amendment that lowered the criminal penalty for illegal voting from a felony to a misdemeanor. All but one of the House Republicans supported the provision. Ryan has shown a penchant for creative interpretation with a claim that Capriglione voted to approve Democrats in important leadership posts. That's an apparent reference to the House rules that all of the Republicans in the west wing of the Capitol supported.

Clardy could find critical race theory to be the defining issue in a race for re-election in 2022 with a trio of primary rivals firing darts from the far right. Rachel Hale of Henderson is the latest entrant in the field in House District 11 where Greg Caldwell of Appleby and Mark Williams of Carthage are running for the GOP nomination in the March 1 primary as well.

Hale has been exposing CRT in local school board meetings.

more to come ...