Making Texas Great Again
June 22, 2024
Representatives Schatzline, Harrison, Toth, and Tinderholt at the February 19 Montgomery County Tea Party Vote RED Rally.
Texas House Representative Glenn Rogers (HD 60), who was recently defeated in his bid for reelection, filed an official complaint against four of the most beloved and conservative House Members in the state of Texas while on his way out the door.
The complaint was filed against Texas House Republican Caucus Representatives Brian Harrison (HD 10), Nate Schatzline (HD 93), Tony Tinderholt (HD 94), and Steve Toth (HD 15), for campaigning for conservative Republicans in the Texas Primary against left-leaning Republican incumbents.
The complaint has had the opposite effect of what Rogers intended. Those four Conservatives have now become the leaders at the forefront of the Texas Conservative Movement and their influence has increased exponentially all across Texas.
Representatives Schatzline, Harrison, Toth, and Tinderholt (via Christin Bentley, SREC SD-1, on X).
While Texas has been growing increasingly conservative, many Texans have mistakenly believed that having an “R” next to a candidate’s name necessarily means that the candidate reflects their Republican values. Fortunately, word is getting out that some elected “Republicans” are really closet Democrats. They vote with Democrats, act like Democrats, work with Democrats, and even support Democrats as committee chairs in Austin.
As a result of Rogers’s formal complaint, the five-member Republican Caucus Executive Committee voted on June 10 to censure Representatives Harrison, Schatzline, Tinderholt, and Toth. So while these types of complaints and the actions deriving from them were once “inside baseball” kind of stuff in Austin, the public is now very much aware that the House Caucus Rules are designed to protect those who betray Republicans.
Representative Tom Oliverson (HD 130) is the head of the Republican Caucus and as such, is bound by the rules of that body, so his options were very limited regarding the censure of the Conservatives for violation of the caucus rules. However, censuring instead of dismissing these four conservative members from the caucus seems to be the best possible outcome in pursuit of the keeping the Republican Caucus intact. If those four Conservatives were dismissed, they may have joined the Freedom Caucus or perhaps started their own Conservative Caucus which would have further divided the Republican Party heading into the next legislative session.
In considering the results of the March Primary Election, which sent so many moderate Republicans packing, it is estimated that about half of the 86 Republican representatives are more likely to align with Harrison, Schatzline, Tinderholt, and Toth than they are Rogers and Jacey Jetton (HD 26), who, along with Rogers, is also a recently defeated member of the Republican Caucus.
It would appear that all Rogers accomplished with his complaint was to harden the resolve of the conservative grassroots voters in Texas.
Thanks to Rogers, more Texans now know the names Harrison, Schatzline, Tinderholt, and Toth, and the influence of those four conservative House members has greatly expanded. They have drawn their line in the sand, and like the Battle of the Alamo, this censure will lead to a Battle of San Jacinto victory.
Make no mistake, Texas Republican voters are more “Make Texas Great Again” than ever before.
Sunrise at the San Jacinto Monument (Paul Wolf, Getty Images).