It's our civic duty to vote for our elected leaders, but our duty does not end there.
We must also hold them accountable. It's not enough to vote for the "R" -we must also look to see what they are actually doing on our behalf. When I looked, I wasn't happy with what I saw.
That's why I'm running.
You would think that a Republican-led legislature (since 2002) would be getting the job done with our Republican Legislative Priorities.
You'd be wrong.
Yes, some good is getting done, like the Heartbeat bill, partial Constitutional Carry, and banning biological men from women's sports. But it has taken massive political pressure to accomplish. WHY? When we've had a Republican majority for the last 2 decades?
We can and must demand BETTER. But to do that, you need to know where your lawmakers stand. Here's a guide we've compiled to help any Texan look up their lawmaker. Go ahead, take a look and see if your State Representative and Senator are part of the problem, or part of the solution.
- First, look up your lawmakers here. This also gives you results for Texas House and Senate, US Congress and Senate, and your State Board of Education representatives.
- Next, check out the Legislative Priorities of the Republican Party of Texas. These are the resolutions that are passed by "we the people" at our precinct, county, and state conventions every other year. We vote on resolutions in the Primary, too. These are given to the lawmakers who are expected to adopt them and advocate for them. Read them through - aren't these things that we want?
- Now look up the performance of your representatives in the Texas House and Senate. How did they do in advocating for our Legislative Priorities (the 87th session scorecard is linked above, as the 88th session is still in progress). This report tells you if they authored or sponsored a bill, if they signed on to a bill to support it, if they advocated for it in a committee, and whether they voted for bills that came to the floor.
- Here's the HD33 Incumbent scorecard for my opponent. It shows that during the last session, he failed to timely author a single bill on our priorities, or even sign on to all the bills authored on them by others.
- Go ahead and look up a few more Republicans and you'll be shocked to find that only maybe a dozen or so actually did anything about the Legislative priorities this session... supposedly the "Most Conservative Session Ever!".
- Texas Scorecard is another great source to check. Click on the name of your lawmaker to get details about them. This brings up a number of civic groups who rate lawmakers. The Incumbent is rated here. And there's links to other scorecards as well.
- Texans for Fiscal Responsibility scores will let you know how well your lawmakers did spending YOUR money. Are they opening your wallet? or putting money back in? The HD33 Incumbent rates a career "F", with a 2021 score just one point above a failing score of 69. We deserve better!
- Young Conservatives of Texas also rates lawmakers to see how they score supporting conservative values. Our Incumbent scored 78 last session - just 9 points shy of a failing score. He's the 31st most conservative representative. In a heavily Republican district like HD33, I was shocked that the guy we all voted for was not as conservative as I'd assumed.
- Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom is another great organization focused on conservative principles. Our HD33 Incumbent scored a "D" for his last session.
- Transparency USA will tell you about campaign donations and campaign spending. You can look by election, or by all-time donations. This link takes you to all the donations since 2015 for the incumbent. They're listed in order of greatest donation first. At the top, you can toggle to look at a particular election cycle, or all of them at once. You can click to see the entire donor list and see who else they donate to. Are those candidates conservative, or liberal? You can tell a lot about a candidate by looking at who else their donors support.
I hope this guide has given you some good tools to quickly find out how well your elected officials are representing you. If your officials are doing great, that's awesome! Go vote for them! If not, vet their challengers using the resources above. Think of Primary season like scouting, before we draft in November. Would you draft without scouting first?
Bottom line - Texas needs MORE conservatives in Austin. If you already have one - consider supporting a Conservative candidate in another district (like right here!). Donate, volunteer, campaign! And keep Texas Conservative!
