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.
With a Republican majority in the House and Senate for almost a quarter century, you'd think they'd be searching high and low for another conservative bill to pass, scraping the bottom of the barrel!
Sad to say - that barrel is still full and our bills are being killed:
- In Committee thanks to a Speaker who appoints Democrats and moderate Republicans to Committee Chairs
- In Calendars, by keeping our bills off the House floor until it's too late and they "run out of time"
- On the House Floor - where if they even make it there for a vote, they get killed by "point of order" adjudicated by none other than the House Parliamentarian (a lawyer from the Obama White House who was appointed by the Speaker)
Why did it take such massive political pressure to ban drag shows for kids, take explicit books out of our school libraries? Why did it take 11 months and FOUR special sessions for a bill on the border to even come to the House floor for a vote?
WHY? Texas Scorecard has an answer - the video below shows that with the help of a handful of Republicans (including my opponent), Democrats are being empowered instead of the Republican majority.
Is YOUR State Rep one of the "Dirty Dozen?"
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.
- For the 88th session in 2023, check out the Grassroots Priorities "bills" page and search for the GOP Priority of your choice - filter for your Rep - and see if they authored any bills on that priority.
- There's also the Grassroots Priorities: Texas Legislators page where you can see a quick summary of your representative's actions this session - here's my opponent:
- 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 2023 score of 53. We deserve better!
- Young Conservatives of Texas also rates lawmakers to see how they score supporting conservative values. Our Incumbent scored 69 last session dropping from a "D" to an "F"! How is he honestly campaigning as a Conservative?
- Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom is another great organization focused on conservative principles. Our HD33 Incumbent scored an "F" this 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!
