The year was 2015, and conservatives in the Texas House were already trying to prioritize state-funded border security efforts.
Joe Biden was not the president at the time, but Barack Obama was, and illegal aliens were still coming across in record numbers. Donald Trump hadn’t even announced his campaign for president, nobody was talking about building a wall, and Republicans had become comfortable with doing the minimal amount needed to get re-elected while not actually securing the border.
State Reps. Tony Dale and Matt Schaefer led efforts on the Texas House floor to take away money from a diversity training program in Texas Hospitals and move it toward purchasing vital assets for border security.
Unfortunately, liberal Republicans teamed up with the Democrats to stop Dale and Schaefer from passing their amendment.
This vote ended up being devastating for incumbents like Doug Miller, a liberal Republican who was unseated in 2016 and couldn’t defend this vote.
Watch the debate below:
Today we are faced with an even larger threat at the Texas Border. There are record numbers of illegals pouring across, and Gov. Greg Abbott is taking unprecedented action against the federal government.
Abbott could be doing more if Schaefer’s House Bill 20, a comprehensive border security bill that would have created a Border Protection Unit and helped secure the Texas Border, had passed the Texas House last year.
That bill was killed by House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont)—the liberal Republican elected by the same faction that opposed the Dale-Schaefer Amendment.
Some of the current Texas House Republicans who fought for diversity training to be a higher priority than border security include State Reps. Trent Ashby, Dustin Burrows, Drew Darby, Charlie Geren, Ken King, John Kuempel, Morgan Meyer, and Gary VanDeaver.
Each of them has an opponent in the March 5 Texas GOP primary election.
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