A school principal is on video in her office urging voters to support a state lawmaker for re-election.
That could be a violation of state law.
State Rep. Glenn Rogers (R–Graford), who is facing a tough re-election battle, promoted a video by the principal of Breckenridge Junior High School, Laura Gibson, on his campaign facebook page. In the video, Gibson encourages viewers to vote for Rogers in the Republican primary because of his opposition to school choice.
“Let’s cast our votes on March 5 to send Glenn back to Austin so he can continue to fight, not only for our teachers and our schools, but most importantly for our students,” says Gibson.
The video appears to have been taken in Gibson’s office which could be a violation of state law. Section 255.003 of the Texas Election Code prohibits public employees from using public resources to electioneer. It is not clear whether the video was filmed during school hours.
The Rogers campaign deleted the video and replaced it with another one of Gibson reciting the same speech—this time at a different location.
The Attorney General’s Office has emphasized concern over electioneering in schools in recent elections, encouraging those who see potential violations to report them.
Legislation to strengthen this prohibition by State Rep. Brian Harrison (R–Midlothian) was filed during the legislative session last year, but not given a hearing in committee.
Texas Scorecard recently caught Rogers touting fake endorsements from elected officials who didn’t support his campaign. He was also on the receiving end of the only campaign contribution reported by disgraced former House Speaker Joe Straus’ PAC last year.
He currently faces a primary challenge by Mike Olcott, who has the endorsement of Gov. Greg Abbott, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.
As of publication, Rogers and Gibson did not respond to a request for comment.
