Two Texas teacher unions were announced as founding members of a new Democrat Party initiative to turn the state blue. Both groups have since been removed from the announcement, with one calling their inclusion an “error.”
The Dallas Express reported Thursday that the Democrat Party of Texas announced its new plan, called the “Texas Blueprint,” saying the campaign’s mission is to “maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of Democratic partners across Texas.”
“From mission-based organizations fighting for our most pressing issues to county-level Democratic parties that make up the very grassroots of our coalition – our founding partnerships represent years of coalition-building and a shared commitment to bringing Texas to the forefront of progressive leadership by electing more Democrats at every level of government,” read the press release.
The first announcement, released Tuesday, listed the Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA) and the Texas American Federation of Teachers (AFT) as founding members.
School choice advocates blasted the teachers unions on social media for joining the initiative, saying the groups are terrified of losing power.
“Texas Democratic Party just said today that the Texas teachers unions have ‘a shared commitment to bringing Texas to the forefront of progressive leadership by electing more Democrats at every level of government,'” said school choice advocate Corey DeAngelis.
After the public caught wind of the unions’ participation in the partisan initiative, the groups’ names were removed from a follow-up announcement and the Texas Blueprint website on Wednesday.
The Dallas Express was told by Texas AFT, “We were added in error and are not part of the initiative. We remain focused on public education priorities.” However, the spokesperson had no explanation of how the miscommunication occurred.
DeAngelis told Texas Scorecard that the unions were removed only after they were caught, so it still seems questionable.
“Only after I called them out did they remove the teachers unions from their website. One of the unions claimed they were ‘added in error.’ But that claim doesn’t pass the sniff test,” said DeAngelis. “The Texas Democratic Party included two teachers unions as ‘Founding Partners’ in at least two places: on a graphic and in bullet point form on their website. The more logical explanation is that they must not want you to find out that Texas teachers unions endorse and fund fake Republicans in red districts to protect their monopoly.”
“Letting us all know where the leftist Texas teachers unions stand was the real error,” he added. “But the internet is forever. Nationwide, 99.97% of campaign contributions from Randi Weingarten’s American Federation of Teachers went to Democrats in 2022. Most of us involved in politics knew where the teachers unions stood, but now they made that explicit: they are an arm of the Democratic Party. Now everyone else knows, too, because the Texas Democratic Party connected the dots explicitly.”
Texas Scorecard reached out to the Texas State Teachers Association and the Texas American Federation of Teachers but did not receive a response by publication.
