With early voting beginning in the Republican primary election on Monday, February 14, Texas Scorecard asked candidates in the race for Texas House District 64 a series of questions to help voters make up their minds before heading to the polls.
Candidates
Andy Hopper
Lynn Stucky (No response received)
The following are the full, unedited responses we received.
Why are you running for office?
Hopper: I believe that our rights as Texans are slipping away at a frightening rate and that it is the duty of conservatives to stand up against the lobbyist-funded establishment in Austin which makes deals with Democrats by putting them into leadership of crucial committees like Public Education.
We are in the midst of an invasion of the southern border of Texas, in every way facilitated by our own federal government. Our right of local self-government is critically impaired, and yet our legislature in Austin continues to cede control to Washington D.C. I will stand for the liberties of Texans, and the right of Texans to decide what is best for Texas.
What are the three main issues facing the district you hope to represent? How will you address them?
Hopper: THE BORDER:
The invasion of our southern border is a clear and present danger to every single district in Texas. Since the entrance of Texas into the Union in 1845, the federal government has consistently failed to protect the border of Texas. Most recently, the United States has in every way facilitated the invasion of Texas by citizens of foreign nations.
I will fight for the following legislative actions to secure our border:
1) By an act of the Texas Legislature, Texas should immediately condemn all land previously condemned by the federal government. Texans died to secure our soil and it is immoral for Texas to cede any land, particularly along the border, to Washington.
2) The Texas Legislature should immediately strike Sec 437.052 (C), and instead require that the Adjutant General receive their commission from the Commander-in-chief of the Texas Military Forces.
3) The targeted size of the Texas State Guard should be increased to not less than 25 thousand Texans.
4) The Texas Legislature should recognize that, in accordance with Article 1, Section 10, that Texas is in the midst of an actual invasion, recognize that the State of Texas has constitutional authority to exercise its war powers to defend itself, and that interdiction of illegals is no way a debate over immigration.
5) The Texas Legislature should instruct the Governor of Texas to secure operational control of the entire border with Mexico, using any force necessary, up-to-and-including placing troops on the other side of the Rio Grande River.
6) Make human trafficking a capital offense.
INDOCTRINATION OF OUR CHILDREN:
The entire purpose of public education is to ensure that we are training up a citizenry that is well-informed about our republican form of government and has sufficient knowledge to participate as a citizen. And yet, Texans have discovered that our children are being indoctrinated with cultural Marxism via Critical Race Theory and Social Emotional Learning. Our Republic depends upon our ability to instill our values and ideas of Texan and American Exceptionalism to our children.
We need an omnibus bill that contains the following:
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Abolish all non-partisan races. School boards are often filled with liberals because citizens didn’t know they were voting for democrats.
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Establish a “sunset commission” for all university regents. Every regent must be “renewed” every ten years, and a report should be published for public review and consideration.
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Abolish region service centers (ESC)s (through which CRT is indoctrinated via “professional development”), Texas Assoc of Administrators (TASA), and Texas Assoc of School Boards (TASB), which mainly serve to push down often liberal guidance from extremely liberal organizations which take local tax money to lobby the legislature. These organizations exercise broadly unchecked authority over local schools.
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Move entirely back to paper textbooks, and abolish the digital STAAR test.
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Block cellular data (not phone calls) within public school buildings; all Wifi connections should be monitored and heavily filtered for inappropriate content.
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Strengthen the language in HB3979 to completely ban CRT and SEL from curriculum and teacher training materials.
WATER:
Wise and Denton Counties are booming but access to adequate surface water is limited. At the same time, the demand on our groundwater is growing at a pace that will most certainly outstrip supply in future drought years. Texans shouldn’t be victims of water shortages–we have the technology and engineering know-how to address our water needs, but the Texas Legislature must act to establish a new 100-year water plan that revisits the ideas of interconnecting reservoirs, desalinating brackish groundwater, large-scale Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR), and establishing reciprocal agreements with Louisiana and Oklahoma. We should never allow Texas to become California.
Texans all across the state are reporting an ever-increasing property tax burden. Should the property tax system be fixed? If so, how?
Hopper: Texans are being crushed under an ever-growing burden of property taxation that serves as a disincentive to property ownership, forces citizens into commerce, and puts Texans into the position of renting their land and homes from the government. Texas must begin the process of transitioning to a consumption tax by passing a constitutional amendment that will phase out and abolish property taxes over a decade or less.
Should Democrats serve as committee chairs in the Texas Legislature?
Hopper: Absolutely not. On the first day of session, I will vote to modify the house rules to disallow the minority party from holding either Chair or Vice Chair positions.
How would you characterize the state’s response to the coronavirus? What would you have done differently?
Hopper: The singular function of government is to protect the liberties of the people. Our Governor swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of Texas and yet he broke this vow when he illegally:
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closed businesses and otherwise shut down the state
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facilitated the closure of churches throughout the state (Texas Constitution – Article 1, Section 6 – protects the “natural and indefeasible” right of worship)
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Closed the court system for months (Texas Constitution -Article 1, Section 13- declares that “all courts shall be open”)
The Governor should have instead immediately called a special session of the 86th Legislature. Once the 87th Legislature came into session, instead of voting to review the Governor’s emergency declarations, they voted for a bill that essentially expanded the scope of his authority (HB3).
I would have voted:
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to end the disaster declarations
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to repeal the 1975 Disaster Act that was used as a legal justification for tyranny
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to hold the Governor accountable for breaking his oath of office
