Many People Are Saying (2/16/24)
Weekly Texas rumors, gossip, and projects we're working on.
Welcome to “Many People Are Saying,” our once a week paid-subscriber article where we feature rumors we’re hearing, inside gossip in the political world, and projects and pieces we’re working on that we haven’t published yet.
This week:
Our coverage of Shelby Williams’ run for Collin County GOP Chair.
Dan Patrick calls out a political club calling their endorsements a “FAKE SLATE.”
Jace Yarbrough responds to Hagenbuch’s multiple endorsements.
A consultant throws a tantrum with the Denton GOP Chairwoman?
Shelby Williams Addresses Republican Party Infighting at Campaign Event
With Abraham George stepping down as Collin County GOP Chair to run for HD 89, Shelby Williams has stepped up to run for the position.
Williams had a campaign event yesterday, and we went onsite to cover it.
Williams’ speech focused heavily on his desire to unify the party, stop infighting, and bring Republicans together.
Precinct chairs in attendance also agreed with the sentiment, some going so far as to mention the quality of the challengers.
A good majority of the attendees we spoke with agreed with Williams’ opinion on the infighting. Some said they didn’t understand why the Republican Party continues to endorse races they know will lose instead of trying to repair or build relationships with the incumbents.
You can read our full coverage of the event here.
Lt Gov Dan Patrick Issues FAKE SLATE Warning
Yesterday, Lt Gov Dan Patrick sent out a press release urging voters to be aware of “fake slates and endorsement cards that imply or infer an endorsement from President Donald Trump.”
“Slate cards like this are designed specifically to mislead and confuse voters and should be dropped in the trash.” - Lt Gov Dan Patrick
We had actually been looking into the Trump Conservative Club of Texas earlier in the day, seeing as a mailer was sent out by Carrie De Moor, candidate for SD30, touting the endorsement.
We asked around, and nobody had heard of this group before. Their website lacked any contact information. In fact, when we checked, the website was still populated with default filler-content:
We reached out to De Moor asking if she had the contact information for the club and she directed us to Reb Wayne.
Reb Wayne, who is the former(?) director of communications for Sid Miller, spoke with us and stated he only “advised” the group and that it was an “all volunteer network that he advises from time to time on what to do to stay out of trouble.”
We asked Wayne for contact information for someone with the club. He directed us multiple times to fill out the website contact-us form. Wayne eventually gave us a name of someone who he said was a chairman but would not give us direct contact information for them, stating that the people behind the group “liked their privacy.”
We were able to find their contact information anyway, but calls and text messages to them for comment went unanswered.
After our phone calls, the website was suddenly updated with new information:
When we checked the website again later in the day, it had been updated a third time, now with a full list of endorsements in races across Texas:
We cross referenced lists and found that the Trump Conservative Club of Texas matched up with 68 out of the 70 endorsements on the Ken Paxton endorsement list.
This entire incident goes to show how easy it is to just start up a random group, not even a PAC or non-profit, call itself whatever it wants, and issue out endorsements so candidates can put them on mailers. It seems disingenuous. Especially with this organization using President Trump’s name as its selling point.
Trump Conservative Club of Texas didn’t exist online until December of last year:
Another group was using a similar tactic with Tucker Carlson’s name and without his permission to raise funds for its PAC until Carlson threatened to sue them.
