Many People Are Saying (4/19/24)
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:
What’s up with the debate between David Lowe and Stephanie Klick? We talk to both candidates.
Former Dan Patrick Appointee SUES to ban a firework show!
University of North Texas is trying to skirt around the DEI ban.
Current Revolt Podcast preview!
Let’s Talk About the Klick VS Lowe Debate
The highly watched race for HD91 between incumbent Rep. Stephanie Klick and David Lowe has constituents of the district begging for a debate.
Both Klick and Lowe seem to be at odds with getting a debate scheduled, with both having issues with what constitutes a “fair” debate.
The Northeast Tarrant County Republican Club is hosting a debate on April 29th. While Klick has accepted this debate, Lowe had issues with the host, saying that he had been blocked from their Facebook page as well as stating that one of the hosts, Anne Gebhart, had endorsed Klick. Our search of Gebhart’s Facebook page did turn up several Facebook posts in support of Klick.
The Tarrant County GOP has also announced its desire to host a debate. While Lowe has accepted, Klick had an issue with the moderator, as it was initially Chris Salcedo, who is on the payroll for one of the adjacent organizations that is funding David Lowe’s campaign.
Tarrant County GOP accommodated a moderator change and has chosen Dana Loesch. Loesch is a well-known conservative advocate who is also focused on gun rights. We found it an odd choice, seeing as Loesch isn’t very active in Texas politics and focuses almost exclusively on national politics. A search through her YouTube channel showed very minimal attention to Texas, and she has only a handful of tweets this year about Texas in general. Seeing as Loesch doesn’t seem especially familiar with local Texas politics, we wonder who would be writing the questions for her.
Constituents of the district we spoke to also told us that the Tarrant GOP was charging money to attend the debate and felt it was unfair to turn an important debate into a fundraiser for the party. We were unable to confirm any sort of ticket sales for the Tarrant GOP debate.
We reached out to both Klick and Lowe for comment.
Rep. Klick expressed her concerns with debate fairness. She also stated that there were several forums that Lowe was absent from that she attended, including one where Konni Burton was the host/moderator.
David Lowe stated that he wanted to debate Klick. Lowe also expressed that he wanted to find a neutral party to host/moderate the debate that hadn’t contributed to either campaign. Lowe told us he thought former Texas State Senator and founder of The Texan Konni Burton would make a great moderator and mentioned he missed the last forum because it was held during a very critical day of campaigning before election day.
Whether this debate actually ends up happening is anyone’s guess. Frankly, we’ll host it at this point; we’d just like to finally see these two verbally duke it out.