Texas: The Issue Is - Republican In-Fighting

North Texas State Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco) and several other Republican lawmakers are being called not conservative enough by some groups.

Patterson responded to those claims and the record of the Texas House, which has passed some pretty conservative laws in the last two sessions. 

Rep. Patterson: "I'll ride with that team that's securing the border, that's cutting property taxes, that's saving children from these woke drag shows and pornography in our schools. I'll ride with a team that's doing that and accomplishing that over the grifters that are just out to make money."

Dial: "I don't think your Democratic colleagues would say you're not conservative. You and some others. Do you think this just stems from the Ken Paxton impeachment and then just snowballed into more."

Rep. Patterson: "Certainly they're more energized this time, a little bit. And being, you know, the folks that make money off of these primary races. But there's a lot of money involved in politics, and there's a lot of these consultants and these fake groups, these [501(c)(4)s], that are set up to look like conservative groups. But when you look at the facts that what Speaker Phelan has put together with those of us in the Texas House, the Republicans in the Texas House took abortions in Texas from 50,000 in 2019, to 34 last year. Not 34,000. We passed constitutional carry. We secured our elections. We passed the strongest border security bill in the country, where law enforcement can now collect and deport illegal immigrants from across the state, along with $6.6 billion in funding for border security. These are massive conservative wins, and we haven't even gotten to all the things that we did this session to protect children from the woke agenda and so, massive, massive conservative wins. And that's bad for business, if your business is convincing people that the Texas House is not conservative."

Dial: "Some Republicans are taking big aim at Speaker Dade Phelan, primarily the attorney general after he was acquitted in his impeachment trial. You're defending Speaker Dade Phelan, but are you nervous to do that?"

Rep. Patterson: "The largest property tax cut in American history, we passed this session under Speaker Phelan’s leadership, and every Republican in the Texas House voted for it again, the largest property tax cut in history. And so, these are massive wins. These are record-setting legacy conservative wins that we've got in the Texas House."

MORE: Texas: The Issue Is Coverage

Dial: "Governor Greg Abbott is backing up primary challengers to multiple Republicans who did not support school vouchers. Do you agree with that strategy?"

Rep. Patterson: "I think that next session will have a better chance at passing a parental choice and education bill. I think that this session, it was very difficult. Number one, we didn't have the votes, but number two, you know, it was just we tried to get it across the finish line. We tried to come up with various different pathways to get us there. And I think that there was so much misinformation put out by the teacher unions, that it just wasn't going to happen this year. I think we have more time to work on this issue, more facts to get out there about the bill that we had in the Texas House, which would have been the largest funding increase in the history of the state to our public schools, in addition to parental choice. I think the more we have time to kind of marinate on those issues and understand those issues and how they affect our communities, I think we'll have a better chance at doing it. And that's going to happen, I believe, next session."

Dial: "Do you think Speaker Dade Phelan will be the speaker again in 2025?"

Rep. Patterson: "Without a doubt. That's the least of our concerns. I think that Speaker Phelan has proven to himself passing constitutional carry, ending abortion, you know, ending these woke drag shows and saving women's sports, making sure that men don't compete against our women and female sports from seventh grade through college. From conservative issue on conservative issues. No state in the country has had the massive conservative wins that we've had in the Texas House since he took over. And so I would fully expect him to have his third term as speaker next session."