Recent revelations about Texas GOP Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s ties to a group with extremist leanings have set off a firestorm in a political climate already fraught with division.
GOP Lt. Gov Dan Patrick exposes himself as a money grabbing ideologue.
According to a Sunday report by the Texas Tribune, Defend Texas Liberty, a political action committee that has been a major contributor to Patrick and other GOP leaders like Attorney General Ken Paxton, hosted white supremacist Nick Fuentes at a consulting firm owned by Jonathan Stickland, the PAC’s president. Stickland is also a former lawmaker from Bedford.
The situation has exposed the glaring fissures within the Republican Party of Texas, as some lawmakers have decided to distance themselves from the PAC and its problematic affiliations, while others have chosen to stay silent or even defend it. Lt. Gov. Patrick, for instance, has vehemently refused to return any of the $3 million he received from Defend Texas Liberty, laying the blame for the negative publicity on House Speaker Dade Phelan, whom he accuses of orchestrating a “smear campaign.”
Patrick’s unyielding stance appears to be grounded in semantics more than ethics. While he acknowledges that hosting Fuentes was a “serious blunder,” he defends his decision not to return the donation by arguing that there were no overt ties to hate groups when he accepted the PAC’s money. Yet, his semantics do not absolve him of the moral imperative to sever ties with a group that aligns itself, even momentarily, with a known white supremacist and Adolf Hitler admirer. The ideology Fuentes propagates is not just politically incorrect—it is dangerous, fueling the fires of racial animosity, antisemitism, and misogyny. It was a sentiment echoed by Enrique Marquez, Phelan’s chief of staff, who pointedly remarked on social media that meeting with Fuentes for six and a half hours was “NOT a blunder.”
Indivisible Houston President Daniel J. Cohen and other Houston Activists did not hide their disdain for the Lieutenant Governor. They protested at his local station.
“As a Texan and as a Jew,” Daniel J. Cohen said. “To be straightforward as well, I find it highly offensive that this pack would have that meeting and that Dan Patrick would take $3 Million.” The following video includes his take on CBS Austin News at 5.
In the face of growing antisemitic and racist violence both in Texas and nationally, the absence of decisive action from certain GOP leaders is alarming. While some have chosen to realign their ethical compasses—Frisco Rep. Jared Patterson, for example, donated $2,500 to a pro-Israel charity after learning about the PAC’s meeting with Fuentes—others like Rep. Steve Toth and Attorney General Paxton have either stayed conspicuously silent or lambasted those trying to hold the PAC accountable.
Phelan, responding to the urgency of the moment, has urged his fellow Republicans to redirect any donations received from Defend Texas Liberty to pro-Israel charities. This call to action was echoed by 60 members of the Texas House Republican Caucus. Patrick’s response was to accuse Phelan of politicizing Hamas’ attack on Israel and call for his resignation—a deflection that steers attention away from the heart of the issue: the insidious influence of extremist ideology in mainstream politics.
To ignore or minimize the significance of these affiliations is to be complicit in normalizing hate and extremism. The fact that some Republicans are donating the group’s contributions in the wake of these revelations indicates a recognition that principle must triumph over partisan politics. Yet, the continued silence or inadequate responses from others in the party showcases an unsettling moral flexibility that has no place in a democratic society.
The critical question that remains unanswered is: Will the leaders of the Republican Party take a definitive stand against extremism, or will they continue to waver in a politically expedient gray zone, thereby perpetuating the very divisions they claim to abhor?
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