GOP turn toward unity leaves Empower Texans unhappy -- and eyeing primaries
On the last day of the 140-day legislative session hailed as a success by Republicans and Democrats alike, House Speaker Dennis Bonnen was asked about criticism from Empower Texans, the well-funded group that has helped shape the Republican Party in Texas over the past decade. Lawmakers had failed to expand gun rights and further restrict access to abortion, among other state GOP priorities, the criticism went.
“You will never please or appease those folks, and I’m sure as hell not going to waste my time trying,” Bonnen, R-Lake Jackson, told reporters Monday.
“I am incredibly comfortable with my conservative record,” Bonnen continued. “But more significantly, they are a group that you are fooling yourself and you are not respecting your constituents, you are not respecting this institution, if you are chasing their wants and their desires because you will never meet their wants and their desires. They are a group that is based on attacks and disrespect to raise money. They are not based on issue ideology.”
Bonnen was asked if he had ever talked to Tim Dunn — the Midland oil and gas man with deeply held small government, libertarian and Christian beliefs — whose deep pockets keep Empower Texans and its tall, theatrical CEO, Michael Quinn Sullivan, in business.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190601/gop-turn-toward-unity-leaves-empower-texans-unhappy---and-eyeing-primaries
