Three Republican Texas representatives spoke at the panel “The Texas Republican Agenda” at TribFest, the annual Texas Tribune journalism convention, on Friday.
State Reps. Mitch Little, R-Lewisville; Jeff Leach, R-Plano; and Daniel Alders, R-Tyler, addressed the possibility of Democrats flipping Republican-held offices in state and national races. Little said that if Republican voters turn out, Republicans “won’t have to worry” about Democrats taking the Texas House of Representatives.
“I still do believe that good candidates that represent their districts well and that work hard win,” Leach said. “There are national and statewide headwinds that we’ve got to be ready for and certainly watchful for. But on the Republican side, we have a lot of really good candidates that are working their districts very hard. They’ve delivered for their districts.”
Little discussed public safety within West Campus and Austin. He said at the Texas Select House Committee on Governmental Oversight meeting for this week, representatives will speak about district attorneys who are “not putting people in jail and prison who need to be.”
José Garza, Travis County district attorney, has been accused of hiding evidence relating to 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, which were dismissed by a Travis County judge in May, and of having “pro-crime, pro-illegal immigration policies” in a June letter from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.
The representatives also responded to comments made by Bo French, the Republican candidate for Texas railroad commissioner. French posted comments on social media criticizing a picture of South Asian UT students celebrating during the Ohio State game.
In response, Leach posted a photo of his son, a UT student, at the game with his friends. At the panel, Leach called French’s tweet “hateful and harsh” and said he would “hold his nose” in French’s race for railroad commissioner.
“Bo thinks it’s a ‘problem’ they don’t all look like and have the same skin color as Brady (Leach’s son),” Leach wrote in the post. “I think that’s racist — and it makes me sick.”
