8 April 18 - 24, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents extramarital affair of the AG that was brought up time and again during the Pax- ton impeachment. Paxton, meanwhile, has repeatedly ac- cused Phelan of being in league with liber- als. An ad supporting Covey echoed this claim, prominently featuring Paxton and a tweet by Trump, in which the former presi- dent calls Phelan a “RINO” (Republican in Name Only). Further, the “too liberal” critique of Phelan was at the heart of the censure the Texas GOP’s executive committee delivered to the House speaker a few weeks before the primaries. Phelan had demonstrated a “lack of fidelity to Republican principles and pri- orities,” the censure argued. His specific sins were his role in the Paxton impeach- ment and his appointing of Democrats to chair roles on House committees. Notably, the pro-Covey ad featuring Pax- ton and Trump was funded by Texans United for a Conservative Majority, a PAC funded by Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks — the same billionaire thorns in the side of Glenn Rogers and dozens of other Republicans this past primary season. The PAC is a spinoff of Defend Texas Liberty, another Dunn and Wilks PAC that met serious controversy af- ter The Texas Tribune reported that its then- president, Jonathan Stickland, met with white supremacist Nick Fuentes for seven hours in early October 2023. A few months earlier, the PAC donated $3 million to Lt. Gov. Patrick. Patrick, who is not up for reelection until 2026, was presiding over the Paxton impeachment trial at the time. When news of the donation surfaced, Phelan called on Patrick to return the money. Patrick, in turn, called on Phelan to resign. The lieutenant governor has since aligned himself with Covey, even appearing at the challenger’s election night watch party. “Dan Patrick has been pushing for a more conservative House even longer than Greg Abbott,” notes Rottinghaus. “He’s the big winner [of the primaries], and that’s gone a bit unheralded. Dan Patrick helped to put Dade Phelan into a vice grip.” Once it became clear that he was headed to a runoff, Phelan released a statement de- crying the “tidal wave of outside influence and the relentless flood of special interest dollars” that shaped the primaries. He wasn’t the only target of that tidal wave. Texans United for a Conservative Major- ity spent millions on a smattering of far- right candidates, including former Trump aide Katrina Pierson, who forced Justin Holland into a runoff in his Rockwall-area district. Holland has been the target of criti- cism from his own party since at least last May. Shortly after a gunman killed eight peo- ple at an Allen outlet mall last May, the Re- publican state representative voted to advance a bill that would raise the legal age for buying semiautomatic rifles. The bill ul- timately failed, but the Rockwall County Re- publican Party cited Holland’s vote (as well as his support for Phelan and his opposition to school vouchers) in a January notice to voters that said the lawmaker has “belittled Republican voters” and “disregarded Re- publican principles.” Gov. Abbott eventually endorsed Pierson (after the primary), and according to SMU political scientist Cal Jillson, the former Trump aide stands a strong chance in the May runoff. “There’s a solid group of Republican vot- ers that want a steadier brand of conserva- tism, not someone like Pierson,” Jillson notes. However, “the fact that it’s going to be a low- turnout election bodes well for Pierson.” According to Jillson and other experts in- terviewed for this story, runoffs typically at- tract a lower turnout than primaries, which themselves have significantly lower turnouts than general elections. In other words, the most motivated voters (or, in this case, the most conservative voters) will likely turn out to vote in the late-May GOP runoffs. Beyond that, the turnout may pale in comparison to the relatively high vote tallies seen in March. Like the Phelan-Covey matchup, the Pierson-Holland race is a contest between old-school conservatism and the GOP’s far right. But if Pierson wins, her victory may be more about school vouchers and less about Holland’s perceived lack of party loyalty. “Most voters want to see proof,” Rotting- haus says, “and just saying someone is more conservative won’t do the job.” Some polling indicates vouchers have more fans than detractors. This may help ex- plain why Abbott-endorsed candidates had a higher win rate than Paxton’s chosen politi- cians in the most recent primaries. The gov- ernor has made school vouchers a clarion call, while Paxton seems more intent on oust- ing those who voted for his impeachment. “Republican voters care about both school vouchers and the Paxton impeach- ment, but the former is more concrete,” Jill- son says. “There’s actual polling about it. I think there are a lot of voters who think Pax- ton is a drag on the party, even as they de- fend him against the RINOs.” Meanwhile, many Democrats are also preparing for runoffs in May. In Houston, Lauren Ashley Simmons is running to re- place Shawn Thierry in District 146. Weeks before the primary, Thierry voted for Senate Bill 14, which bars gender-transitioning care for children and teens. “There’s a fear of what our Legislature is going to look like,” Simmons told the Observer in an interview. “We have to protect public ed- ucation and protect our families.” Thierry did not respond to a request for an interview. This is Simmons’ first race, and she says she “had a hard time visualizing” what thou- sands of votes would look like. Now that she believes her race is truly winnable, she is more determined than ever, in her words, “to finish this thing.” “I took maybe 72 hours off, and then the next weekend we were back in the field,” she says. In Dallas, former sheriff and gubernato- rial hopeful Lupe Valdez is headed to a run- off for her old seat. As the Observer has reported, current Sheriff Marian Brown has faced repeated criticism — including from her own staff — for her and her team’s han- dling of the pandemic and the winter storm that devastated Texas in 2021. Valdez is no stranger to controversy, either. Between 2005 and 2016, when she was sheriff, there was a death in Dallas County Jail roughly ev- ery six weeks. Despite these tight, headline-grabbing contests, much of the focus this May will be on the GOP side, where conversations be- tween candidates are light on substance, in- stead often devolving into a referendum on what it means to be conservative and a Texan. In a statement after March 5, Paxton cast the ongoing elections as a “battle for the soul of Texas.” “ This runoff is not a defeat, but rather a call to arms for all who stand for the princi- ples of the America First movement,” he said. “The battle lines are drawn, and our re- solve has never been stronger.” Lawrence Wright doesn’t identify as ei- ther a Democrat or a Republican (“I’m a pragmatist,” he says), but he cares deeply about Texas. And like Jillson, the political scientist from SMU, Wright sees the influ- ence of high-dollar donations pushing the state Legislature further to the right. “The civil war has left countless Republi- cans politically homeless,” he says. “They don’t want to vote for Democrats, but they hate Republican leadership. From the out- side, it seems impossible to reconcile.” He doesn’t know how this war will end, but he worries that Republicans like Rogers — people who, in his estimation, are trying to represent their district — will become harder to find. When this happens, he says, “what you get is a collection of zombies par- roting the official line from people with a billion dollars who want to shape the world in their perspective.” That’s one area in which the gritty “Mr. Smith” and his author friend agree. In an op-ed for the Weatherford Demo- crat after his loss, Rogers wrote that it had been “the greatest honor” to serve his dis- trict. He argued that he wasn’t the biggest loser, though — that title belonged to Texas public schools, rural Texas and representa- tive government. “History will prove that our current state government is the most corrupt ever and is ‘bought’ by a few radical dominionist bil- lionaires seeking to destroy public educa- tion, privatize our public schools and create a Theocracy that is both un-American and un-Texan,” he wrote. “May God save Texas!” ▼ CITY HALL OUT ALL NIGHT COUNCIL MEMBER SAYS JUVENILE CURFEW SHOULD STAY; STATE LAW SAYS OTHERWISE. BY JACOB VAUGHN S ince the ‘90s, Dallas has renewed a curfew for minors about every three years. That will likely change. In 2023, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 1819, which bans municipalities from enforcing curfews for minors. Dallas is now considering repealing its curfew for mi- nors to comply with state law. City Council members discussed repealing the curfew at last week’s Public Safety Committee meeting. Dallas City Council member Cara Men- delsohn, chair of the Public Safety Commit- tee, told the Observer in a statement that she and her husband set curfews as they raised their three sons. “We did this out of love to try to help keep them safe and from doing anything stupid or criminal,” Mendelsohn said. “The city of Dallas curfew was helpful as a backup in enforcing limits on youthful behavior.” And the city’s curfew came with some rea- sonable exceptions, she said. Mendelsohn thinks the curfew is still needed today. “The data is clear that more youth are committing crimes and being victimized in late hours,” Mendelsohn said. The Dallas County Juvenile Department shows an in- crease in juvenile arrests in the last two years, according to CBS News. “Curfews are a sensible way to address youth safety and help keep young people on a path to a successful adulthood,” Mendelsohn said. “I am an advocate for local control and don’t think the state legislature should have pre- empted the city’s ability to address the needs of our community, as requested by our residents.” There’s another way to look at the effec- tiveness of curfews. Some say they don’t serve their intended purpose and they dis- proportionately affect people of color. The curfew as written says that people in Kevin Winter/Getty Images Author Lawrence Wright wrote Mr. Texas about the state Legislature. Unfair Park from p6 >> p10