Remember how a group of Republican state representatives helped kill school choice in this year’s fourth special session?
Rep. Kyle Kacal (R-College Station) was one of them. He also:
Fortunately, we’re no longer going to have him around to do Dade Phalen’s bidding in killing conservative legislation.
Exactly two weeks before the filing deadline for the Texas primary election, state Rep. Kyle Kacal (R-College Station) announced he would not seek re-election to the state House.
The decision is a reversal of his announcement in September that he would seek a seventh term.
The six-term lawmaker characterized Texas as the “envy of the nation” and expressed satisfaction with his record in the Legislature.
Well, that makes one person satisfied with his record.
Republican Ben Bius forced Kacal into a runoff in the March 2022 Republican primary. Bius even had the endorsement of outgoing Rep. Ben Leman (R-Anderson).
Kacal voted for the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton. He also voted for an amendment by Rep. John Raney (R-Bryan) to remove education savings accounts from the public education bill currently under consideration in the fourth special session. Critics of the plan say education savings accounts are operationally the same as vouchers.
During the 87th Legislature in 2021, Kacal joined Democrats and only eight other Republicans to back the expansion of Medicaid.
There were 21 Republicans voting against school choice. Andrew Murr already announced he wasn’t seeking. That leaves twenty more that need to be retired, one way or another.
The 20th, of course, is Dade Phalen…
Tags: 2024 Election, Ben Bius, Dade Phelan, Ken Paxton, Republicans, school choice, Texas
Good news! I voted for Bius and was saddened when he didn’t win. Good riddance to Kacal. Here’s hoping whoever replaces him will be better.
Raney had already decided not to run in August.
https://wtaw.com/update-john-raneys-announcement-that-he-is-retiring-from-the-texas-legislature-is-followed-by-three-campaign-announcements-followed-by-one-dropping-out/
What makes you think that these Manchurian Republicans are anything other than what they are…?
Democrats who run as Republicans in order to undermine the party and bolster the Democrats. I don’t think there’s any other answer for the consistency with which they act against the stated interests of their constituents.
The Republican Party badly needs to do some self-policing, and get rid of these creatures. Washington state is infested with them… You vote for them to fight the Democrats in Olympia, and they go off after having campaigned on doing to, only to fall right in line with the Dems. My own take is that they’re almost certainly Trojan Horse Republicans, and that the Democrats have been running the party as a sock-puppet in order to make people think that “something is getting done” when a Republican is elected.
Look at the results: Could it be any worse if I were mistaken?
We don’t have a true two-party system; we have the appearance of one, and the fact of a all-powerful uniparty of swindlers and thieves who are performing a nation-level bust-out operation on us.
Here’s hoping that Seguin Rep. John Kuempel will be the next to go.
He’s regarded by lobbyists I respect as being “as dumb as a box of rocks,” but his Daddy was one of Joe Straus’ henchmen and one of the longest-serving House members. After Daddy passed away, name recognition/confusion allowed him to squeak by in crowded GOP primary.
He has no particular skill set or expertise I can discern, other than he will do whatever Dade Phelan instructs him to. E.g., eviscerate SB17 and SB18 during the last session.
Ted Cruz will endorse any Republican who primaries one of the 21 Republicans who voted with Democrats against school choice:
https://texasscorecard.com/state/ted-cruz-to-endorse-against-texas-republicans-who-killed-school-choice/
[…] I missed the announcement in August that Rep. John Raney, one of Dade Phalen’s school choice opponent/Ken Paxton impeachment supporters, is also not running for reelection. (Hat tip to reader David Besly.) […]