Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa released a statement on Monday alleging that “[w]hite supremacy fuels the beating heart of the Republican Party of Texas.” The scathing condemnation comes after The Texas Tribune reported over the weekend that Texas GOP leadership had voted against prohibiting association with Holocaust deniers and Nazi sympathizers.
The way Hinojosa sees it, the vote indicated that the state GOP “casually accepts” those with racist and antisemitic views.
“There is no place for hate in Texas, and the current RPT leadership has set a place at the head of their table for it,” he wrote in the statement. “I am calling on the Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi and every elected official or [State Republican Executive Committee] member that agrees with this vile white supremacist ideology to resign immediately.”
Hinojosa also wrote that he wants to see the national Republican committee open a probe into the state GOP’s antisemitic ties.
The clause that failed to pass the finish line by a 32-29 vote had been part of a pro-Israel resolution, according to the Tribune. Around half of the members of RPT’s executive committee had also attempted to stop “a record of their vote from being kept.”
Asked for comment on the state Dems’ statement, Texas GOP spokesperson James Wesolek pointed the Observer to two RPT resolutions “condemning anti-semitism and supporting Israel” that passed during the Saturday meeting.
“The Republican Party of Texas hereby … reaffirms our commitment by denouncing all forms of anti-Semitism and violence against Israel, Israeli Americans, Jewish Americans, and supporters of Israel,” reads one of the resolutions, in part.
North Texas has been rocked by a rash of antisemitic incidents in recent months, including a neo-Nazi demonstration near a Dallas synagogue in November.
Calls have crescendoed for the state GOP to distance itself from organizations caught mingling with well-known white supremacists. Nick Fuentes, an infamous and influential Holocaust denier, was pictured in October at the far-right Texas consulting firm Pale Horse Strategies.
GOP Chair Rinaldi, by the way, was photographed entering the building that day but denied having any knowledge of Fuentes’ presence. He told the Tribune at the time that he was there to meet with a party executive.
Pale Horse Strategies’ owner is former state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, who once led the Defend Texas Liberty PAC that bankrolls right-wing movements and politicians such as Attorney General Ken Paxton and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
The state’s Democratic Party also noted in the Monday news release that its own executive committee had approved a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Leadership reaffirmed its commitment to rejecting antisemitism and islamophobia in Texas communities.
In a Monday afternoon X post, TDP Executive Director Monique Alcala shared a picture of herself smiling and standing next to a text bubble that reads “Nazi-free workplace.”
It’s Monday!
— Monique Alcala (@MAAlcala) December 4, 2023
Nice to walk into an office and be part of an organization that’s not openly embracing Nazis #txlege pic.twitter.com/I6zssD5Hw8
“It’s Monday!” Alcala wrote in the caption. “Nice to walk into an office and be part of an organization that’s not openly embracing Nazis.”
