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When we read the news that Republican Party of Texas Chair Matt Rinaldi would step down, we were hit with a little spark of hope. This is, after all, one of the men who presided over the transformation of the state GOP from a normal, if deeply conservative, political party into a conspiracy-embracing, corruption-supporting mess that has mutated the meaning of conservatism in Texas.
Our hope lasted about a millisecond when we remembered that this is the Republican Party of Texas. Whenever we think it can’t get worse, it usually does.
Look at the track record. Rinaldi, a flamethrower in the Texas House who lost his Dallas County seat in 2019, succeeded former Florida Congressman Allen West as state GOP chair. Once a tea party agitator, West regularly made headlines for incendiary comments that flirted with the far-right QAnon cult and the Texas secessionist movement.
(By the way, if you’re a Dallas County Republican who didn’t vote in the primary, we regret to inform you that West is your new county party chair.)
While West tried to use the state GOP to vault himself to the governor’s mansion, Rinaldi has brandished the party as a weapon on behalf of the billionaires bankrolling the far-right movement in Texas. Instead of buoying its members, the party apparatus attacks conservative lawmakers who ran afoul of Attorney General Ken Paxton or otherwise failed to fall in lockstep with every hard-line position of West Texas oilmen Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks.
Rinaldi should go down in infamy for his ties to Texas GOP activists who met with Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes in the fall. The Texas Tribune observed Rinaldi leaving the building where the meeting took place. Rinaldi denied participating in that meeting and condemned Fuentes, but we can’t take him seriously when he dismissed as unnecessary an attempt by his party to pass a ban on associating with antisemites. The ban eventually passed in spite of Rinaldi.
Running to replace him is former Collin County GOP party chair Abraham George, a Paxton defender. The Texas Tribune reported Monday that police responded to his home last year based on a call that an armed George was going to confront a man he thought was having an affair with his wife. Also running is state GOP Vice Chair Dana Myers, who voted in favor of the ban on associating with known neo-Nazis. She’s got at least that going for her, though the party has set the bar so low you have to dig to find it.
As Paxton hints that he may take on U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in 2026, we can’t reconcile how it is that we’re talking about the same party. How can a Texas GOP that gave us a principled and competent leader like Cornyn elevate an unscrupulous and inept attorney general like Paxton to be its standard bearer?
We think this helps explain why Republican turnout in the Texas primary was only 12.6%, as our colleague Gromer Jeffers Jr. reported. Traditional conservatives in Texas are losing heart. The party that once courted them and lifted them up has kicked them out of the house.
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A Collin County district court dismissed charges against state Rep. Frederick Frazier on Friday after the McKinney Republican pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges of impersonating a public servant. The court also granted an early release from community supervision, which resulted in the dismissal as part of Frazier’s deferred adjudication.
In December, Frazier pleaded no contest to the two criminal charges, part of a plea agreement stemming from allegations he targeted his primary runoff opponent’s campaign signs over a year ago. Frazier accepted a year of probation and a maximum $4,000 fine for each offense.
Earlier this month, Frazier’s lawyer filed an application for early release and dismissal of charges. On Friday, Judge Jim Pruitt granted that request, a little over four months after Frazier entered the no contest plea. The order comes one month before Frazier’s primary runoff election against Keresa Richardson for a Republican-friendly seat in northern Collin County outside Dallas.
In December, while accepting Frazier’s no contest plea, Pruitt wrote, “Court finds that the evidence and Defendant’s plea substantiates the Defendant’s guilt of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt as charged in the indictment.”
He has separately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief.
Frazier was indicted in June 2022, in which he was accused of impersonating a McKinney city code enforcement employee on two occasions instructing people to “remove campaign signage.”
The campaign signs belonged to his opponent in the 2022 Republican primary for House District 61, Paul Chabot. In his first run for the House, Frazier had the backing of former President Donald Trump. Chabot lost that race.
Chabot told The Texas Tribune that the judge’s order on Friday took him by surprise. He had intended to provide a victim impact statement at the end of the year, when Frazier was scheduled to complete his community supervision.
On Friday, Frazier announced on social media that the judge had dismissed his case. He said his legal troubles had given him appreciation for Trump, who is facing four criminal cases in which he is accused of election interference, mishandling classified documents and falsifying business records.
“I cannot compare my situation to Donald Trump’s, who has been hounded by radical Democrats with little or no proof,” Frazier said. “It gave me a small taste of what President Trump faces now.”
Frazier’s campaign did not return a request for comment as of Friday evening.
Frazier represents House District 61, a Republican-friendly seat in northern Collin County outside Dallas.
Gov. Greg Abbott backed Frazier during his reelection campaign as part of a blanket endorsement of dozens of House Republicans who sided with Abbott in favor of school vouchers.
Frazier is among the dozens of House Republicans that Attorney General Ken Paxton tried to defeat after the House impeached him on abuse-of-office allegations in May. The Senate acquitted Paxton in September.
Richardson, his opponent in the May 28 runoff, said his legal problems weren’t the reason she entered the race, but rather it was his performance in the Texas House that pushed her to challenge Frazier. Richardson won 40% of the votes; Frazier won 32% of the votes.
“We’ll let the people decide who they would rather have in the House,” Richardson told The Texas Tribune on Friday. “It’s up to the constituents.”
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AUSTIN — After an extra day of waiting, Texas Longhorns receiverAdonai Mitchell is finally off the board.
The Indianapolis Colts selected Mitchell with pick No. 52 in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit on Friday. Mitchell slipped out of the first round on Day 1 and instead had to watch as teammates Byron Murphy II and Xavier Worthy got selected by the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs, respectively.
However, the real surprise came on Day 2 when Texas defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat was selected before Mitchell at No. 38 overall by the Tennessee Titans.
Mitchell is the 11th receiver off the board in this year’s draft. He joins Marvin Harrison Jr., Malik Nabers, Rome Odunze, Brian Thomas Jr., Worthy, Ricky Pearsall, and Xavier Legette. Many mocks had Mitchell going ahead of guys like Pearsall and Legette, but instead they leapfrogged on Day 1 once the board officially fell into place. Then on Day 2, Keon Coleman, Ladd McConkey and Ja’Lynn Polk all went ahead of Mitchell as well.
Mitchell posted 93 catches for 1,405 yards and 18 touchdowns during his collegiate carreer. He was a two-time national champion during his time with the Georgia Bulldogs, appearing in five College Football Playoff games and catching a touchdown in all five. After the championship success in Athens, Mitchell came to Austin and had a career-best season at Texas, finishing with 55 catches for 845 yards and 11 touchdowns, all career-high marks.
Severe weather outbreak expected from Plains into Midwest this weekend
The storms firing up on Thursday afternoon are just the beginning of tornado risks over the coming days.
Severe storms are brewing across Texas throughout the weekend, potentially unleashing tornadoes and sizable hail.
The storms are mainly predicted for North Texas and some areas of Central Texas, as part of a broader weather system moving across the eastern half of the U.S.
Here’s what we know about this weekend’s weather.
There’s a combination of severe weather events possible for North Texas this weekend.
“Storms are already ongoing and will increase in coverage through the afternoon,” the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Large hail, damaging winds, tornadoes and flooding are all possible.”
Meteorologists in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have already issued tornado watches that extend from the Oklahoma-Texas border down to south of Waco through late Friday afternoon.
Texas weather: What’s the difference between a tornado watch and tornado warning?
But it won’t end there. The greatest severe weather potential will be late Saturday evening into early Sunday morning, according to the NWS Fort Worth website.
“Large hail, damaging winds and a tornado or two will be possible,” the website states. “Additionally, the risk for flash flooding will increase Saturday night west of I-35 and once again through Sunday afternoon across East Texas. Given the potential for night-time flooding and severe weather, make sure you have all the necessary preparations completed before severe weather strikes!”
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