Declaration for True Republican Leadership

Declaration for True Republican Leadership in Texas

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights... that among these are Life, Liberty and Property - where we can pursue what makes us happy.

To preserve our rights, we elect a governor who derives his just powers from the consent of the people. But whenever our governor acts in destructive ways toward our rights, it is the Right of the People to replace our governor with a true Republican leader.

Our new governor must have a foundation on constitutional principles and organizing power to procure our liberty.

Our governor should not be replaced for light and transient causes. But when a governor makes the people suffer under a long train of abuses and usurpations, it is the right of the people - it is their duty - to replace such a governor, and provide a new Guard for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these people that they have endured a governor who elevated himself like a King above the people, reigning unchecked in absolute Tyranny over the State of Texas.

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Texas should never bend the knee to an unconstitutional federal government, but that is exactly what Abbott did. After ordering DPS and the Texas National Guard to shut down six points of entry along the southern border, Abbott reversed himself when the Biden administration objected. Abbott continues to allow hundreds of thousands of illegals to pour into Texas instead of doing right by Texas.
From Obama to Biden, Abbott always spends our money to send DPS and the National Guard to the border - only to direct them to hand over any illegals to the feds. South Texas Mayor, Don McLaughlin, told FoxNews' Tucker Carlson that in his seven years as mayor, Abbott has never spoken to him or returned his calls.
Abbott issued a declaration in late May 2021 that said the border surge was an ongoing and imminent threat to 34 counties along and near the Texas-Mexico border. Two months later, he revised his declaration by removing the counties with the most dangerous border towns in Texas, according the FBI. The threat wasn't gone or reduced... as we can all see, it still remains.
Gov. Abbott allows in-state tuition for illegal aliens at Texas colleges and universities at the cost of almost $1 billion annually, despite multiple attempts by lawmakers to end it. Abbott could halt the practice at any time using his line-item veto authority on the state budget but chose not to do so.
Regarding the Democrats who flew off to DC, Abbott announced to everyone, "As soon as they come back into the state of Texas, they will be arrested." To date, no one was arrested and Democrat Philip Cortez, who returned from DC and went to the statehouse and then flew back to DC, was never touched by law enforcement.
Voters in Texas believe they are taxed too much, but that didn't keep Abbott from pretending that he signed off on property tax reform in 2019. Despite listing property tax relief as one of his emergency items in 2019, what passed didn't stop an increase in what Texans pay in property taxes.
In October 2019, Abbott publicly gave Austin Mayor Steve Adler one month "to demonstrate improvement in the homelessness crisis and the danger it poses to the health and safety of the public." A few months later, crime had escalated, so what did Abbott do? Issue another empty press release. "It is time for the city to step up and protect their citizens and enforce the law."
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, known as ERCOT, is appointed by the governor. As we learned in February, five of those members don't live in Texas, and one is from Canada. Why did the governor appoint them? Perhaps because members of the ERCOT board this past February had given Abbott more than $18,000 in political donations since 2009.
In 2021, Texas had its regular legislative session and three special sessions, and despite 94.65% of Texas Republican primary voters supporting a ban on child gender modification, Abbott never listed it as one of his legislative priorities during any of these sessions.
We are always told that the person at the top of the ticket has so much influence on the down-ballot. With that in mind, under Bush and Perry, the Texas legislature grew increasingly red. Under Abbott, the Texas legislature has become increasingly blue. Want to keep Texas red? Then we need an actual Republican at the top of the ticket.
Energy industry giants showered Gov. Greg Abbott with 4.6 million dollars in donations after this past session. This surge of donations for Abbott at the close of the session looks like a reward for not passing more stringent regulations. Did the governor and some lawmakers let the energy industry off easy after massive failures? We need a governor who cannot be swayed by big donors.
One year late, Abbott reversed course and rescinded his previous order requiring masks. Local authorities blatantly disregarded his order. Even the Texas Education Agency - run by an Abbott appointee - balked at enforcing the Governor's order. The bottom line: he allowed mask mandates to begin again when they should have been addressed sooner.
Greg Abbott loves fundraising, even if it helps those opposed to your Texas values. In 2016, he was the featured speaker at a fundraiser held by UT's Friends of the University PAC. Almost half of the UT PAC's contributions went to Democrats, and what did go to Republicans went to liberal big government lovers in Joe Strauss' cartel, like Byron Cook and pro-abortion Sarah Davis.
In 2015, Abbott sent a letter to Barack Obama informing him that Texas would not accept any refugees from Syria. The US Department of State declared in 2016 and 2017 that Texas took more Syrian refugees than any other state but for California and Michigan.
Greg Abbott has implemented something like a Green New Deal in Texas, contributing your tax dollars to over $20 billion in subsidies to wind and solar energy companies.
Over the past eight years, there has been an increase in the state budget from $174 billion to over $250 billion. So much for Abbott leading Republicans to fiscal responsibility. He signed the budget in its entirety with not a single rider removed.
When the University of Texas was enveloped in scandal, the Texas Watchdog said that "The three names Abbott put forward this week as potential members of the Board of Regents of the University of Texas System all have ties, either direct or indirect, to the corrupt admissions practices that cost former UT President Bill Powers his job."
In 2014 Greg Abbott promised to fix our roads without more taxes, fees, tolls, or debt. It was the centerpiece of his Texas Clear Lanes Initiative. He broke most of those promises. The Legislature sent the governor a vehicle registration fee hike, a bill to issue new debt from the Texas Mobility Fund, and another to allow an increase in toll fines and fees. Abbott allowed all to become law and chose not to veto.
When Greg Abbott decided your job was nonessential, it caused great distress for tens of thousands of Texas renters who live paycheck to paycheck. He never convened a special session of the legislature to hear from the people, but that didn't stop him - by himself - from allocating $171M of your money to create a rental assistance program.
People nationwide are tired of the hypocrisy shown by our political class - telling us to do one thing when they do something else. While Abbott's statewide mask mandate was still in effect in October of 2020, Abbott with several others were photographed not wearing masks or social distancing at Globe Life Park in Arlington. "Where’s your mask, King Abbott?" asked one Texan.
After accepting millions in crowdfunded donations from around the country and creating for himself a national mailing list, Abbott then purchased piles of chain-link fence to help "secure" the border - which is a deterrent to no one.
Greg Abbott rarely gets involved in what happens in the legislature, but when he does, it's not for Republican priorities, but for Democrat-favored items, such as pre-kindergarten legislation to improve early education - which he made his first emergency priority in 2019, and pushed hard to get it passed. But he didn't do that for Constitutional Carry, Religious Freedom, banning child gender modification, true property tax relief, or school choice.
Newsmax in a commentary: "Even with 'conservatives' such as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, we saw weakness and ambiguous policies and executive orders passed to the point where citizens had no individual rights protected by those they elected to do just that." If others see the weakness in Abbott, Texas Republicans have to face the truth about him.
If you hate seeing what our federal government is doing, then the best action you can do is elect the strongest possible governor to lead the other states and stand up to the federal government's un-American, wrong-headed policies. Texas used to be a recognized leader, but under Abbott, it's not - because Abbott is not recognized as a national leader.
Greg Abbott, in the wake of a couple of mass shootings, didn't look for more ways for you to defend yourself, but rather hosted discussions on "red flag laws" to allow people to report you and take your guns away from you.
State agencies report to the governor, who is the state government's chief executive. And yet during the greatest health crisis in our lifetime, Collin County Judge Chris Hill issued a warning that the state's coronavirus numbers weren't reliable, saying, "The number of active cases is inflated because there are people on that list who are recovered and yet have not been marked as recovered."
Does Abbott believe RINOs exist? He sure does. He said this of pro-abortion Houston Rep. Sarah Davis, "She’s not really a Republican, but she has a 'Republican' by her name." That didn't stop Abbott from endorsing her in 2019.
In an excellent discussion, a lawyer shows how Abbott - while talking tough - only lightly follows the lead that Florida's DeSantis established in addressing those who riot. Abbott steered clear of those elements in his proposal that would cause heartache to Democrats, which is something he often does. Abbott's "proposals won't have much real world effect."
In 2014, Abbott said that Common Core was not welcome in Texas, but in 2015, he nominated Sara Martinez Tucker, the president of the National Math and Science Initiative - a national leader in the implementation of Common Core - to the University of Texas System Board of Regents.
Election integrity is critical to so many Texans, but Abbott has had a parade of secretaries of state who have failed to address the problem that Abbott knew existed back in 2015. When Abbott did have a secretary of state who tried to purge voter rolls, David Whitley screwed it up so badly that it wasn't tried again.
5/20/2019: Republican Dan Flynn helps kill a Republican priority - the ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying. 6/27/2020: Abbott endorses Dan Flynn for re-election. 11/20/2020: Abbott rails against taxpayer-funded lobbying in a tweet, saying, "Don't even try to defend taxpayer-funded lobbying." Do you think he recognized his own hypocrisy, or was he just that fearful of conservative Bryan Slaton replacing Flynn?
The governor of Texas swears an oath to "defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, so help me God." Abbott' COVID policies forced nursing home residents to live and sometimes die in cruel isolation - which violates the law and the Constitution. He was sued for "impeding this right and is suspending this portion of the law without authority."'
In a January 2018 article, the Houston Chronicle reported that "Since taking office as governor in January 2015, Abbott has appointed 889 people to boards or elevated them to chairmanships." About 29 percent of the Abbott's appointees were donors, contributing over $14 million to Abbott's campaigns since June 2001. Texas doesn't need a "pay-to-play" governor.
Abbott's COVID advisory board was packed with donors and lobbyists - including mega taxpayer-funded lobbyist Mike Toomey, whose client list included AT&T, H-E-B, and pharmaceutical giant Merck. Remember: the Texas GOP had banning taxpayer-funded lobbying as a legislative priority, but that didn't stop Abbott from hiring him. Abbott always has different priorities than the GOP.
On Dec. 20, 2020, Abbott said, "No more shutdowns, we need to focus on opening up businesses." Two days later, Galveston, Brazoria, and Chambers were ordered to roll back their reopening plans because of an Abbott formula that forced closures based on incorrect state data. Galveston's County Judge said the state's order is "ridiculous" and based on flawed data with multiple discrepancies.
School choice has long been a Republican principle, but that didn't stop Abbott from endorsing and even praising one of the legislature's greatest opponents of school choice, Dan Huberty.
In his initial run for Governor, Abbott declared Obamacare to be "unworkable and unaffordable." But he hypocritically appointed Dr. John Zerwas, a former legislator who tried to expand Medicaid (a key element of the Affordable Care Act), to be his main medical advisor on the Coronavirus crisis.
DeSantis and Abbott are often compared, but if you look at the numbers, DeSantis re-opened Florida much quicker and not only had lower unemployment after re-opening, but Florida also had fewer COVID deaths - even after adjusted by population. Abbott listened to the wrong people and had the wrong instincts, and the data proves it. Texas needs a true leader again.'
In his 2014 gubernatorial debate, Greg Abbott said, "I'll be focused on transforming education to become number one in the nation." At the time, Texas ranked 39th in the nation. Today, after seven years of Abbott as governor, Texas ranks 43rd.
Abbott has no problem with getting behind the better conservative challenger in a Republican primary - nor should you. in 2018, he called San Antonio's Lyle Larson "Liberal Lyle" and spent $100K trying to defeat him. Larson won. So what did Abbott in the next election? Endorse Liberal Lyle.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms, but our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.

For these reasons, Governor Abbott must be replaced with a true Republican leader.