The Far-Right is Staging an Ouster of Moderate Republicans in the Panhandle. Will Incumbents Outlast

[TexasTowelie]

The Far-Right is Staging an Ouster of Moderate Republicans in the Panhandle. Will Incumbents Outlast the Attack?

Scotty Simpson, the owner of a farming irrigation supply store in the Texas Panhandle town of Morton, is back on his soapbox. Mind, this is a literal soapbox. Simpson is known around Morton for his fevered sermons on Jesus and conservatism, spontaneous diatribes he often unleashes on customers, friends and others who pass through his store — so much so that a carpenter friend built him a soapbox to stand on. Simpson, who is 5’5? with tidily combed gray hair, now uses it liberally, though he wouldn’t use that word. It’s primary season and all he wants to talk about is voting out the Panhandle’s Republican elected officials he considers far, far too liberal.

One morning in late January, Simpson is railing against Representative Ken King and Senator Kel Seliger, the Republican state legislators who represent this dusty farming community of 2,000 about an hour west of Lubbock.

“Anyone who votes with the Democrats doesn’t represent me,” Simpson says as a big-screen TV affixed to a post in the middle of the room flashes Fox News headlines. He takes particular issue with King’s refusal last session to support a controversial amendment that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, even in instances of severe fetal abnormalities. “Ken King is so far off the far side. I just can’t trust anything about him. You just can’t kill late-term babies — that has to be my bottom line today.” As for Seliger, Simpson thinks he’s been disloyal to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, the demagogic leader of the Senate. King and Seliger are two “of the most liberal Republicans” in the statehouse, he says.

Both of the lawmakers, along with Amarillo Representative Four Price, have drawn primary challenges from zealous right-wingers who say the current crop of Panhandle politicians isn’t conservative enough to pass Republican muster. The challengers are generally following a playbook developed by Empower Texans, a right-wing enforcement group that targets what it considers establishment Republicans: claim that you are unequivocally conservative and that the other guy is basically a Democrat, all the while vilifying bipartisanship and accusing your opponent of being a big-government patsy who’s soft on abortion. Simpson, along with the customers and workers who mill around inside the business that morning, say they’re sold.

Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/far-right-staging-ouster-moderate-republicans-panhandle-will-incumbents-outlast-attack/