On October 2, 1835, the Texas Revolution started when the government sent out troops to confiscate a cannon at Gonzales.

HD 17 Ties to Battle of Gonzales

The area of House District 17, which includes Caldwell, Bastrop, Lee, Burleson, and Milam Counties is intricately tied to that day, as is the situation we face, today.

When Lt. Francisco Casteneda arrived with 100 calvary to confiscate the cannon on September 29, 1835, he was stymied by a swollen Guadalupe River across which he saw 18 Gonzales militiamen, later called the Old Eighteen.

Matthew “Old Paint” Caldwell, of Gonzales, set off for Bastrop to sound the alarm. For that, Caldwell after whom both Caldwell County and the county seat of Burleson County are named, was nicknamed the “Paul Revere of the Texas Revolution.”

The Bastrop area sent two groups to Gonzales, one led by the commander of the Mina Volunteers, Robert Coleman, bringing 30 men, and the other by John Moore, bringing 40 men. Moore would become the leader of the over 140 men assembled to face off with Casteneda.

Sarah Dewitt (widow of impresario Green DeWitt) cut up the wedding dress of their daughter, Naomi, and created the famous Come and Take It flag under which Texas started its fight against the violations of the Mexican constitution by the dictator, Santa Anna.

After the first volley of the battle on October 2, which the Texans definitely fired, Moore and Casteneda parleyed. Casteneda asked Moore why the hostility. Moore said he was defending the decentralized Mexican Constitution of 1824 against the dictatorial consolidation of central power by Santa Anna. Castaneda said he was a supporter of decentralization, too, and Moore asked Casteneda to join with his group and fight for the Constitution. Casteneda replied with a familiar refrain of tyranny, he had to follow his orders.

Relevance to Today

At this moment in Texas history, we face as grave a centralizing threat against Texas self-governance as the threat faced by Texans in 1835. To insure that millions of our posterity will remain free in Texas will require the same grit and spirit of defiance shown by the people of Gonzales and Bastrop.

Globalist and Marxist tyrants who want to centralize power away from Texas to destroy everything Texans hold dear will not give up unless met with the original Texas spirit of resistance.

If there is anything that defines my political action, it is an understanding of the current threat to Texans and our future, an understanding of what it takes to defeat that threat, and a burning desire to engage the tyrannical, centralist enemy to secure the liberty of Texans today and in the future.

The picture is an amalgamation of the original Come and Take it flag with modern versions of it, expressing our need to stop tyrants from taking our guns, using the Great Reset and climate hoax to destroy the Texas economy, and defiance against the feds trying to stop us from defending ourselves against the border invasion.

I am descendant of Scotch-Irish cattle drivers, a Texas Aggie that went to Ivy League grad school, and I know history, so I am beginning to dig into the life and perspective of JD Vance.  I have not read his book yet, but intend to.

There is a common refrain throughout history whereby some individuals seek to gain self-esteem by lording it over others because they think themselves smarter, more sophisticated, or otherwise superior to others.

One of the dimensions the social divide takes place in is between urban “sophisticates” and rural “hicks.” It takes place between New York / Massachusetts, etc. and Texas. It takes place between D.C. and the rest of the country.

The snobbery takes place between progressives and liberty lovers. It takes place between the media and conservatives. It takes place between the young and older generations. And all of that is exploited for sales in marketing campaigns and by the entertainment industry.

Even the term Whigs and Tories in the founding days of the Republic show this divide. Whigs were what the founding fathers who fought the American Revolution considered themselves to be. About a century before the American Revolution, the liberty activists in London called themselves the Green Ribbon Club. Algernon Sidney, John Locke and his patron, Anthony Ashley Cooper (the First Earl of Shaftesbury) were part of the Green Ribbon Club, so named in the Interregnum because those who fought for liberty and to get rid of Charles I and then Cromwell, wore green ribbons on their arms to show their devotion to liberty.

The enemies of the liberty champions were devotees and sycophants to the King. Those who got access to the King, of course, were sophisticated and in the know. They, of course, were superior to and deserving of ruling over other men. It was the King’s men, the Tories, who came up with a pejorative nickname for the liberty-loving Green Ribbon Club.

The name was whigamore. A whigamore was a Scottish cattle driver. In other words to the anointed King’s sophisticates, liberty devotees were hicks, rubes, unsophisticates, Aggies, deplorables, and bitter clingers.

In this October 2016 video interview of JD Vance after the release of his book, he talks about the reaction of “his people,” the Scotch Irish to the elites and their love of Trump.

I, like an increasing numbers of Americans whether Scotch-Irish or not, understand that the globalists and west and east coast elites are trying to undermine the fundamental American idea that the people rule here.  That idea is expressed in the Texas Bill of Rights, Art. 1, Sec. 2:

“All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit.”

The 2024 general election at all levels is about whether the elites will continue their counter-revolution of control of America and Texas, or whether we start heading back to our founding principles of citizen-directed government.  It was also why I ran for the Texas House, because I see the elites controlling that institution and the current occupant of my district’s seat.  I am also optimistic about the prospects of wresting control of the Texas House away from the elites in January.

Like JD Vance (and maybe even more so), I am driven to put the people back in charge and take it from the elites who would rule us.  Like JD Vance, I have seen the elites up front and personal in an Ivy League graduate school.  I know that I was not recruited into the elite’s ranks by that experience.  And I hope JD Vance is like me in that he is committed to the fundamental American idea that We the People are capable of running our own lives, and that of our government.

Flippable Texas House Seats in 2024

The political winds are swirling around in 2024. For several reasons, I plan to focus until November 5, 2024 on Texas House seats that can possibly flip from Democrat today to Republican.

During my GOP primary campaign for Texas House, I said that the weak link in defending against the war on Texas by the feds and globalists is the swamp-controlled Texas House. The total number of elected Texas House Republicans is an important variable in the Speaker race which will determine whether the grip of the Austin swamp on the Texas House can be broken.

I call it Speaker Math. The question is how many Republican Betrayers does it take to join with Democrats to put in a swampy, Uniparty Speaker?  The formula is B (Betrayers needed) = R (total Republicans in the Texas House) – 74.

Currently, there are 86 Republicans in the Texas House.  So, the GOP Betrayers needed is 12.  (Joe Straus and Charlie Geren only needed 11 Betrayers in 2009 to start Uniparty control hostile to conservatives.)  If we flip a net two seats to Republican in November, R will be 88, and Betrayers needed is 14.  Every extra flip makes it harder for the Uniparty to keep power in the next legislative session.  (If the 46 Republican House candidates that have signed the letter to pick a Speaker in the Republican Caucus and vote against candidates who pledge to name Dem chairs stand firm, the Republican Dem-lovers will be forced to cast a record vote of their betrayal on the House floor in January.)

Given that the Dems favor mutilating and sterilizing children to enable their delusions, almost every Democrat refused to vote for a constitutional amendment to require citizenship to vote, and most Dems are soft on the crime that is devastating the voters in their districts, there is plenty of motivation for me to focus on flipping as many Texas House seats red as we can.

So what prospects are there for flipping seats in 2024?

I start with looking at the votes in the 2022 general election for Governor Abbott versus Beto to get a percentage vote.  I looked only at races where there is a Republican challenger in a district currently occupied by a Democrat.  In those races, there is not a single Libertarian candidate this cycle. The Green Party does not list its 2024 nominees for Texas House on its website. I doubt there is a Green Party candidate in these races, either, but conventional wisdom says that if so, it would likely pull votes away from the Dem.

Note that there were Libertarian and Green candidates in the 2022 gubernatorial race.  I made the simplifying assumption that Libertarian governor voters would more likely vote Republican for Texas House and Green governor voters would more likely vote Democrat.  So, the number of R – D  I am using for likely flip-ability in the 2022 governor race in the district is R+L-D-G. (I included the Abbott and Beto percentage vote in the district for a different perspective.)

I also showed in several ways whether the seat is open or whether the GOP candidate is challenging an incumbent. Normally, open seats are more likely to flip than those held by incumbents.

Remember, the percentage of people that have to vote differently this time compared to 2022 for a flip to happen is half the R – D value.  For example, if the vote was 53% D to 47% R last time for an R – D of -6%, just over 3% need to switch to flip the seat. Here is the list in order of “R – D” from highest to lowest:

I doubt that the anything lower on the list will flip.  In fact, even the bottom of the list above is unlikely to flip.  But for completeness, I include all other currently held Democrat seats with Republican challengers:

A more in-depth analysis is needed of each race.

When I look at the top nine GOP candidates on the list, it is very impressive.  Don McLaughlin is a businessman and former mayor of Uvalde. Robert Garza is an attorney with a lifetime of public service including being mayor of Del Rio. Denise Villalobos is a former school board member.  Steve Kinard is successful oil and gas financier with a strong interest in grid security and blockchain technology.  Doc Guerra is an OB/GYN doctor in the valley who has the experience of running the same race in 2022.  Rose Cannaday has served on the Irving City Council.  John Jun, an immigrant from South Korea, is an attorney with an impressive record of community service including Coppell city council and getting an education while supporting a family. Kay Smith is a universally admired longtime Harris County conservative activist. And Stephen Stanley has had a real estate career and served on the city councils of both Sachse and Garland.

Each of us should be looking to see what we can do to help the top twelve or so which are in our area of operation. I hope to be writing more about these important races as we progress.

Resolutions for County/SD Conventions This Weekend and State Convention

The Republican Party of Texas and its county parties have several important roles to play.  One of the most important is the bottom-up, grassroots process for creating its platform and legislative priorities.

The legislative priorities are especially important, providing a way for the RPT to become a key stakeholder in the Texas legislative process.

In this email I offer proposed resolutions that you may want to introduce in your county or senate district convention this coming Saturday, March 23.  I am writing to a statewide audience.  Some counties and SDs are already on their way in the process, having already had their precinct conventions. Bastrop and Caldwell Counties in HD 17 are in that boat.

But other places -- usually smaller counties like Lee, Burleson, and Milam Counties in HD 17 -- will have both precinct and county conventions this coming Saturday, March 23.  See schedules and locations for HD 17 counties at the end of this email.

See links to suggested resolutions associated with each title below and a bit of discussion about them.  You can download the PDF for use in your convention process.

Legislative Priority Resolution Suggestions

Because of lack of time, I will not provide rationale for these.  Hopefully the reasons these should make the priority cut will be already apparent.

Let Texans Run Texas Priority

Monetary Freedom Priority

Vaccine Freedom Priority

Axe Property Tax Priority

Election Integrity Priority

Grid Hardening Priority

Closed Primary Priority

Grassroots America/We the People has also put up a website page with proposed resolutions from conservative Texas organizations.

Platform Changes or Additions

Water Resources Plank Change

I think it important that all the counties of HD 17 pass this resolution.

Border Resolution

Another thing done at the state convention is to pass a very few topical resolutions.  Such usually gain national attention.  In 2022, the two that made it through Platform Committee and adopted by the entire State Convention called out that the 2020 election was stolen and censured John Cornyn for his anti-gun votes.

I think that this convention, the most important resolution we can have is to make a full-throated call for Texas to exercise our Article I, Section 10 natural and constitutional right to self defense against the border invasion even if the federal judiciary has entered a stay or opined that Texas cannot defend itself. Click here to see the border resolution.

HD 17 Convention Schedules and Locations

Lee County

I am the Resolutions Committee Chair at the Lee County Republican Convention.  If you voted in the Republican Primary in Lee County, I hope you will join us.

Location: The Lions Den, 1623 FM 141, Giddings  ( map )

Precinct Conventions:  10:00 am

County Convention:  1:00 pm

Burleson County

Location:  Cooks Point Community Center, 300 FM 1362, Caldwell   ( map )

Precinct Conventions:  10:00 am

County Convention:  following Precinct Conventions

Milam County

Location:  Milam County Annex, 806 N Crockett Ave, Cameron  ( map )

Precinct Conventions:  9:00 am

County Convention:  following Precinct Conventions

Caldwell County

Location:  First Lockhart Baptist Church Connections Center, 200 S Blanco St, Lockhart  ( map )

County Convention:  10:00 am

Note that to participate in the county convention you must have been already named a delegate at the precinct conventions already held.  Observers I am sure are welcome.

Bastrop County

Location:  Family Worship Center, 2425 FM 1704, Elgin ( map )

County Convention:  9:00 am

Note that to participate in the county convention you must have been already named a delegate at the precinct conventions already held.  Observers I am sure are welcome.

State Convention

Whether you are a delegate or not, you can present to the Platform and Legislative Priorities Committees at the State Convention at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio.  The committees will probably be taking testimony on Tuesday, May 20 through Thursday, May 23.  The convention starts on Thursday, May 23 and goes through Saturday, May 25.

Toward liberty,

Tom Glass

We Lost AND We Won!

The unofficial results are that Gerdes won with 57.8% to my 42.2%.  The votes for Gerdes were 14,136 versus 10,309 for Glass, meaning I lost by 3,827.  I am pretty sure that the mail-in ballots are not included in the vote count, but the 500 or so mail-in ballots will not make a difference in the outcome.

When I first thought about running for HD 17 in 2022, Kathie said that the most important thing was to change the culture of the Texas House in order to select a speaker in line with the grassroots. Last night, we did exactly that, and that is why I say “we won,” even though we lost our race for HD 17.

The “Weak Link” Has Been Repaired

HD 17 was just one battle in the establishment v. grassroots war raging in Republican Texas House primaries across the state.  I had said that if we won just ten or so of the 42 challenges to Paxton impeachers, it would be a gamechanger.

The good news is that we had a tremendous shakeup last night in the Texas House for the good!  Throughout the campaign, I repeatedly said that the Texas government is the strategic line of defense against an occupied DC that seeks to destroy everything Texans hold dear, but that the swamp-controlled Texas House is the weak link in our defense.  It looks like that will no longer be the case in 2025.

Seven Paxton impeachers lost outright last night.  Eight more, including Speaker Dade Phelan, were forced into runoffs.  Normally, an incumbent forced into a runoff loses.  That means 15 Paxton impeachers are in various stages of defeat.  When we add the five establishment retirees who did not seek re-election, one other establishment loss, and a Democrat seat likely to flip Republican, we are looking at as many 22 flipped seats!

The quality of the victors last night is incredible.  To mention a few:

• Mike Olcott, Parker County Conservatives founder
• Mitch Little, one of the awesome Ken Paxton impeachment defense team
• Shelley Luther, who went to jail for opening her hair salon during COVID to provide a living to her employees, and
• Janis Holt, former SREC member who represented the Colony Ridge area

Grassroots champion Matt Morgan defied all odds in Fort Bend County with the most impressive victory of the primary, surviving non-stop bombardment of lying ads on Houston TV and endorsements against him by Abbott and Patrick.  Wes Virdell, Texas executive director of Gun Owners of America, won the seat vacated by the retiring House impeachment manager.

They are going to rock the Texas House!

When Ken Paxton urged us at our January event to vote against three of the Court of Criminal Appeals incumbents who gutted his ability to prosecute election fraud in Texas, I wondered if he had enough clout to deliver on that request.  The person that does have that kind of clout, though, is Donald Trump, and Paxton persuaded Trump to endorse against them, too.  All three incumbents lost last night.

Gratitude

I can’t express enough how humbled and awed I am by the enthusiastic, sustained support of so many in this district and around the state.  My campaign was funded by you.  It was implemented by you with block walking, word of mouth, sign deployment, standing at the polls, and prayer.  We are a band of brothers and sisters working to save our posterity, our liberty, our state, and our nation.  There is a special bond created in such a fight, and Kathie and I will cherish the friendships and memories from this campaign for the rest of our lives.

The Deciding Factor in the HD 17 Race

This result is not what I expected, given the overwhelmingly positive feedback I received standing at the polls and at the door while block walking.  There is a lot of analysis to be done, but I have a few thoughts about why we lost that I will share.

The biggest factor in this race was Governor Abbott’s endorsement and support of Gerdes.  Abbott is tremendously popular in this district and across Texas, and his endorsement carried more weight with the swing voters that matter than Ken Paxton’s endorsement of me and Gerdes’ vote to impeach Paxton.  Abbott backed up his endorsement with at least $80,000 of ads on Gerdes’ behalf, something that Paxton was not able to do, given his need to spend so much on his impeachment defense.

Polling says that Trump’s endorsement would have countered and surpassed Abbott’s had I gotten it.  But Dan Patrick, for his own reasons, apparently persuaded Trump not to endorse me, despite Ken Paxton and Sid Miller urging Trump to do so.

I said at the beginning of the race that the crystalizing event for me running again was the vote by Gerdes to impeach Paxton.  I thought that would be an action by Gerdes that would alienate him from  voters, and it largely did.  I did not factor in that, while Abbott wants to defeat a Phelan-controlled House, he does not want to cede influence over the House to Paxton.  I seriously doubt that Abbott, Patrick, and Trump would have played the endorsement game in this unusual year without Paxton first endorsing.

The unpleasant fact of Texas House races in the Republican primary continues to be that the majority of Republican primary voters do not have news sources about what happens at the Texas House and overly rely on endorsements and advertising to make their choice for their state representative.

Money for advertising is not near as determinative in a two-way race where, as in this case, we had sufficient funding and ground game to get our name and message out.  Yes, $1 million dollars of big donor money came in from outside the district for Gerdes, arrogantly attempting to pick our representative.  That may have played a part in the Gerdes victory, but I think the Abbott endorsement and ads turned the tide from what was probably an early lead by our campaign, driven by our block walking, word of mouth, sign deployment, and advertising.

The voters have spoken. I wish the best for Gerdes and hope that he justifies their support.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Because our posterity, state, and nation need effective action to save them, I plan to continue doing what I can in that larger fight.  I hope that a lot of us continue working together in that fight.  Here are some of the ways that I want to keep going that maybe you can help in, too.  More details as we go.

First, I want to do what I can do to help fund and support the challengers of Paxton impeachers in their runoffs.  They are:

HD 21 – David Covey against Texas Speaker Dade Phelan (Jasper, Orange, Jefferson Counties)

HD 64 – Andy Hopper against Lynn Stuckey **  (Wise and Denton Counties)

HD 61 – Keresa Richardson against Frederick Frazier ** (Collin County)

HD 91 – David Lowe against Stephanie Klick ** (Tarrant County)

**  Governor Abbott has endorsed and is supporting the Paxton impeacher that has been forced into the runoff.  Note that in other runoffs, Abbott endorsed and supports the challenger because of the school choice issue.

Second, I intend to go to my Republican precinct and county conventions and seek to go to the RPT state convention and get the best platform, priorities, and party leadership we can.

Third, I want to focus on what we can do to insure secure elections in the big counties of Texas for the general election.

Finally, I want to start preparing legislation and strategies for the 2025 Texas legislature.

I don’t know about you, but when I prayed about this race, I prayed that God’s will be done.  Evidently, He has other plans for me and this district than what we worked for.  I accept that and will keep pushing forward.

I hope we get to work together in the future . . .

Toward liberty,

Tom Glass

The arrogant attempt of the big boys to purchase the Texas House is raging in Republican primaries all over the state. This is a report on my Central Texas area of operation.

Through the last reporting period, $700K had poured into supporting Stan Gerdes from out-of-district lobbyists, PACs, and politicians. I am getting word that even more is arriving.

This arrogant barrage from a few wealthy individuals who REALLY want to pick the "representative" from our district is turning the stomachs of a LOT of Republican voters.

I have raised $43K from the district from 168 HD 17 voters. Gerdes has only raised $26K from 49 in-district voters. You got that right. Gerdes gets only 3%, maybe less, from the voters in this district.

The big boys who want to run our lives want the voters to ignore that I am more experienced in business (including the oil business) and the Texas Legislature, more educated, more endorsed by trusted conservative groups, more independent, and more driven to save our posterity's future by securing our border and resisting occupied DC's war on Texas.

They want you to ignore that Gerdes:

* Works for a lobbying firm while pretending to represent us

* At the behest of his two biggest donors, impeached our border champion, Ken Paxton

* Is most influenced and installed and backed by Rick Perry, who recently said that it is "Sexy to be RINO."

* Was funded this cycle by the same billionaires that backed Nikki Haley against Trump

* Supports and is supported by disgraced Speaker Dade Phelan, both of whom support Democrat chairs in the Texas House. Phelan is opposed by Trump and supported by RINO Rick Perry.

It cannot be more clear that this is a race that will determine whether the people of Bastrop, Burleson, Caldwell, Lee, and Milam Counties will have a representative of us to Austin, or a representative of the Austin swamp to us.

Conservatives do not let their Republican friends and neighbors cast uneducated votes. The thing that will win this race for the people of HD 17 is word of mouth. Talk is cheap. Do LOTS of it this weekend and Monday before the remaining voters vote on Tuesday!

This blog was inspired by a social media post by a voter in HD 17, Marine, and father Michael Bastos:

Funny story, I ran into the mailman today on my way to go early vote after work. The dude no joke tells me that he can’t wait for the election to be over so he can stop putting these mailers in the mail boxes. I asked him who he was voting for and he said “sure as hell not this guy” and told me he was voting for Tom Glass. When I asked him why he basically said that he’s had to pass out so many of these things that he didn’t trust someone with enough money to send out this many flyers in such a short amount of time. These are just the flyers I had on hand to take a photo of, kinda over kill when you consider printing and mailing these things out can run you around $50K each time.

Here is a picture of just some of the Gerdes mailers he received:

For the record, here are the two mailers that my grassroots campaign was able to afford:

Tom Glass Campaign Mailer 1:

Tom Glass Campaign Mailer 2:

I arrived at the Bastrop County Republican Party meeting last night only to be told by many there that they had been barraged with glossy mailers from Stan Gerdes and the swamp entities that are doing third party mailers for him.

Some, who had not picked up their mail for several days, had three mailers for Gerdes in their mailbox.  Since 18 of 21 Bastrop County GOP precinct chairs have endorsed me, the crowd was not amused. I have heard similar complaints from those I greet at the polls.

Given that, it is time to talk about the warning I gave on the second of the two glossy mailers that my grassroots campaign has been able to afford.  On one, I said:

"You may get LOTS of glossy mailers from incumbent Stan Gerdes because the swamp is spending big bucks to keep their puppet in power. Mailers like this cost $16,000 or more."

In the second half of 2023, the swamp had supplied 83% of the money with which he is bombarding us.  Less than 5% came from the district.  We have not had time to analyze the money since then, but those ratios surely have only gotten worse.

Throughout this campaign, I have been trying to provide proof that I am the grassroots, MAGA, constitutional conservative in this race, running against a swamp installed puppet.  See the meme below for some of those arguments.

If you want a champion to defend Texas against the multiple assaults (including the border) from an occupied DC, I am the most experienced, educated, and driven candidate in the race, not beholden to the swamp.

The question remains for you, the Republican voter:

Do you want a representative of you to Austin, or a representative of the Austin swamp to you?

Can The Swamp Be Any More Obvious?

The Houston Chronicle reports that at a fund raiser for Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, Rick Perry joked that being a RINO is sexy.

(Photo by Kim Brent for the Houston Chronicle.)

Rick Perry and Dade Phelan are, of course, the handlers and patrons of Stan Gerdes. Phelan is the bagman for the swamp's control of the Texas House.

Phelan killed our most important border bills at the request of the Democrats and killed the bill by Senator Lois Kolkhorst to ban Communist Chinese from owning land in Texas.

This is why I say that the Texas House is the weak link in Texas' defense against an occupied DC that wants to take everything we hold dear.  And that to win against the DC swamp, we must smash the Austin swamp.

And it is also why I say, to save Texas, fire Phelan, fire Gerdes.  Vote Tom Glass.

Stan Gerdes, the freshman incumbent in Texas House District 17, works for a lobbying firm.

The firm that hired Gerdes in August, 2023 is Hance Scarborough LLC.  Kent Hance, current Chancellor of Texas Tech and who has held numerous elective offices as a Democrat is the Hance in the firm name.

Stan Gerdes is not an attorney.  His title with this law firm is Legislative Consultant. He has no known real-world experience in the energy industry.

This link on the Hance Scarborough page said that Rick Perry brought Gerdes to the job.  Rick Perry has been in the news, lately, endorsing against Trump in Speaker Phelan's district primary race.  Speaker Phelan and Stan Gerdes support sharing power in the Texas House with Democrats.

"The theme of my campaign has been that Stan Gerdes, the incumbent I challenge in the GOP primary that starts February 20, was installed and is controlled by the Austin swamp," said Tom Glass. "But this news which we just learned tells us more than that. Gerdes IS the swamp!"

"I have repeatedly said in the campaign that if the voters of HD 17 want a representative of us to Austin, instead of a representative of the Austin swamp to us. This latest news establishes that fact beyond all doubt," Glass continued.

Glass has previously offered other proof of the swamp control over Gerdes. The Texas Ethics Commission reports from the second half of 2023 show that the incumbent received 83% of his funds from the Austin Swamp, the largest donation being a group that pushed the Paxton impeachment. The second largest donation was from Speaker Dade Phelan, also a leader for impeachment. (See this Tom Glass blog post for more details.)

"I wish I had known this about Gerdes sooner," said Glass.  "I don't have a swamp PAC that will fund $6,500 opposition research on me like Gerdes did. I do have dedicated volunteers, one of whom alerted me of this only yesterday."

"To defeat the war on Texas and everything we hold dear by DC and globalists, we must drain the Austin Swamp," Glass said. "When you have an occupied DC, the Texas government is the next line of defense of Texans against the assault on everything Texans hold dear is Texas government, but the Texas House is the weak link in that defense."

"The Austin swamp wants to act like it is business-as-usual time when it is not in Texas or the US," Glass concluded.

I, Tom Glass, am the clear MAGA choice in Texas House District 17.

Anyone who is paying attention knows that the MAGA vote in the Texas House is for challengers to the Paxton-impeaching, swamp-controlled incumbents.

The Austin swamp is clearly funded by Trump-haters and the Texas House members they control, like the swamp puppet I challenge, Stan Gerdis, deceptively use that money to imply Trump support.  Here are the reasons why I am MAGA and my opponent is not:

• Trump said that border champion Paxton impeachers like incumbent Gerdes are "establishment RINOs" and need to be fired.
• Trump endorses against Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, the second largest donor to Gerdes. Gerdes and Phelan support Democrat chairs in the Texas House.
• Trump-haters that donate to Nikki Haley are funding Gerdes.
• The godfather of Gerdes' wife and main handler/promoter of him, Rick Perry, has endorsed on the opposite side of Trump in the Speaker Phelan race.
• It is not enough to remove Phelan. To drain the Austin swamp and have a MAGA Texas House, Phelan lieutenants and followers must be fired, too.

I created this meme to address the issue after a group claiming to support Trump called the Trump Conservative Club of Texas published a list of endorsements including me.

Note that this is not an endorsement from Trump. He has endorsed so far in only one Texas House race -- against Speaker Dade Phelan.  But he should endorse me for all the reasons listed above and more.

In all the back and forth in the thick of the campaign, I figured a listing of my Republican bonafides are in order.

My first political memory is that my parents took me at age 7 to a Barry Goldwater rally.

My first vote at age 19 while I was a student at Texas A&M was in the Republican primary in the spring of 1976.  If you know anything about Texas political history, that was a rare event in those days.

As a student at Texas A&M, I urged my fellow students to vote for Bill Clements to make him the first Republican governor in Texas in over 100 years.

As a student at Harvard Business School, I voted in the Republican primary for Ronald Reagan in 1980.

I held the first of several fund raisers for Republicans in my Piney Point Village home in early 1996, the same year the incumbent I challenge turned 10 years old.

That same year, I wrote and got my first plank in the Republican Party of Texas Platform at the state convention in San Antonio.  I have been instrumental in drafting, editing, or influencing 16 others since. I served on the RPT Platform Committee in 2022.

I got a Republican House and Republican State Senator to introduce legislation that I wrote in 1997.

I have attended so many Republican state conventions, that I do not remember how many I have attended.

I have contributed to more Republican candidates than I can know.

I have block walked and stood at the polls for many Republican candidates.

In 2019, because the then Speaker of the Texas House was bashing those who were pushing for the top two priorities of the RPT (constitutional carry and right to life), I organized a group that held a rally against him and block walked against him in his district.  I was not the straw that broke the camel’s back, but he did not return to the Texas legislature in 2021.

I have been honored to receive three statewide conservative awards in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

I have never had a problem with the grassroots I met and worked with in the Republican Party of Texas or the platform of the RPT.  I have had a BIG problem with the elected officials of the Party that betray the RPT principles, platform, and priorities.

The people attacking me in my House race LIKE the establishment, swamp control over the elected Republicans and HATE the idea of the grassroots controlling elected Republicans.  They also HATE the few wealthy individuals who go against the swamp and support grassroots.

This primary is about whether the swamp gets to keep control of the Texas elected Republicans or whether that crony system is smashed and we get a conservative Texas House.

TOM GLASS SAYS TEXAS HOUSE DISTRICT 17 INCUMBENT IS THE NIKKI HALEY IN THE RACE

The incumbent I am challenging in Texas House District 17 has received half his funding from lobbyists and PACs and less than 15% from the district, according to the last three Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) special session reports on file.

"In the most recent report, the incumbent's largest donor ($2,500) was a Koch Industries PAC. Voters in the district should know that a Koch Industries PAC is supporting and endorsing Nikki Haley in her bid to defeat President Trump for the Republican presidential nomination," Tom Glass said.

"I am the grassroots constitutional conservative in the race, running against a swamp-installed, Paxton-impeaching puppet." Tom Glass said. "The TEC reports are strong evidence of what differentiates us."

"Although I welcome contributions from PACs that support conservative principles, so far in this campaign, I have received neither lobbyist nor PAC contributions. In the same three TEC reports, I received over 30% funding from the district, with the rest coming from the conservative grassroots friends I have developed in the last decade of volunteer work at the Texas Capitol," Glass said.

In the three special session TEC reports, Tom Glass had 128 donors versus 86 for the incumbent. The in-district donors were 37 for Glass and 16 for the incumbent.

“The district needs a representative to Austin, NOT a representative from the Austin swamp to the district," Glass said.

"To defeat the war on Texas and everything we hold dear by DC and globalists, we must drain the Austin Swamp," Glass said. "This is not business as usual time in Texas or the US!"

Tom Glass narrowly missed making it into the GOP runoff in a 5-way, open seat in 2022. The HD 17 GOP primary race in 2024 will be a 2-way race between Tom Glass and the freshman incumbent. HD 17 consists of Bastrop, Burleson, Caldwell, Lee, and Milam Counties in Central Texas.

Wishing you and yours a harmonious, prosperous, and happy new year.

The Chinese curse is, "May you live in interesting times." And, from that perspective I think a lot of us are thinking that 2024 is going to be VERY interesting.

The likelihood of dark events like war, economic collapse, terrorist attacks, another engineered "pandemic," as well as out and out lawless activity during, before, and after our general elections seems higher than at any time in our lifetime. For those inclined to worry, there is more to worry about than ever in our lifetimes.

But I enter 2024 prepared, determined, and calm. There are several reasons for this.

First, if you, as the Bible tells us, fear God, you have nothing else to fear. You know that it all works out OK in the end, no matter what will happen that we don't like in the short term. Second, the message of Mordecai to Esther has great meaning to me. In asking Esther to risk her life to save her people, one variant of Mordecai's message was, "Consider that you were born for such a time as this."

I believe 2024 will be an inflection point in Texas and American history. I cannot guarantee that those who stole the federal government in 2020 can be stopped from doing so again in 2024. They may try some of what worked before, but we know for sure that they have new tricks up their sleeves.

One of the main reasons I am running for Texas House is that I am firmly convinced that we must have a second line of defense against the powerful forces who want to take everything we in Texas hold dear.

One year from now, we may be facing a situation where the federal government is still in the hands of those who seek to enslave and destroy us. That means having a Texas government in 2025 that will protect us from the globalist and federal assaults will be more important than ever.

Because I know that war has been declared on us by our wannabe globalist and woke masters, I know that we must have a warrior mindset. This is NOT business or politics as usual time! We need our Texas government to understand that and to courageously act on that understanding. To be a warrior, you cannot be a worrier. Warriors have to accept that they are likely dead and calmly execute their mission. If you are prayed up, you can reach that mental state. If the Republicans of HD 17 pick me on March 5, I will go focused on the mission, not on re-election.

I consider myself politically dead. I have had a career - thank you very much! I don't need one in politics. I just need to make sure that we turn back the assault and that my grand daughter can grow up in a free country the way we did.

So my resolutions for 2024 are to: 1) make sure I am right with my maker. 2) make sure my family is prepared for a wide range of cataclysmic events. 3) calmly, resolutely, and courageously work to organize Texas to resist the storm that is very likely coming.

I hope you will too. And one year from now, I hope we will be celebrating together the incredible victories for liberty and Texas we have won.

Toward liberty, Tom Glass

A I write this on December 5, 2023, we sit 3 months (91 days) away from March 5, 2024, Republican primary election day where not only my race for Texas House will be decided, but the nominations for US Senate, Texas choice for President, justices for both the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and Supreme Court, appellate justices, and multiple local judges, as well as multiple county races for sheriff, constable, district attorney, county commissioner, justice of peace.

Early voting starts on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, the day after President’s Day.  February 20, the real start of the election, is only 77 days and 11 weekends away.  One of those weekends, of course, includes Christmas Eve and cannot be used for campaigning.

We find out for sure Monday evening, December 11, but it looks like this will be a two-way race between the Paxton-impeaching freshman incumbent who I faced in 2022 and the grassroots challenger, me, Tom Glass.

At this moment in the campaign, volunteers and I have knocked over 1,000 doors, we have built a lot of infrastructure for the campaign like signs, flyers, door hangers, websites, social media, etc., and we slogging our way in raising the money that every campaign needs to get the message out.

What is this campaign’s message?  It is that everything Texans hold dear, from our oil and gas livelihoods, our agricultural livelihoods, our economy, our children, our guns, our medical freedom, the value of our dollar, liberty, and our Constitutions is under assault from a stolen, corrupt federal government, globalists, and Marxists.  It is NOT business as usual time in Texas or America!

Texas can withstand this war on us if our state legislature, our governor, our attorney general, and our counties will unite to fight it.  The problem is that to resist the DC swamp attacking us, we have to clean up the Austin swamp.  The current Texas House and its leadership acts like it is business as usual time when it is not.

I am running against a young freshman incumbent who was installed by the establishment to follow that complacent, clueless House leadership.  There are multiple proofs of that statement.  The most substantive of which is that he followed the establishment attack on our most effective champion defending Texas from the DC war on us, our Attorney General Ken Paxton. You read that right, Stan Gerdes voted to impeach Ken Paxton.

When I deliver that message at the door in HD 17, it is overwhelmingly well received.  By that I mean that 98% react positively.  You call that a winning message.

The challenge of my campaign is to deliver that message to the GOP primary voters in HD 17 who are conservative, but do not hear or pay attention to news about what happens at the Texas legislature.

Business as usual for the establishment is to use big establishment money to build name ID with repetitive, comprehensive advertising.  The incumbent’s campaign at this early stage has already sent 2 glossy mailers and has had paid block walkers deliver flyers and knock doors all over the district.  The embattled establishment-backed Speaker Phelan that my incumbent follows has sent a mailer for him.  And using Texas tax dollars and the power of the incumbency, he has sent a legislative report using the standard franking privileges of the office.

In short, I am going to be way outspent in this campaign.  But all we need to do together to go the distance is get the winning message above to the voters via boots on the ground block walking, word of mouth networking, and a smaller-but-sufficient amount of advertising using funds raised.

You can take independent action to spread the word to your networks.  Let me know via tomglass.org website or [email protected] if you are ready to help in that effort with volunteer effort or with a donation no matter how large or small.  (We are currently in the middle of a match of $25 donations to the campaign, so please make that small donation, today at tomglass.org/donate.)

When I thought of “running” for office, I figured this picture of me running for Texas A&M at age 20 would capture the spirit of my campaign.  Will you go the distance with me?

After all, we have a state, a country, and the liberty of our posterity to save!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Those two words are inseparably linked. You cannot be happy unless you are grateful for the good things in life.

Going further, the source of most of the current unhappiness that is ripping our state and union apart is that so many people focus on their grievances, instead of their blessings.

The framers wrote in the Declaration about certain unalienable rights among which was the pursuit of happiness. It is not an accident that George Washington who was out fighting in the field while the Declaration was being written and signed, proclaimed the first Thanksgiving in his first year in the office of president.

George Washington understood that the key to the pursuit of happiness is an attitude of gratitude. In other words, the successful way to pursue happiness is to focus on your blessings, not your grievances.

The root cause of most of our political problems, today, is that broken, miserable, lost people that have fallen into a downward spiral of always focusing on the negative are trying to bring the rest of us into their misery.

These people are on a mission to make sure that those of us who focus on and work toward the positives in life are stopped by psychological manipulation using the tools of fear and guilt, or if necessary brute force to keep us from exercising our natural, unalienable rights to pursue happiness.

I am grateful for much. In the political realm, I am grateful for our heritage of liberty and the example of the framers who had the courage to change the things they could, the patience to accept the things they couldn’t, and the wisdom to know the difference. I am grateful for their attitude of gratitude.

I am grateful to them for writing the Declaration of Independence, thereby giving us a document that tells us the mission and moral grounding of our governments. I am grateful for written constitutions that that they created at the state and federal level that sought to bind governments down to secure our rights.

And I am grateful that, although the window is rapidly contracting, we still have the freedom and power to stop those unhappy people who are using all their power and skill to try to ruin the happiness of the rest of us.

The Establishment Lashes Out

Has it only been 5 days since my last report?  It seems like an eternity because so much has happened.

The big news is that the establishment is in a full court press against the grassroots in HD 17.  Let me count the ways.

• The Gerdes Campaign has delivered its second glossy mailer in so many weeks, this one bashing Biden for a “failure” at the border. (The one before that had Stan taking credit for the property tax cut finally passed in the second special session.)
• A mailer from Dade Phelan for Gerdes has hit the mailboxes of many in the district.
• I discovered while block walking myself this weekend that Gerdes has paid block walkers out for him.
• And the Gerdes campaign has launched two direct assaults on my candidacy in a one-two punch on Monday and Tuesday. I will talk about the Monday assault later after I know more.  The second assault was a doozy.  Most of this email will be about the second assault.

Early Tuesday evening, I saw a tweet by Patrick Svitek summarizing a Stan Gerdes press release criticizing a PAC that donated $10,000 to my campaign in the 2022 campaign and challenging me not to take any more money from them.

The Texas Tribune had dropped a Sunday evening October 8 story about an antisemite agent provocateur named Nick Fuentes having visited the office complex where the president of Defend Texas Liberty PAC (DTL), Jonathan Stickland, has his office.  A number of other conservative organizations office there, too.

Continuing the open warfare between Dan Patrick and Dade Phelan over the Paxton impeachment, Phelan jumped on the story Monday as the special session was starting and called out Patrick for taking money from Defend Texas Liberty PAC during the Paxton impeachment.  Patrick responded with his own flaming response the same day.

By Tuesday afternoon, Gerdes had issued a press release and placed it on his campaign Facebook page with the headline, “Conservative Stan Gerdes Statement on Tom Glass and Neo-Nazis.”  Here is the image of that release:

Stan also sent out an email to his supporters launching the assault.

Thanks to all of you who gave me the heads up on what Stan was doing.  Such updates are invaluable.  And thanks for the conversations and advice I got from you on how to handle.

I got an email from Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune around 2 pm this afternoon asking if I wanted to respond by his 4 pm deadline.  This is the reply I gave him:

Sunday morning, I, like other Americans, heard the dreadful news of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.  Our hearts break for those killed, wounded, harmed, or held hostage, and their families.

But the news I heard the next day was almost as terrible.  I heard that Nick Fuentes had to come to Texas to meet with someone – I don’t know who – to discuss something – I don’t know what.

I first heard about Nick Fuentes when he tried to set up President Trump at Mar-a-Lago last year.  Due to that event, I learned that Fuentes is a craven, despicable, and vile human being. I condemn him and his toxic, antisemitic ideas and anyone associated with him.

I also condemn attempts by Dade Phelan and Stan Gerdes to exploit this tragedy for political gain.  Their pathetic attempts are nothing less than an attempt to distract the voters’ attention from the baseless, failed Ken Paxton impeachment debacle.

My campaign will stay focused on what the GOP voters of HD 17 want which the House leadership and Gerdes failed to deliver – border security, election integrity, a path to eliminating property tax, stopping our groundwater from being drained, dealing with rapid growth, monetary freedom, and a pushback against globalist destruction of the Texas economy.

I welcome a comparison of the grassroots funding of my campaign and the establishment elitest funding of Gerdes’ campaign.

After I sent this in, I saw a tweet by Brad Johnson of The Texan who said that Dan Patrick has also released this about Tim Dunn, the largest contributor to DTL:

I spoke with Tim Dunn, a principal funder of Defend Texas Liberty PAC, and he has told me unequivocally that it was a serious blunder for PAC President Jonathan Stickland to meet with white supremist Nick Fuentes. He has further assured me that he is certain that Mr. Stickland and all PAC personnel will not have any future contact with Mr. Fuentes. He stated emphatically that everyone at the PAC understands that mistakes were made and are being corrected.

And there you have it.  They say that If you are catching flak, you are over the target.

The actions of Gerdes show that he has solidly linked his fate with the fate of Dade Phelan and the Austin swamp. Most of you, of course, are not surprised by this because you know the backers, money and endorsements that installed him in 2022 to do just that. The Paxton impeachment told us this, too.

Gerdes is a representative NOT of us to Austin, but of the Austin swamp to us.

And he has the substantial financial resources of the swamp to send lots of glossy mailers, have his attack-dog consultants devise and launch attacks, and to blanket the district with business-as-usual advertising to the low attention GOP primary voters claiming that he is a conservative on multiple issues.

Buckle up, grassroots!  It’s going to be a vicious bumpy ride!

Thomas Paine said in The American Crisis:

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: — ’Tis dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

For the grassroots to regain control of the Texas House from the swamp, we must all contribute a lot of effort and financial resources.

Because the financial resources we need to get the word out to counter the big-buck establishment money machine are limited, we are going to step up in numbers to do organized outreach to our neighbors.  I plan to fire up that volunteer leader organization soon.

If you want to help coordinate an activity or your neck of the woods on a volunteer basis in this campaign, please let me know.  I hope to be setting up an organizational meeting soon to get that effort launched.

And of course, if you have not done so, chip in a few bucks to tomglass.org/donate.

And BTW, if you can’t correctly diagnose the problem, you can’t solve it.  Gerdes’ business-as-usual formulation that Biden “failed” on the border is wrong for two reasons.  First, Biden hasn’t failed because he has never tried to secure the border.  Biden and his Deep State handlers started from the beginning to deliberately violate federal law and open the border, subsidizing the cartels in the human, sex, child, and drug trafficking business.

Second, the failure is that Texas leadership has not stepped up to have Texas secure the border – even if necessary, in opposition to the federal lawbreaking and interference with our operations.  Dade Phelan killed the best border bill this session by agreeing to a ridiculous point of order by open borders Democrat Rafael Anchia. A Dade Phelan follower is not going to get the job done at the border to protect Texans.

This is a report on my campaign for Texas House in District 17.  The 2024 primary vote on March 5, 2024 is shaping up to be a historic showdown between the grassroots and the establishment for control of the Texas House.  Now is the time for the grassroots to step up in larger numbers and efforts than ever before.

The Paxton Impeachment Transformed the '24 Texas GOP Primary

The Paxton impeachment has placed a spotlight on the deficiencies of the toxic Texas House culture and there is likely to be a record number of challengers to Republican House members in 2024.  That is a good thing for Texas, but it presents a challenge to my campaign.

The key to winning on March 5 is to work as a team with the grassroots to insure that the voters in HD 17 who focus more on the presidential race know my name and have a positive impression of my campaign for Texas House when show up at the polls.  That takes three things:

• Grassroots in-district actively engaging their neighbors and friends about my candidacy
• Gaining endorsements of well-known, higher-level officials and candidates that will catch the attention and persuade the voters to vote for me
• Having the financial resources to advertise my name and endorsements to the voters who normally don’t research their Texas House candidate choices before voting

Because of the number of House challengers across Texas in 2024, more financial resources across the state are going to be needed than ever before.  This means that the grassroots who want a conservative Texas House are going to have to step up with both more financial donations and volunteer effort than ever before.

I am asking those with means around the state who support grassroots candidates for resources, but there is a very real competition for those limited resources.  By necessity, those much-appreciated liberty-loving Texans are having to make hard decisions about how to allocate their resources across the state.  And to a large extent they are going to make those decisions based on how much energy and effective action they see from each candidate and the support they see for that candidate from the grassroots both across the state and especially in-district.

That is why I am asking for you to do three things:

• Donate something you can afford, no matter how small, today, to my campaign! Donate at tomglass.org/donate  If you prefer, mail a check payable to Tom Glass Campaign to P.O. Box 720, McDade, TX 78650, including with your donation this form filled out.  (Thanks to all of you who have already done so!)

• Ask friends you know to do send a donation, too.

• If you live in Bastrop, Lee, Caldwell, Burleson, or Milam Counties or close by, volunteer for my campaign. I need volunteers to coordinate volunteer block walkers, texters, sign placers, and phone bankers.  Reply to this email if you want to coordinate volunteers and/or volunteer.

Pilots talk about the power curve.  If you get ahead of the power curve, each action feeds on itself in a positive direction.  The opposite is also true.  In a very real sense, if I gain large numbers of small donations and show action on the ground in district, I am much more likely to get not only larger statewide financial contributions, I am more likely to gain the big endorsements I need to build positive name ID with the bulk of the GOP voters in my district who pay more attention to the presidential race than Texas House races.

Speaking in Rockdale Next Thursday, Oct 12

I will be speaking to the Milam County Constitutional Conservatives next Thursday, October 12 at the American Legion Hall north of Rockdale at:

2542 FM 487, Rockdale, Texas 76567

We gather at 5 pm to eat and I will start speaking around 6 pm or so.  Hope to see you there!

Grassroots America We the People Endorsement Endorsement

I was honored two weeks ago to receive the Grassroots America We the People Endorsement in my race.  This follows on that group’s honoring me earlier this year with one of two 2023 “Ross Kecseg” Fearless Conservative Awards.

Conclusion

Because others like Grassroots America We the People have said they think that my experience, approach of prioritizing issues, and respectfully engaging others on the issues can make an impact in Austin that many others cannot, I do not think it presumptuous to urge you to prioritize support for my campaign this election.

Please donate today to my campaign!  Please think about how you can talk to others about helping with my campaign.  Please think about how you can influence the GOP primary voters of HD 17 by organized volunteer effort during this campaign and reply to me that you want to help.

We have a state to save and a reformed Texas House is the way to save it.

Toward liberty,

Tom Glass

tomglass.org

I am making it official.  I am running again for the Texas House in District 17, which includes Bastrop, Milam, Caldwell, Burleson, and Lee Counties.

Last time, the race was a 5-way race for an open seat.  I have talked to the others who ran and fell short in 2022 and they tell me they do not plan to run again, so the GOP primary race on March 5, 2024 will probably be a 2-way race between the incumbent and me.

WHY I AM RUNNING

Why would I embark once again on a labor-intensive and costly effort to become the champion of the people of HD 17?  After all, I just finished my fifth full time session at the Texas legislature pushing for the bills that will protect Texans from the daggers pointed at our heart.  And I probably had more impact from the outside this last session than I have ever had before.

My answer is that I do not believe the current Texas House or the current incumbent in HD 17 understands the urgency of the multiple dangers that face Texas at this moment.  Everything Texas holds dear is under attack by globalists and Marxists along multiple fronts.  At its core, I understand the danger, am more motivated, and better prepared to join the fight than the current occupant of the office.

I understand that war has been declared on Texans and our values.  And I am ready to step up to defend us in that war.  In other words, I understand what time it is in Texas, and know how much we have to get done to save Texas.

PAXTON IMPEACHMENT WAS CRYSTALIZING EVENT

Given that I had had my best batting average of bill passage this last session than ever before, I had almost decided not to run again as the session started winding down the week before Memorial Day.  But then, I heard shocking news.  What?  What?!?  They are going to try to impeach Attorney General Paxton, one of the most effective champions against the war on Texas that we have?  The very people engaging in the attacks on Texas are going after Paxton?

Then, my wife Kathie and I went to the Capitol and watched the sham that was the impeachment and watched the HD 17 incumbent look up at how the votes were going before casting his vote to impeach Ken Paxton.  Next, my phone started ringing from friends in the district.  To a person, they were furious at the impeachment and furious at the incumbent who voted with the Austin swamp for it, asking me to run.

My wife and I did legal research on the law and precedents relating to impeachment.  I filed a brief with the Senate, detailing the reasons why the impeachment was illegally done and a violation of the will of the voters and the provision of the Texas Constitution that says “all political power is inherent in the people.”

It is not lost on the conservative voters of Texas that the same forces are using lawfare against Paxton for the same reason they are doing so against Trump – both stand in the way of the Deep State running the lives of Texans.  No matter what the Senate does, I think the conservative voters who will vote in the Republican primary in HD 17 next March want a fighter against the swamp, not someone funded by it, beholden to it, and willing to go along with it.

THE PATH TO VICTORY

If you are reading this, you are someone who likely pays attention to what goes on at the Texas Legislature.  The problem is that most voters who vote in the Republican primary do not do their homework on the candidates and their approach to the issues before they walk into the voting booth.

The GOP primary voters are conservative.  We know this based on how they vote on the issue resolutions placed on the GOP primary ballot in Texas.  But too many do not take the effort to find out which of their choices for state rep in the Republican primary will better champion their values.  They vote based on name ID.  And it takes money to build name ID.  Usually – as it was in HD 17 in 2022 -- the special interest money to candidates helps purchase that name ID with repetitive glossy mailers and other advertising.

The key to a grassroots victory over the establishment-controlled candidate in HD 17 is to figure out a way to cost-effectively get the attention of the voters who normally don’t pay attention to state rep races.  I have some ideas about how to do that this time.  One of them involves using the impeachment vote to differentiate between the incumbent and myself.

But to win, I must have the resources to deliver the message to the low-attention voters of my district.  The grassroots did a decent job of funding my campaign last time around.  I think we should get more small donations from more people this time around.  And even though we had an active volunteer effort last time, I think we will get even more this time, too.

You can help me fight for you by making a donation, today, no matter how small the amount.

WE HAVE A STATE TO SAVE!

Because Texas is under attack, we do indeed have Texas, America, our Constitutions, and liberty to save.  I look forward to embarking with you on the mission to save them.

Toward liberty,

Tom Glass