By Robert Downen, The Texas Tribune
The revelation that an influential conservative PAC leader hosted a white supremacist at his office last week has unleashed a tidal wave of Republican infighting and backlash Monday, prompting the House speaker and a majority of his Republican caucus to demand that millions of dollars in political donations be repaid, calls for a reckoning within the party and a defiant demand from the lieutenant governor that the speaker resign.
“This (is) not just a casual misstep,” House Speaker Dade Phelan said on Monday morning, in response to The Texas Tribune’s reporting that Defend Liberty PAC leader Jonathan Stickland hosted well-known white supremacist and antisemite Nick Fuentes at his office building for nearly seven hours. “It’s indicative of the moral, political rot that has been festering in a certain segment of our party for far too long. Anti-Semitism, bigotry and Hitler apologists should find no sanctuary in the Republican party. Period. We cannot – and must not – tolerate the tacit endorsement of such vile ideologies.”
Phelan invoked the deadly attack by Hamas on Israel on Saturday in his statement, as he pointed out Fuentes’ history of being a “nazi sympathizer.” Fuentes is an avowed admirer of Adolf Hitler, has called for “holy war” against Jews and said that “all I want is revenge against my enemies and a total Aryan victory.”
Phelan demanded that elected officials — namely Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick who recently received $3 million from the PAC in loans and donations — donate the money they received from the group to charity. Later Monday, nearly 60 members of the Texas House Republican Caucus released a similar statement calling for elected officials to redirect donations from the PAC.
“The honor and integrity of our offices should never be compromised by the shadow of hate or revisionism,” the caucus said.
Shortly after Phelan released his statement, Patrick denounced Fuentes and antisemitism, but saved his sharpest repudiation for Phelan who he accused of exploiting the war for “his own political gain.” He called on Phelan to resign as speaker before 1 p.m. on Monday, when the Texas House was expected to gavel in for a special session on school vouchers and other contentious legislation. The lieutenant governor made no mention of Stickland or Defend Texas Liberty PAC.
“Nick Fuentes and his antisemitic rhetoric have no place in the United States. Those who spew such vile, loathsome, abominations will have to answer for it,” Patrick said. “For anyone to try to use these invectives for their own political gain is below contempt. I am calling on Dade Phelan to resign his position before the House gavels in this afternoon.”
Patrick appeared to have set the tone for the playbook employed by others in the hot seat on Monday. Throughout the day, Defend Texas Liberty PAC and recipients of its funds issued statements taking aim at Phelan and calling for his resignation while condemning Fuentes. None of them addressed whether they would return the money, nor did they condemn Stickland for hosting the meeting.
“We reject Speaker Phelan’s effort to combine Defend Texas Liberty PAC with Nick Fuentes,” Defend Texas Liberty said in a two-sentence statement addressing the report. “We oppose Mr. Fuentes’ incendiary views.”
Stickland did not respond to questions Sunday or Monday.
Acting on a tip, a Tribune reporter and photographer on Friday observed Fuentes and others — including Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted of homicide after killing two Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020 — enter the one-story office of Pale Horse Strategies outside of Fort Worth. Pale Horse Strategies is a consulting firm owned by Stickland to advise far-right candidates; it has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Defend Texas Liberty PAC, where he also serves as president.
Republican Party of Texas Chair Matt Rinaldi was also observed visiting the office for about 45 minutes while Fuentes was there, though Rinaldi told the Tribune on Sunday that he had no idea that Fuentes was there, condemned him outright and said he wouldn’t meet with him “in a million years.”
Phelan, in his statement, also went after Rinaldi, an ally of Stickland’s, noting that the Texas GOP has taken $132,500 from the group this election cycle. He called on the state party to donate the funds even “if doing so what take the party into the red.”
Rinaldi responded to Phelan’s call by calling on him to resign.
Defend Texas Liberty is funded by two West Texas oil billionaires — Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks — who are also Attorney General Ken Paxton’s biggest donors. Earlier this year, the group made headlines after it gave $3 million in loans and donations to Patrick ahead of Paxton’s impeachment trial in the Texas Senate, over which Patrick presided. Neither Paxton or Patrick responded to requests for comment.
Dunn and Wilks also could not be reached for comment on Monday. Dunn did, however, post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he had been named a “top 50 Christian ally of Israel” and called on “all people to stand with Israel at this time of need.” The post was Dunn’s first on the platform since Sept. 18, and linked to a 2022 list of prominent Christians that included John Hagee, the chairman of Christians United for Israel who once said that “God sent Hitler” to drive the Jews out of Europe and into Jerusalem.
Since 2021, Defend Texas Liberty has given nearly $15 million to ultraconservative candidates as it tries to unseat fellow Republicans, including Phelan, who it argues are not conservative enough. The group is a key part of a network of nonprofits, media companies, campaigns and institutions that Dunn and the Wilks brothers have given more than $100 million to push their ultraconservative religious and anti-LGBTQ+ views.
Campaign finance records show that in 2022, Defend Texas Liberty donated more than $5 million to candidates who challenged more moderate, incumbent Republicans. Most of that money went to Don Huffines, a real estate developer and former state senator who unsuccessfully challenged Gov. Greg Abbott in the Republican primary.
Defend Texas Liberty has also bankrolled some of the most conservative members of the Legislature, including Tinderholt of Arlington and Bryan Slaton of Royse City. Slaton was ousted from the Texas House in May after House investigators found that he gave alcohol to a 19-year-old aide and then had sex with her.
Tinderholt has received $123,000 from the PAC, by far the most of any elected official other than Patrick and Paxton. Asked for comment on the House floor, Tinderholt referred to a statement he released calling for Phelan to resign, and expressing support for Israel. He did not say whether he’d return the money, nor did he mention Defend Texas Liberty.
“I will never tolerate racism or antisemitism by anyone including Mr. Fuentes,” he said. “I similarly refuse to allow Dade Phelan to exploit a tragedy of this magnitude against one of our strongest national allies for his own political gain.”
Other Defend Texas Liberty beneficiaries declined or did not respond to requests for comment, including Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth,; Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler; and Alexandra del Moral Mealer, who received $100,000 from the PAC during her unsuccessful 2022 bid for Harris County Judge.
Fuentes’ visit to Pale Horse comes as the far-right of the Texas GOP continues to elevate extreme rhetoric, figures and conspiracy theories amid an ongoing civil was with Phelan and other more establishment members, and as antisemitism and hate crimes continue to skyrocket in the state and nationally.
Despite his open adoration for Hitler and his violent rhetoric, Fuentes has not been entirely cast out of right-wing circles. Hard-right Republicans, including U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona, have spoken at Fuentes’ annual conference alongside avowed white supremacists.
Fuentes’ acolytes have also been employed in powerful positions in the GOP. In July, the presidential campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis fired a staffer after it was revealed that he created and then shared a pro-DeSantis video that featured a Nazi sonnenrad. And, earlier this year, Ella Maulding moved from Mississippi to Fort Worth to work as a social media coordinator for Pale Horse Strategies.
Maulding has praised Fuentes as ”the greatest civil rights leader in history,” and her social media is replete with references to “white genocide” — a foundational ideology for neo-Nazi and other violent extremist movements.
Maulding was observed for several hours at the Friday meeting with Fuentes, and she spent some time outside recording a video for Texans For Strong Borders in which she called on Texas lawmakers to crack down on immigration when they meet for a special legislative session beginning Monday.
Texans for Strong Borders wants to stem both legal and illegal immigration. Its founder, Chris Russo, was seen driving Fuentes to the Friday meeting at Pale Horse Strategies.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/10/09/dade-phelan-speaker-nick-fuentes-dan-patrick-defend-texas-liberty/.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
