Harrison the Huckster

State Representative Brian Harrison is outraged About what exactly depends on the day On April for example his outrage stemmed from a motion on the House budget bill that passed - The motion called for moving nearly amendments including Harrison s anti-DEI Diversity Equity and Inclusion ones off the debate table Already anticipating slogging through hours of debate greater part lawmakers jumped at the chance to avoid back-and-forth on those divisive amendments that had virtually no chance of being adopted Harrison however wasn t having it This is outrageous Harrison stated his raised voice incongruent with his cherubic face This tyrannical motion effectively silences millions of people This wasn t the first time nor certainly the last that Harrison a second-term representative for the th district in solid-red Ellis County had taken to the mic on the House floor to berate his peers and rave against the chamber s leadership It s also not the first time he d been thwarted by embarrassingly lopsided votes Harrison is one of about a couple dozen or so ultraconservative Republicans who form a loud but relatively ineffective insurgent faction in the House Of the group Harrison is the loudest and most of ineffective so much so that even his most of sympathetic compatriots have declined to join in his performative shows of outrage and have even publicly bristled at his attention-seeking tactics Harrison started this session angry when state Representative Dustin Burrows a veteran Republican from Lubbock won a hotly contested race for House Speaker Harrison has repeatedly accused the new speaker of conspiring with Democrats and was one of over reps who voted against the new House rules which he dubbed the Democrat Empowerment Act Note the House rules for the first time banned Democrats from chairing committees While numerous of his fellow right-wingers have opted for a more strategic approach under Burrows speakership Harrison has never let up He s incessantly complained about the House moving too slowly to advance key decree and for taking off long weekends in the early months of the session His disdain continued to build until April when he filed a motion to vacate the chair The parliamentary maneuver to remove the sitting House speaker requires a simple majority vote though it s rarely been invoked the last time it was effective was in Harrison gave an impassioned speech declaring that in his brief tenure at the helm Burrows has acted tyrannical and forfeited the moral authority needed for the role The speech was met with boos and laughter especially in response to Harrison s claim that he s not here to fight for Brian Harrison s interests Let them laugh let them hiss let them scoff he shot back On a vote to kill Harrison s motion only the freshman state Representative David Lowe joined with Harrison as it was struck down - Four progressive Democrats and one Republican voted Present Not Voting Watch my speech to VACATE THE CHAIR on Speaker Burrows And then watch as almost every single Republican voted to assistance him I m sorry Texans you ve been betrayed pic twitter com uZc upNdoJ Brian Harrison brianeharrison April Jim Henson director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin mentioned that since the Republican legislative majorities have solidified in Texas this type of vocal dissenting hard-right legislator has become a perennial feature of each legislative session There are disruptive forces on the right in the House that want not just to push their strategy priorities but want to disrupt and change the process Henson declared There s been a revolving cast of right-wing reps who ve played this role in up-to-date sessions majority of infamously former Bedford state Representative Jonathan Stickland who waged war against the House leadership from the floor by routinely trying and sometimes succeeding in killing major provision Though Harrison has certainly slowed down the legislative process at times he s been more accomplished at drawing attention to himself than instigating change in the legislative process There is a healthy dose of ambition and self-interest in the approach that he s taking and that s generating a lot of opposition among his colleagues including Republicans Henson stated Take for instance state Representative Tony Tinderholt a leader of the House s hardliner faction who unsuccessfully challenged Dade Phelan for the speakership last session After Harrison s failed attempt to take out Burrows Tinderholt issued a scathing report suggesting the Midlothian state rep has appropriated the anti-establishment overhaul cause for his own political ends In current times s effort was not about reforming the Texas House There was no path to improving our chamber the present day A coalition of conservative legislators stood together Representative Harrison stood for himself Tinderholt mentioned Various of Harrison s crusades warrant his outrage and attention such as his emphasis on the GOP prioritizing costly new pet projects over property tax relief the routine lack of transparency in the committee process the clubbiness of those inside House leadership and the procedures in which dissent is sometimes squashed on the floor But Harrison s insatiable scorched-earth tactics and his holier-than-thou rhetoric have alienated his fellow House members to the point where valid criticisms remain unheard or more often ridiculed So he soldiers forward as an army of one and perhaps he prefers it that way Harrison R-Himself has been called a Stunt Queen and is the worst doable messenger for what could have been several compelling arguments wrote the Capitol insider and Quorum Assessment editor Scott Braddock Being right but doing it wrong helps no one Before Harrison began his residency as the then-nascent rabble rouser at the Texas Capitol in he was gasp a politically appointed regime bureaucrat in the Bush and Trump administrations largest part notably as the chief of staff for the Soundness and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar from to In between leadership stints he ran a labradoodle breeding business He left the Trump administration for the political arena and was one of several Republicans in a crowded special ballot to replace the late GOP Congressman Ron Wright s in the th Congressional District He ran as a MAGA warrior though he didn t get Trump s endorsement but garnered just percent of the vote as then-state Representative Jake Ellzey went on to win That campaign did however help catapult him to success in the special vote battle for Ellzey s Texas House seat In an early April interview with the Texas Observer Harrison disclosed his agenda this session is modeled on President Donald Trump s American First Liberty Agenda Hence his Texas First Liberty Agenda where he declared his priority is to make Texas the number one state for liberty in America To him this means shrinking the role of regime as small as viable We ve got a reputation in Texas for leading in freedom and liberty but for far too long we ve just been coasting on that reputation Harrison mentioned As regime grows liberty decreases and I m looking to reverse that trend He says this as his fellow Republicans have controlled every statewide office and both legislative chambers for two decades Texas also spends less per capita than the national average for spending by state according to the nonpartisan Tax Guidelines Center On January Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order calling for state agencies to end all DEI hiring practices and Harrison has since taken it upon himself to become Abbott s enforcer Upon Burrow s referendum as speaker Harrison was able to use his relative seniority to secure a coveted position on the powerful House Appropriations Committee which controls the pursestrings of state cabinet Using that high-profile post he questioned several agency leaders at budget hearings about their DEI practices That hastily led to one of the first headline moments in the early days of the session During a February subcommittee hearing he questioned Texas Water Evolution Board Chair L Oreal Stepney who is Black about the Board s hiring practices with an intensity that left Stepney an Abbott appointee in tears Democrat Representatives Nicole Collier and Armando Walle both came to Stepney s defense during the hearing You merit this position You and various who have fought long and hard to be in the positions of authority that you deserve to be in Walle noted The attacks on people s character has got to stop I call on my colleagues to quit these attacks Abbott Burrows and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick all took to X to defend Stepney Representative Greg Bonnen appropriations committee chair called Harrison s behavior unacceptable For his part Harrison narrated the Texas Tribune his line of questioning was perfect In addition to state agencies Harrison has been particularly concerned with how universities are promoting DEI He filed House Bill which would prohibit universities from offering courses or programs in DEI or LGBTQ studies and House Bill which would remove the language protecting curricula and research from Senate Bill which prohibited DEI offices and practices at Texas inhabitants universities The people do not want their money to be used by the establishment to fund things like DEI and liberal gender ideology Harrison revealed Our general universities are for development not for indoctrination and unfortunately that s not the incident right now He s targeted his ire at the state s two flagship universities Texas A M and the University of Texas at Austin He s accused A M of flouting anti-DEI mandates and even referred his alma mater to the Trump admin This has drawn rebuke of A M s president who accused Harrison of spreading blatant falsehoods Your posts are routinely inaccurate and misleading President Mark A Welsh III wrote in a February letter I won t stand by when I see inaccuracies about our institution spreading promptly He commented his crusade against gender and ethnic studies isn t a social issue but rather a fiscal one Over my dead body are you going to rob my constituents blind to pay for LGBTQ studies Harrison reported The state pays for about percent of UT s full budget at the university the LGBTQ studies venture s budget comprises less than percent of the total operating budget for the - fiscal year By comparison UT s conservative Civitas Institute which was created under Lieutenant Governor Patrick s direction is nearly times larger Though gender and ethnic studies make up a seemingly small percentage of taxpayer dollars Harrison reported any amount of money going towards these programs is taxpayer abuse If the University of Texas doesn t cut this crap out they don t need a single penny more from my already over-taxed constituents Harrison explained In late March Harris ventured from the Capitol grounds to the UT campus to go undercover at a transgender conference The conference in question was the Women s and Gender Studies annual graduate trainee academic gathering titled Rethinking Wellbeing and Well-being The Politics of Collective Care and Body Sovereignty Harrison professed horror at what he witnessed pronouns everywhere for one in a -post thread on X complete with pictures He succeeded in drawing online attention as his dispatch drew over million views The following day he distributed a announcement demanding that UT directly terminate its Women s Gender and Sexuality Studies Department He also posted that he stole a book from the University s LGBTQ library The Department of Women s Gender and Sexuality Studies chair filed a police analysis with the UT Police Department on March for the theft When appealed if he knew about the police account Harrison laughed and disclosed the University of Texas is a authorities entity and I m a constitutional officer of the state of Texas State lawmakers are immune from the greater part criminal arrests during legislative sessions though people who commit petty theft are rarely subject to jail time I m very proud of my actions Harrison mentioned As far as I m concerned if other elected authorities in Texas want to go and remove everything from the LGBTQ library that d be just fine Harrison disclosed Harrison says this is all part of his elected duty to eliminate governing body spending and cut taxes I m one of the only elected agents in Austin fighting to protect taxpayer money I am fighting like hell for the taxpayers There s nobody in Austin fighting harder for taxpayers Harrison explained It s declarations like these are why a great number of of his colleagues dismiss him as a self-centered charlatan The Texas House has now officially spent more floor time on birthday speeches a House football competition resolution and honoring Beyonce than on eliminating property taxes or literally any single conservative agenda The Texas House is a corrupt den of liberal dysfunction Brian Harrison brianeharrison February The House budget passed April included a total billion of property tax relief about percent of the total budget including billion in new tax cuts Harrison was one of the members to vote against the budget which he railed against as the the majority liberal bloated reckless budget in the history of Texas In none of his bills passed With a month until the end of this session all of his bills currently languish in committee One such bill House Bill his anti-ESG bill was first called to the Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence at the end of April but Harrison missed the layout and the bill was ultimately pushed to next week The extra week didn t do much for Harrison who floundered as multiple committee members grilled him on the bill Each time a committee member questioned his knowledge on the bill Harrison responded petulantly with that s not true In a tense exchange committee Chairman Jeff Leach called Harrison out for being on this phone I ve never had a member actively on his cell phone while he s laying out and answering questions from a fellow member Harrison asserted that he was not tweeting but rather was looking up answers to a member s questions A heated Leach eventually threatened to cut Harrison s mic When you lie and you mislead and you deceive not only the fellow members of the House but the people of Texas you deserve to be called out and your microphone deserves to be cut off Leach disclosed Frankly I m just tired of this nonsense The Midlothian Republican constantly criticizes the House for being as he sees it a corrupt den of liberal dysfunction For Harrison this is illustrated the time spent passing honorific resolutions like that of Representative Lauren Ashley Simmons resolution in early February to Beyonc a native of Houston for winning the Grammy for Album of the Year for Cowboy Carter The House devotes part of its floor time especially early in session for members of both parties to pass such honorific measures The House spent about five minutes speaking on the resolution Harrison has tweeted about the resolution over two dozen times since February The Observer reached out to chosen top Democratic legislators about this session s anointed heal but none agreed to talk on the record The Texas House Democrats X account however makes the minority caucus views clear Brian Harrison of all the clowns you re the court jester This past Saturday with time running out in the final weeks of session the Texas House worked the weekend for the first time to take up a large agenda of bills including marquee conservative social statute dealing with biological sex and transgender healthcare Harrison started that morning with a parliamentary maneuver to call out the lack of a quorum on the floor which delayed the chamber from starting its business When the House in the end did come to order Harrison took to social media to complain that a brief interlude for a mariachi band performance was emblematic of the leadership s purposeful ineptitude GOP priorities are dying because we wasted the first half of session and property taxes are increasing he wrote Texans you ve been betrayed The post Harrison the Huckster appeared first on The Texas Observer