Records Reveal Over 1200 Democrat Voters Helped Defeat Conservative Republican To Steal Texas Special Election

After the Republican candidate backed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) lost a special election in East Texas last month, conservative activists were shocked. How did the more liberal candidate pull off the upset and win by 107 votes?

The answer was by turning out Democrats.

On January 30, voters in the staunchly conservative Texas House District 2 went to the polls for a special election featuring two candidates: Brent Money and Jill Dutton.

Money was the favorite. Backed by Gov. Abbott, Sen. Cruz, Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX), and other conservatives, he was expected to win by a strong margin.

Meanwhile, Dutton was supported by the Austin political establishment. Much of her support came from Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the group that allied with Democrats to orchestrate the impeachment of Ken Paxton, and lawmakers who voted against school choice.

Polling showed Money in a commanding position going into the election, but shortly after polls closed, Dutton had pulled off the upset and won by a razor-thin 107 votes with the help of Democrats.

Early voting records show 103 of the voters in the election had previously donated to Beto O'Rourke, and 384 individuals with Democrat voter history turned out to vote early. On election day, even more Democrats voted. According to election records, a total of 813 individuals with a history of voting in Democrat primary elections came out and cast a ballot.

All in all, 1197 individuals with Democrat primary election voter history cast a ballot in the January special election. And those are just the "hard Democrats." Voter modeling by the Republican Party of Texas places the number of Democrat voters over 2000.

So, who are these Democrats?

One pair is Bobby Nieman, a Hunt County Democrat Party precinct chair, and his wife, Tommie Nieman. They took a break from trying to persuade the Supreme Court to allow Democrats to remove Donald Trump from the ballot so they could put out an ad in the local newspaper promoting Jill Dutton and describing Abbott, Cruz, and other Republican lawmakers as a "rogue list of politicians."

Another pair is Byron Taylor and Craig Waters, a homosexual and liberal activist couple in Greenville who donated hundreds to Democrats and hosted a fundraiser for Dutton.

Texas House District 2 is not a liberal district. Composed of three rural Republican counties just east of Dallas, it’s one of the most conservative slices of Texas. Donald Trump received over 75 percent of the vote in Hunt County, nearly 80 percent in Hopkins County, and over 85 percent in Van Zandt County.

The question isn’t whether Jill Dutton and her Democrat friends stole the special election but if Republicans are willing to let them steal it again. Just like in the special election, any voter (Republican, Democrat, or Independent) in House District 2 can vote by requesting a Republican ballot.

If East Texas Republicans are serious about winning elections and implementing conservative reform, they’ll vote for Money in the election and support closed primaries in the future. Early voting begins on February 20th, and election day is March 5th.

Cary Cheshire is a conservative activist who currently serves as the President & Treasurer of Tarrant County Patriots PAC.