TEXAS–Two Texas grassroots coalitions, each supporting either State Senator Dan Patrick and Lt. Governor David Dewhurst for Texas Lieutenant Governor, released dueling public letters of support for their respective candidates this week. Some tea party groups demand unity and asked Dewhurst to bow out–others say they stand for giving voters “the final word” and ask Dewhurst to stay in.
Leaders of more than two dozen Tea Party and conservative grassroots groups touting dignitaries like JoAnn Fleming of Grassroots America and Dr. Julie Turner of the Texas Patriots PAC say they will “fight hard to deliver victories” in the run-off elections resulting from the March primary last week.
“Look what happened the last two weeks of the primary, when Dan Patrick was under massive attack from negative ads,” said Jim and Robin Lennon of the Kingwood Tea Party who came out in favor of Dewhurst bowing out. “He went from trailing David Dewhurst to solidly defeating him. David Dewhurst is a true gentleman that has always done his best for Texas and we respectfully request that he step-aside or avoid repeating his negative campaigning tactics.”
In the four-way primary, Patrick received 41 percent of the statewide GOP vote and Dewhurst trailed at 28 percent.
Republican primary voters sent “a clear signal” with the primary election results, according to JoAnn Fleming, executive director of Grassroots America and two-term chairman of the Texas Legislature’s TEA Party Caucus Advisory Committee.
Today a separate grassroots coalition boasting representatives from Waco Tea Party and the Texas Young Republican Federation cautioned the Dewhurst campaign to not make a hasty exit. In a letter obtained exclusively by Breitbart Texas today, the groups argue that voters must have “the final word” when choosing between Patrick and an “effective” leader like Lt. Governor Dewhurst.
“When Cruz lost the primary and entered the runoff, we can’t recall a single one of our TEA Party peers calling for him to drop out,” the letter stated. The coalition reckoned the 2012 Cruz/Dewhurst run-off was a healthy exercise: “In retrospect, we believe that process made the conservative movement in Texas even stronger.”
The Waco coalition closed with a clear promotion of Lt. Governor Dewhurst’s record.
“If you need a gauge of his cellular-level conservatism, you can pretty much pick any legislative session over the past ten years for examples of his effective leadership on essential conservative issues,” they reasoned. The groups claimed that fiscal and social conservatives alike had ample reason to keep Dewhurst another four years.
Both letters obtained by Breitbart Texas have been made available for full-context viewing below.
Conservative Leaders Letter on Runoff by BreitbartTexas
Dewhurst/Patrick Run-Off by BreitbartTexas
Follow Michael Quinn Sullivan and Logan Churchwell on Twitter @MQSullivan | @LCChurchwell
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