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For much of the American mainstream, Nick Fuentes’ name is probably unfamiliar, and as we’ve discussed, that’s a good thing. He is, after all, a radical who’s called for “a homeland” for white people, who’s engaged in Holocaust denialism, who’s expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, and whose YouTube page was permanently suspended for promoting hate speech.
Fuentes nevertheless tries to maintain a high public profile — a couple of congressional Republicans have even spoken at some of his right-wing events — and he attended a meeting in Texas in October. That wouldn’t have been especially notable were it not for the fact that Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the Texas GOP, was seen going into the same building at the same time.
Rinaldi has insisted that he met with someone else at the time and didn’t even know Fuentes was there. But the controversy that followed — Fuentes did meet with others closely tied to Texas Republicans — gave a jolt to party politics in the Lone Star State.
It was against this backdrop that several members of the Texas GOP’s executive committee initially called for the party to end its associations with specific local groups known for their white supremacist ties. A proposed resolution on the matter was soon after watered down to bar associations with individuals or groups “known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial.”
As The Texas Tribune reported, this weakened effort was rejected, too.
Two months after a prominent conservative activist and fundraiser was caught hosting white supremacist Nick Fuentes, leaders of the Republican Party of Texas have voted against barring the party from associating with known Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers. In a 32-29 vote on Saturday, members of the Texas GOP’s executive committee stripped a pro-Israel resolution of a clause that would have included the ban.
The Texas Tribune report added, “In a separate move that stunned some members, roughly half of the board also tried to prevent a record of their vote from being kept.”
It's one thing to get an issue wrong; it's something else when people know they're getting an issue wrong and want to keep their efforts hidden in the shadows.
Dade Phelan, the state’s Republican House speaker, called the vote “despicable,” adding that he found it remarkable that members of the Texas GOP’s executive committee “can’t even bring themselves to denounce neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers.”
Dan Patrick, Texas’ Republican lieutenant governor, had a similar reaction and described Saturday’s vote as “totally unacceptable.”
A majority of the state party’s executive committee apparently disagreed.
For what it’s worth, Texas Republican officials will meet again in February, at which point they'll likely have an another opportunity to consider the issue. Watch this space.