By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief

What do you do when your campaign is failing? Apparently, the answer is turn your attention to attacking your opponents and downplaying your own candidate’s flaws. That is exactly what is happening in the Josh Winegarner campaign today.

As we have reported, Josh Winegarner is one of 15 Republicans running to replace U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Clarendon). Of all the candidates, it is worth pointing out that Winegarner is the only candidate on either the Republican or Democratic sides who was a registered lobbyist with the Texas Ethics Commission as recently as 2019. Winegarner has also been endorsed by Amarillo Matters and several establishment politicians. It was actually reported on Winegarner’s most recent 48-hour finance report that he took funding from U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Helotes), who is probably not going to be considered a fighter against the establishment by anyone.

These facts about Winegarner make his most recent ad all the more interesting.

On Tuesday, the Winegarner campaign uploaded a new ad to YouTube entitled “Drain the Swamp.” The ad begins with the headline “THE DC SWAMP HAS COME TO TOWN” and proceeds to attack two of Winegarner’s most prominent primary opponents: businessman Chris Ekstrom and former Physician to the President, Dr. Ronny Jackson. My favorite part of his ad comes shortly after, however, when the narrator says, “But to drain the swamp and defend our conservative values, we need one of our own: Josh Winegarner.”

How very interesting.

I find it fascinating that at the same time Chris Ekstrom was running his business and creating jobs and Ronny Jackson was serving in the military and in the White House, Winegarner was working as a lobbyist. Yet, Winegarner pledges that he is the one to drain the swamp.

As has been said many times before, that dog don’t hunt.

Throughout this campaign, the one thing that has become crystal clear is Mr. Winegarner’s campaign has been promoted, funded by, and run by the very essence of the establishment. The very same “swamp” that Mr. Winegarner is pledging to drain. Mr. Winegarner’s campaign has spent thousands of dollars with consultant Murphy Nasica, an Austin based firm that has worked with establishment lawmakers like Thornberry, State Sen. Kel Seliger, former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, and disgraced outgoing House Speaker Dennis Bonnen. Take a look at Winegarner’s finance reports and you will also find support from numerous political action committees, including several based out of Washington, D.C. Or perhaps consider his support from establishment favorite former Amarillo Mayor Paul Harpole, who is perhaps best known for the dysfunction at City Hall which was well-documented during his time in office.

There have also been the excuses from Winegarner’s campaign as he has tried and failed to explain away his lobbying record. Recently, Winegarner’s campaign tried to address his lobbying in a Facebook comment, explaining it this way.

“Since part of my job involved educating elected officials, regulators, and staff about the cattle feeding industry and advocating for and defending our members and other ag producers against policies crafted by bureaucrats and liberals who do not know our area or issues, I was required by law to register at the state and federal level,” Winegarner wrote. “This experience will only help our district in Congress.”

What?

Winegarner himself has had the experience of being both a bureaucrat and a lobbyist. He worked for U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Phil Gramm and has talked about his experience on Capitol Hill during campaign forums, including a forum at the Red River Harley Davidson location in Wichita Falls last week. I understand that Mr. Winegarner may think it unfair that voters are criticizing his record, but his past work as both a lobbyist and a bureaucrat is absolutely fair game when he is running for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. Mr. Winegarner should just own up to his record instead of trying to explain how being a lobbyist will somehow help the district.

A 2013 Gallup poll showed that just 6 percent of Americans believed lobbyists have “high or very high” honesty and ethical standards. In fact, this very profession, which Mr. Winegarner was a part of at the time, was ranked lower than car salesmen and members of Congress, the two other lowest scoring professions. Let’s just say this shouldn’t inspire much confidence in Mr. Winegarner’s supposed ability to “drain the swamp.”

If anything, Winegarner has shown that Texans should be very careful before picking him as the supposed drainer of the swamp thanks to his connections to the very same entities, individuals, and communities that he is supposedly against.

At a time when a huge number of Americans believe Washington is broken, we must seriously reflect and consider whether a former lobbyist and bureaucrat is the right person to send to Washington if the goal is to “drain the swamp.” If the idea is to keep Washington broken or to help the establishment keep power, then it is my opinion that Mr. Winegarner is the right guy for the job. But, if you are looking for something new and someone who can actually go to work in Washington from day one for the 13th District outside of the influence of the establishment then Mr. Winegarner isn’t the candidate for you.

Amarillo voters have the chance to make the right choice on March 3. Let’s hope they reject the establishment and send the lobbyists, bureaucrats, and establishment insiders packing.