(FROM LEFT): Josh Winegarner, U.S. Rep. Will Hurd
Photos by Winegarner Campaign, Office of Will Hurd
By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief
Local establishment backers, cronies, and politicians are once again shaking their fists in faux outrage over the involvement of a political action committee in an Amarillo election, failing to realize their own candidate for U.S. House District 13 is also benefiting from PAC support.
Amarillo Matters, the local lapdog campaign arm of the Amarillo political establishment, issued a statement recently attacking Club for Growth, Empower Texans, Republican congressional candidate Ronny Jackson, and former congressional candidate and Jackson backer Chris Ekstrom. The attacks mostly centered on what the group views as political involvement by organizations from outside of the Amarillo area.
“As we start to see outside forces and well-funded PACs ramp up campaigns, we felt it was essential to provide a little background and context to these people and groups,” the organization said in a blog post on its website.
The statement’s origin is likely due to the fact that Club for Growth, a highly influential national conservative political organization, is backing Ronny Jackson in the U.S. House District 13 Republican primary. In closing the statement, the group once again echoed its support for Jackson’s runoff opponent, former lobbyist Josh Winegarner.
“Amarillo Matters has always maintained that our elections should be decided locally, and we hope you'll join us in supporting Josh Winegarner.”
This is not exactly a new phenomenon from this organization. Seeing this group decry organizations from outside of Amarillo has become a common theme in local elections. While Empower Texans has often been the subject of the group’s ire, it has also been known to individually attack candidates or paint misleading pictures about non-existent intercity rivalries. All of these actions have been taken to help the group cling to the power it has spent so much to purchase.
Amarillo Matters often tries to position itself as the local gatekeeper for Amarillo elections. If you kiss the ring, you might be one of the ones who will get a fat Amarillo Matters check in your campaign mailbox. Oppose this group, and they will point their money cannon (courtesy of a small group of donors) at your campaign and do everything possible to make sure you lose, whether that be through misleading ads about your past statements or random assembly of information to create an incoherent attack ad. With the group spending boatloads of cash with Austin and Washington, D.C. area political consulting firms, including Murphy Nasica, there is no telling what the attacks may look like, but what is guaranteed is that they will take place.
In saying all of this, Amarillo Matters attacking another organization from being out of the area is not all that surprising. It is ironic, however, due to Amarillo Matters’ past insistence that it is, in fact, a conservative organization that it would be attacking arguably the largest conservative organizations in Texas and the United States. What is surprising about this new attack line is the total hypocrisy of attacking Jackson for being supported by an out-of-Amarillo PAC while failing to recognize the same of their own supported candidate, Josh Winegarner.
Prior to the March 3 election day, Winegarner benefited from generous spending by Texas Farm Bureau AGFUND, an out-of-district PAC registered with the Federal Election Commission out of Waco. This group is not from the district and is certainly not local. However, you didn’t hear a single complaint from Amarillo Matters when this group spent liberally to support Winegarner.
Or, consider perhaps the largest elephant in the room, Future Leaders Fund. This super PAC, affiliated with retiring U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Helotes), has announced its plans to attack Jackson to allow Winegarner to build his favorability in the race. This is not hyperbole either, the group literally said in a press advisory that the planned attacks on Jackson were meant to “allow Winegarner to focus on building his favorability” in the area.
I can already hear the defense of the AGFUND support, with claims that it’s good for the local agriculture community that a PAC organized out of Waco, more than 400 miles from Amarillo, is spending large amounts of campaign funds to elect a lobbyist who claims to support President Trump but who lobbied against his agenda. I don’t buy that argument for a second, but I do understand how some voters might be persuaded by that kind of politico spin.
What I cannot understand is how Amarillo Matters or Winegarner, if they are so committed to the election being decided locally, can defend Winegarner’s support from Hurd’s organization, Future Leaders Fund. The group, affiliated with a United States Representative who is constantly at odds with the President, is based out of Austin, according to the FEC, and, according to individual contribution receipts from FEC.gov, has not even reported a single contribution from any donors in Amarillo or Wichita Falls, which are the two largest cities in Texas’ 13th District.
An out-of-area group, affiliated with a U.S. Representative who by most legislative rankings is not considered a conservative, is planning to spend big money to fund a lobbyist’s campaign for Congress.
Where is the outcry from Amarillo Matters?
What’s that I hear? Oh yeah, it’s crickets.
You will never hear Amarillo Matters condemn this out-of-area involvement in our elections because it benefits their candidate. Consider that the group has received contributions from other PACs outside of the area and did not turn that money down. As long as the funding helps their swamp creature candidate win the keys to the office on Capitol Hill, they will keep their mouths shut and nod along, all in hopes of keeping the establishment in power.
Will this group suddenly have a change of heart and call upon Will Hurd to stop his involvement in our local election? As soon as they do, I say we should catch the matinee performance of the flying pigs at Hodgetown.
As I have said so many times, this type of hypocrisy and behavior by Amarillo Matters is not shocking. The group has never shown an ounce of principle to the issues supported by Amarillo voters, such as banning red light cameras or banning tax funded lobbying. Instead, the group’s sole purpose has always been to keep the establishment’s hand in the cookie jar.
Amarillo voters and voters across the 13th District of Texas can and should do better this year, but first, it’s going to require everyone holding the establishment accountable and choosing to reject the establishment at the ballot box. Amarillo deserves better than the unprincipled swamp dwellers at Amarillo Matters, but if we want to defeat the establishment machine, we first have to make it to the voting booth.
Election day is July 14. You will never hear Amarillo Matters condemn Will Hurd or any other voices from out-of-area unless they threaten the establishment’s power. If you want to break the establishment machine and send a clear message to the establishment that they do not own our elections, then take note of who the establishment wants in office, and vote against that individual on election day.
Your vote is the only thing standing between you and the establishment. Use it, and let’s send a big message on election day.
*This article has been amended to correct a gramatical error.