Maybe sometimes a far-right politician can be too extreme even for Texas Republicans.
On Tuesday state Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, lost big in the Republican runoff race for a Texas Senate seat north of Houston. State Rep. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, won in a landslide, getting about 67 percent of the vote to Toth’s 33 percent to earn the GOP nomination for the District 4 Senate seat.
Both candidates promoted their tea party bona fides during the campaign. But Toth’s record is, frankly, downright nutty. Last year, for example, Toth was a leading legislative critic of CSCOPE, the curriculum management tool created through a collaboration of state Education Service Centers. The vast majority — nearly 900 — of Texas school districts have used CSCOPE. But tea partyers and other far-right activists manufactured a witch hunt that succeeded in gutting the program. They complained that the program’s lessons were anti-American and anti-Christian and promoted Marxism and Islam. Toth bought into that nonsense and became a major backer of the witch hunt, although a State Board of Education-sponsored review later found that the politically charged claims were bogus.
Toth also tells a ridiculous story to promote his opposition to sex education that includes information about birth control. During the 2013 legislative session, Toth said his wife knew two unmarried teens who got so “hot and bothered” at a Planned Parenthood sex education class, which included information on contraception, that the guy couldn’t get a condom on before he impregnated his girlfriend in the car later. Earlier in the legislative session, one of Toth’s legislative staffers lectured a minister about morality when that minister went to Toth’s office to express her concerns about legislative budget cuts that had gutted the Texas Women’s Health Program two years earlier. Tens of thousands of low-income women lost access to family planning services because of those cuts. But Toth’s staffer worried that those services just promote sinful behavior.
Toth probably thought positions like those would win him votes in his state Senate race. Maybe they did get him some votes. But most Republican voters on Tuesday apparently weren’t buying what he was selling.
6 Comments
When women and men go to vote then Texas will change. In fact, then the country will change. This election this fall is critical to the future of our country. With 60 - 70% of the registered voters going to the polls, then some sensibility will return. If more than 70% voting, our country will become one in touch with all of America. Of course, because so many did not vote in 2010, the districts are drawn in such a way that level headed candidates have a difficult time winning. Are you willing to work to get people registered, voting early or getting to the polls? That’s how we will get civility back into government. Currently, the GOP knows that anyone who is not rabid about their beliefs will not vote, thus the GOP wins. Let’s change their thinking by getting out the VOTE!
As a Republican I couldn’t agree with Rhonda more. A friend of mine- Public Policy Chair for AAUW in Washington DC recognized my frustration with the Republican party of Texas and directed me to the Republican Majority for Choice. Very interesting national group and I do wish we had this type of active Republican group organized here in Texas. That would help get Republican Women for choice to the polls.
Thank you, Priscilla, for informing us of the Republican pro-choice movement. What do you think it will take here in TX to get the right-wing extremists out of the way to allow reason to rule? Are you able to mention to anti-choice Republicans you encounter how discriminatory the recent TX abortion law is and that by that law’s causing the closing ofo most of Texas’ abortion clinics, many, many, many Texan women have lost access to basic healthcare services (of which abortion was a tiny percentage). I’m sure you aware of that; I just encourage you to explain such to Republican friends who may be unaware of the impact this “religion”-motivated law has caused. And I hope you remind them that despite what Rick Perry says (“I want Texas to be a pro-life state”), Texas continues to be a leader in state-sanctioned killing of adults (executions). I wish Rick & Friends could equate the life of an already-born, air-breathing, walking-on-Earth adult criminal to that of an embryo within a woman’s body (that embryo is a PART of her body and should be under her control, not Texas Republicans’ control). Again, thank you for your message. Keep spreading it.
I know there are sensible republicans in this state. I only hope that they come out in their primary elections and get rid of all these tea bagger fools. This state needs people who believe in science, education, sex education and a woman’s right to choose her own contraception planning. This is the 21st Century, Texas needs to start acting like it is part of it.
Toth deserved to lose. What an idiot.
This gives me some hope that all is not lost for Texas. Let’s just hope the Democrat running against the Tea Party candidate triumphs in November. Does anyone believe that “Planned Parenthood made me knock up my girlfriend in the parking lot” nonsense?