Texas Tribune / Juan Figueroa
Former state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, on the Texas Home ground on Could 21, 2019.
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Months after a scandal over his ties to white supremacists, far-right political operative and former state lawmaker Jonathan Stickland has created a brand new group — with assist from outgoing Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi.
On March 5, Stickland registered “RaTmasTeR Holdings LLC” with the Texas secretary of state, and Rinaldi is listed as the brand new group’s organizer. Every week later, the chief working officer of Pale Horse Methods — a far-right consulting agency Stickland owns — individually registered one other group, “Patriot Service Alliance LLC,” based on the Texas Voice, a conservative web site that first famous the brand new teams on Friday.
“RaTmasTeR” is a reference to the alias that Stickland has used for many years in on-line gaming boards, the place he was an notorious troll. Stickland parlayed the abilities he honed throughout his formative years as an web antagonist to assist elevate him from a job in pest management to the Texas Home and, finally, probably the most highly effective political positions within the state.
Stickland and Rinaldi, who’s stepping down as Texas GOP chair subsequent month, didn’t reply to requests for remark Friday afternoon.
Stickland has been on the heart of a white supremacy scandal since October, when The Texas Tribune reported that he had hosted notorious Adolf Hitler fan Nick Fuentes at Pale Horse’s workplaces for a number of hours. Rinaldi was additionally noticed exterior Pale Horse’s one-story workplace constructing in rural Tarrant County, however denied realizing Fuentes was inside.
The assembly — in addition to subsequent reporting by the Tribune that uncovered different white supremacists in Stickland’s orbit — prompted Home Speaker Dade Phelan and different Republicans to name for social gathering members to redirect cash they obtained from Stickland’s group, Defend Texas Liberty, to pro-Israel charities.
Defend Texas Liberty is a robust political motion committee that West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks have used to offer greater than $15 million to far-right teams, lawmakers and candidates. Dunn and Wilks are additionally Legal professional Basic Ken Paxton’s greatest donors, and Defend Texas Liberty gave $3 million to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick final summer season, earlier than Patrick presided over Paxton’s impeachment trial within the state Senate.
Within the fallout from the Fuentes assembly, almost half of the Texas GOP’s government committee known as for the social gathering to chop ties with Stickland and Defend Texas Liberty, which was the social gathering’s greatest donor final 12 months.
Stickland was quietly changed as Defend Texas Liberty’s president in October, and Pale Horse Methods later rebranded as “West Fort Price Administration LLC.” (Not lengthy after it was registered final month, “Patriot Service Alliance” filed paperwork to function underneath the identify “West Fort Price Administration LLC”). Rinaldi, in the meantime, has continued to assault critics of Stickland and Defend Texas Liberty — whereas quietly working as an legal professional for Wilks, one of many group’s billionaire funders.
In November, the Texas GOP’s government committee narrowly rejected a decision that banned the social gathering from associating with Holocaust deniers, antisemites and neo-Nazis — language that some members argued may create a slippery slope and complicate the social gathering’s relationship with donors or future candidates. After backlash, the social gathering in January handed a decision that banned it from associating with antisemites — a considerably watered-down model of earlier proposals that particularly named Stickland and Defend Texas Liberty.
Disclosure: Texas Secretary of State has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full listing of them right here.
This text initially appeared within the Texas Tribune.
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