Luby Ryan Extreme Team
Expect Luby Ryan to present herself well and say she’s not a politician, yet she has slyly pledged to work with divisive House Tea Party activists like Rep. Jonathan Stickland and has aggressively solicited and won special interest support and rightwing endorsements like a political pro. Her campaign’s most enthusiastic backers push the most extreme and destructive views of the far right:
- Tim Dunn & Empower Texans
- Texas Right to Life
- Texans for Vaccine Choice
- West Texas Gas Fracking Billionaires
Backed by the Bathroom Bill Godfather
Luby Ryan sought and received the endorsement of Houston-based ideologue Steven Hotze. Hotze runs “Conservative Republicans of Texas” – which is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group and pursues the goal of purging traditional, pro-business Republicans from the Republican Party. Hotze is considered the Godfather of the bathroom bill. He organized and led the opposition to anti-discrimination ordinances in Houston, setting the stage for Lt. Governor Dan Patrick’s destructive bathroom bill fiasco in the State Legislature last year. Hotze is a virulent critic of House Speaker Joe Straus and was among the first and loudest to call for removal of Straus as House Speaker.
Off-the-Edge On the Issues
- Opposes New Support for Public Schools: Ryan told a forum sponsored by the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters “Do I think [education funding] is adequate? Absolutely!”. Inadequate state funding is responsible for property tax increases.
- Backs Diverting Funds to Private School Vouchers: At a time when teachers are forced to spend hundreds of dollars out of pocket to pay for school supplies, Ryan supports spending education tax dollars to send students to private s chools that are not accountable to taxpayers, a pet issue for Empower Texans.
- Anti-Vaxxer: Ryan supports the Anti-vaccine movement and welcomed them to her campaign kickoff and victory party. Children who are not vaccinated pose a severe health risk to other young children and to elderly Texans who cannot be vaccinated.
- Ignores Victims of Rape and Incest: Luby Ryan boasts she is the only candidate supported by the Texans Right to Life PAC, and opposes the right to choose even in cases of rape, incest and even when a mother’s life is at risk!
- Blindly Supports ALL parts of TX GOP Platform: Ryan calls herself a “champion” for the GOP Platform which calls for eliminating the Department of Education, ending kindergarten and pre-school requirements and statewide enforcement of the bathroom bill.
