The highest profile congressional primary among Republicans in Texas with eleven candidates on next week’s ballot is a showdown between “America First” Republicans and the Establishment/”RINO” between two candidates and a possible runoff on May 24
UPDATE 2/22/22, 10:02AM CST: In a bid to bring down Christian Collins, a super PAC called American Policy Fund injected an $18K digital ad buy into TX-08, including this video clip with Collins’ paper trail from his thesis while a Masters student at Liberty University:
From the desk of John Lopez: I’ve written about “paper trails” in the past, and this example proves what a candidate had written for publication can come back to haunt them. Whether this small independent expenditure prevents the runoff between Collins and Morgan Luttrell from taking place is unlikely, as it’s a small buy. But in a runoff campaign, Collins’ paper trail between now and May 24 will come under increasing scrutiny.
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Next week’s Texas primary spotlight among Republicans running for a U.S. House seat is TX-08, a congressional seat north of Houston where 14-term Congressman Kevin Brady (R) is retiring, creating an open seat in a safe Republican district.
Eleven Republican candidates filed for the March 1 primary, so with that many candidates, a Republican primary runoff election on May 24 is expected.
The two Republicans who’ve arisen to the top and are the expected runoff participants are former Trump Administration alumni and former Navy SEAL Morgan Luttrell, 46, of Magnolia and former Ted Cruz campaign aide Christian Collins, 33, of Conroe.
Collins has been embraced by traditional “America First” champions like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG, R, GA-14), Congressmen Troy Nehls (R, TX-22) and Madison Cawthorn (R, NC-11) as well as My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell and Arizona state Senator Wendy Rogers (R). He also has the endorsement of the House Freedom Caucus.
Luttrell has been embraced by more establishment Republicans including Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R, TX-02), U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R, TX) and Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R, IL-16).
Among the Collins supporters is Catalina Lauf’s hired gun, Florida-based political consultant Alex Bruesewitz, who was part of a who’s who of America First celebrities who spoke at a Collins rally on Saturday in The Woodlands, TX along with MTG and many others.
The cued video of Bruesewitz’s 15-minute speech on Saturday is below and quite insightful.
The “March 11” reference hinting Bruesewitz may be in Illinois, possibly for an event with Lauf, or possibly in IL-15 event backing Congresswoman Mary Miller (R, Oakland) in her incumbent-on-incumbent primary with Congressman Rodney Davis (R, Taylorsville) raises a question.
Maybe Bruesewitz coming to Illinois to celebrate his 25th birthday on March 12 making fun of Kinzinger?
While Lauf was not referenced at Saturday’s rally, two Illinoisans were, Kinzinger, as well as Ken Griffin, whose money became significant late last week in TX-08.
Bruesewitz referenced Griffin as a “RINO George Soros”.
As documented earlier this month, Griffin gave over $11 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) super PAC. Late last week, the CLF dropped a nearly $600K independent expenditure with this broadcast TV ad buy for Luttrell, something hinted at during Bruesewitz’s speech on Saturday:
For the record, former President Trump has not endorsed any candidate in TX-08.
Also for the record, Lauf has made no endorsement, including social media shout outs, in TX-08.
While the America First rally was taking place at a church in The Woodlands, at the same time, a rally supporting Luttrell featuring former Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) and current Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R) was taking place.
From the desk of John Lopez: The similarities between the TX-08 and IL-11 cannot be ignored.
In Collins, you have a 33-year-old single, never married, man who’s the son of a pastor and embracing the America First agenda very similar to 28-year-old Lauf of Woodstock, using the same campaign consultants (several based in Texas) trying to win a seat in the U.S. House.
In Luttrell, a 46-year-old, married father of two sons who, along with his twin brother Marcus, served their country in the United States Navy, both becoming Navy SEALs and then Morgan Luttrell serving his country in the Trump Administration Energy Department but being tagged “RINO” because of his relationship with former SEAL Crenshaw, and others.
I found it humorous, and profound Bruesewitz said towards the end of his speech Saturday he’d rather have “RINO” Luttrell at his side in a bar fight, but outside of needing a proven fighter, Bruesewitz wants Collins in Congress.
To me, a man or woman you can count on in a fight to have your back and win is someone I’d rather have in Congress representing me, even if we don’t see eye-to-eye on some issues.
I prefer toughness, or in the Latino culture, a “strong man” / “strong woman”.
Trump has proven toughness going back decades, that is why he’s revered highly by so many.
Luttrell’s service in the Navy proves the toughness he will have your back when it counts. I get no such reassurance out of Collins, and definitely not out of Lauf.
I witnessed what happened to Lauf the one and only time she had to face, via radio an elected Democrat in state Senator Cristina Castro (D, Elgin) and it wasn’t pretty, though it wasn’t a fair fight, September 30, 2020.
Unlike Texas’ 8th District where a runoff will likely be needed to determine the nominee, in IL-11 the Republican primary is winner-take-all and Lauf is the nominal frontrunner among 7 declared candidates.
Those other candidates being:
- Mark Carroll, 47, elected village trustee of North Aurora and married father of 3
- Jerry Evans, 38, successful business owner in his own name and married father of 2
- Grace Greene, 43, Marine Veteran and successful corporate executive, married mother of 2
- Andrea Heeg, 55, businesswoman and married mother of 4
- Cassandra Tanner Miller, 34, domestic violence survivor married mother of 2, with 3rd on the way
- Dean Seppelfrick, 58, father, and recently renounced his college degree from Aurora University due to “wokeness”
Which IL-11 candidate would be your “fighter”, and what is their record in life that backs up they can fight for you?
Apply discernment with prayer, and may every Republican voter have the right choice revealed.
And the GOP circular firing squad continues……….
Oops I think I posted my last comment in the wrong article. If so, you have my permission to delete it but please leave it on this article where it belongs.
I was curious if he (Morgan) was related to the author and combat veteran Marcus Luttrell.
They are brothers.
https://www.unitedtalent.com/speaker/marcus-and-morgan-luttrell/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Luttrell
Not really pig Because. The barrels may be aimed at dirt boys like you.
Semper: For the Record.
I am in favor of having a strong Conservative party in the U.S.
It’s just that we no longer have one.
What we have is a cult of personality around The Donald (who used to be a pro choice, pro gun control Democrat).
By the time we get to the 2022 general elections, Trump will be under such a legal cloud, having to have taken the 5th hundreds of times and perhaps being under criminal indictment, that any candidate that touted his support to with their primary and “own the RINOS”, will go down to a defeat that they might otherwise have avoided.
It is not helping right now either that Trumpistas like Tucker Carlson have become apologists for Vladimir Putin who is emerging as the 21st Century version of Hitler.
They will be hung with that one also if Putin takes over the democratic Ukraine and kills dissidents and imposes his dictatorship.
Trump is the Democrat’s ace in the hole.
If you understood the Republican Party better, you’d know that there has been for a long time a strong anti-interventionist current within the party and PARTICULARLY IN THE MIDWEST.
It was only snuffed out after World War 2 when the neoconservatives gained the upper hand.
Maybe what seemed wise in regard to dealing with Hitler’s rise to power does not look as attractive now in the shadow of Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, and other foreign policy blunders.
It’s not that Carlson loves Putin.
I think his point is that he wants to avoid getting into World War 3 because of some provinces in eastern Ukraine which have a plurality of ethnic Russians and that already voted for their own independence like 8 years ago anyway.
Not wanting boots on the ground in Syria or Iran doesn’t make one a lover of Assad or the Ayatollah either.
It’s funny how people keep calling Trump a Putin puppet when major Russian revanchist accomplishments happened not while Trump was in office but while Obama was president and now perhaps again with Biden.
Trump was an Assad apologist yet, strangely, it was he, not Obama, who actually backed up rhetoric about repercussions and crossing red lines.
It’s the typical projection and gaslighting from fake news media.
Correcting, go back to promoting amnesty for illegals, cuckservatives and neocon jews.
Sorry, Correcting. I meant:
Because Science: go back to promoting amnesty for illegals, cuckservatives and neocon jews.
Because — quit taking dumps here,
Crenshaw is a Deep State PoS. A Mossad bitch of a Congressional prostitute.
I am very familiar with Russian history. While in college I majored in it.
The history of the Ukraine is a history of being almost continuously under the thumb of some other people whether the Golden Horde, the cossacks, Poland-Lithuania, Austria, the Ottoman Empire and the growing power of Muscovite Rus. For a long time it was divided in various ways between those powers.
During all of that time many, if not most, of the Ukrainian people, who had their own distinct language and culture, wanted to be independent.
Right after the Russian Revolution they did enjoy that for a brief time but were eventually crushed by Leninist forces and became part of the Soviet Union.
With the collapse of the USSR they were finally able to achieve it and have been striving, albeit imperfectly and with fits and starts, to become a democracy identifying more with the democratic West and not wanting to be part of the Putin dictatorship.
So this is really a struggle between democracy, which the US GOP used to support, and dictatorship.
There are no plans to “intervene” in the situation by the Biden Administration and I don’t expect that will happen even if Putin takes over the entirety of the Ukraine and crushes its fledgling democracy.
So it is not a question of intervention at this point. However, should Putin continue on his apparent course of wanting to re-establish the boundaries of the former Soviet Union and go after Belarus and later the Baltic states, NATO will have to draw a line in the sand.
It is not in US interests to allow Russia to become more powerful.
I would think the US Republicans would realize that and be on the side of limiting Russian expansion and protecting democracies, but apparently not.
Instead they have decided to become Quislings probably because Trump was soft of Putin due to owing him money for the loans he got in the 90’s that were guaranteed by a Russian oligarch with the undoubted approval of Putin.
Then there are the “pee tapes”.
Putin has Trump by the short hairs and with that the current cult of personality that has become today’s Republican Party.
If this continues it will become another nail in the coffin of the GOP which has one foot in the grave already for reasons I have discussed here previously.
BullshitScientist – holder of numerous advanced degrees in, you guessed it, Bullshit.
Thank you for the thoughtful and cogent response Abe which is typical of what to expect from commenters here.
Because says:
“With the collapse of the USSR they were finally able to achieve it and have been striving, albeit imperfectly and with fits and starts, to become a democracy identifying more with the democratic West and not wanting to be part of the Putin dictatorship. So this is really a struggle between democracy, which the US GOP used to support, and dictatorship.”
Have to take into account the two eastern provinces referred to as Donbas. The peoples there apparently want independence from Kiev and want association with Russia. Russia has been funneling them money and food for years.
bred: It is not going to end here.
“There are no plans to “intervene” in the situation by the Biden Administration and I don’t expect that will happen even if Putin takes over the entirety of the Ukraine and crushes its fledgling democracy.”
I don’t expect him to go that far (this situation with the eastern provinces has been anticipated for a long time) and actually think NATO could get involved if Putin were to march west towards Kiev. The reason this limited action (as well as Crimea) won’t meet full bodied resistance from the west is because the people in those areas are already behaving as autonomous regions allied with Russia. Additionally, I think Putin would lose a lot of support in his own country if he were to try to take over Ukraine in its entirety. There’s a big difference between backing some provinces that already don’t consider themselves Ukrainian vs taking over the western part that’s more aligned with the EU or taking over the capitol. Putin’s military would suffer massive casualties and a large scale war would jeopardize trade. That would really screw up their economy which isn’t great to begin with. Then he’d be looking at riots and problems back home.
Your line about not expecting intervention brings up the question why all the pearl clutching and why go through the trouble of comparing this situation to the rise of Hitler if the U.S. does NOT plan on intervening? Wasn’t the foreign policy lesson of Hitler supposedly that you contain a rogue madman early; you don’t concede land to him? It’s like you want the moral high ground of saying “Hitler bad” and comparing Putin to Hitler, yet when push comes to shove you’re saying nobody is talking about intervention. OK so if nobody is talking about intervention how are they morally superior to Trump? Because they write a letter saying they disapprove of Putin’s actions but Trump says supposed words of praise like “Putin is tough”??
Belarus is already a Russophilic country that is moving more in that direction by signing more agreements with Russia and turning away from so called “western liberal values.” Russia still has land in the Baltics with the Kalingrad Oblast. Putin doesn’t need to take Belarus over because they’re already a puppet state. And you think they are some kind of bulwark against Russia or a buffer zone? Maybe you’ve missed some headlines in the years since you left college.
“Then there are the “pee tapes”.”
Well, there it is. There’s the smoking gun that you are not serious. The media could make up anything bad about Trump and you’d believe it since that’s comforting and supports your predetermined narrative that Trump is bad. Then they would tell you the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence and you’d take their word since you have deep hatred of Trump and want to believe in secret pee pee tapes that Roseanne’s ex-husband and journalists at Vice and Rolling Stone have been looking for for years and have turned up nothing. The “pee tape” was a rumor from the discredited Steele Dossier. Why are you citing bogus misinformation as if it’s gospel? People connected to that dossier have been arrested by the way. It was a giant conspiracy to create a conspiracy theory (the Russiagate hoax), that literally involved foreign agents meddling in the U.S. on behalf of the Democratic Party. Again, it’s projection. Accuse your enemy of what you are doing.
You say Trump was “soft” on Putin yet concede nobody is talking about military intervention over this. So what’s the difference? How can you say Trump is exceptionally bad or soft? Compared to what? Trump signed plenty of sanctions against Russia and actors in Russia — just like Biden, Obama, Bush, and leaders in other countries do sanctions. It sounds like you’re just repeating what MSNBC said and not giving this much thought.
No, what would be a nail in the coffin for either side would be to advocate a tough military response. If calling for non-intervention is so costly and unpopular that it constitutes a nail in the coffin to the GOP, then we must assume that the popular thing to do would be intervention yet you admit that’s not on the table but Joe Biden is president. Joe Biden’s approval is bad. If it were unpopular to not intervene, we would have to assume it would be popular to intervene and that Joe Biden would be considering it.
What you’re saying just doesn’t make sense: Republicans are bad if they don’t want to do anything, yet Biden isn’t going to do anything and nobody plans on doing anything. lol
Correcting.
Thank you for preparing an actual response instead of the childish name calling that usually is what goes on here.
I don’t think that NATO or the US will risk WWWIII over the Ukraine.
However, if Putin goes after the Baltic states, which are in NATO, or Poland, they are going to have to do something.
Belarus is clearly a client state of Russia atm but Putin may try to go further with that at some point, which will probably not be resisted.
That would then put him in position to go further West.
Its a delicate dance. This differs from the pre WWII world in that there are now nukes.
Trump was quoted earlier as saying that the Ukraine was a “European problem” and we shouldn’t be involved.
I think we learned in the 20th century that European problems don’t stay in Europe.
The United States has a clear interest in preventing the reemergence of a Russian Empire with the power of the former Soviet Union minus the “communism”.
If Trump were still President, or becomes President again, Katie bar the door.
Because Pseudoscientist: you cry about the nonexistent, though “sacred’Ukrainian border, but are glad to see Diapered Biden & Co. wreck our own border.
Russia doesn’t allow homosexualists to prance and tranny dance …. so the country is run by a ‘terrible dictator’ according to the libtard simps on this board.
I say, Putin is G R E A T! Biden and Trudeau are illegit dictators and tyrants who must be defrenistrated.
I think that goes without saying in regard to Poland. What I challenge is the notion that because Russia wants to expand its sphere of influence to places full of Russians that want to be independent from their current country (like Donetsk in Ukraine) that Russia is going to take Poland or even all of Ukraine for that matter. That’s quite a leap and it’s comparing apples to oranges.
idk about Belarus — I would think Lukashenko likes being in power in the same way that North Korea is friends with China but wouldn’t be okay with being invaded by China.
The ones to watch are Baltic countries like Latvia and Estonia. They’re isolated and in a way surrounded by Russia but they are also NATO countries. If Putin moved in there, that would be a bad situation.
But this is off topic so I’m going to return to something John said and dispute it.
“To me, a man or woman you can count on in a fight to have your back and win is someone I’d rather have in Congress representing me, even if we don’t see eye-to-eye on some issues.
I prefer toughness, or in the Latino culture, a “strong man” / “strong woman”.
Trump has proven toughness going back decades, that is why he’s revered highly by so many.
Luttrell’s service in the Navy proves the toughness he will have your back when it counts. I get no such reassurance out of Collins, and definitely not out of Lauf.”
How is Trump tough? Or how is Trump “tougher” than someone like Adam Kinzinger or Dan Crenshaw? We could say what Kinzinger did took bravery (impeaching Trump) but so what? If you were against impeachment, you probably wouldn’t support re-electing Kinzinger just because he did something that was tough. It would have been easier for him to vote with the majority of his party and with what his Republican base wanted him to do (not impeach). I recognize this (many Trump supporters don’t) yet I wouldn’t reward Kinzinger for it because I didn’t support impeachment.
People like Trump because he says what they want to hear. They perceive it as tough or not politically correct. Would Republicans care about the great or tough “deals” Trump made as a real estate guy if he wasn’t talking about building a wall or bombing ISIS? If being a smart businessman were all it took, maybe they would like Pritzker or Bloomberg, but Trump supporters do not like those politicians because they have disagreements on policy. Pritzker is arguably being “tough” by not backing down on COVID restrictions but so what? If you disagree with COVID restrictions, you’re not going to reward Pritzker just for not backing down.
Most honest people understand they’d rather be in a bar fight with a military person on their side than with a woman or an old man. That means nothing (or should mean nothing) about who you’d rather vote for. There are plenty of people who served in the military who are just flat wrong on things. Just because they were trained with a gun doesn’t mean they are going to argue on behalf of the right things as lawmakers. Would you prefer a UFC fighter who is wrong on every single issue over someone who is right about everything to represent you? Most people would choose the latter.
The toughness argument fails. Toughness is certainly a quality you want to see in a politician, but it’s not the only thing. If all things were equal, you’d take the tougher candidate. But elections are usually not between candidates who are exactly the same except for in one variable toughness. If you think one person agrees with you more, you’re going to vote for that person. You’re not going to vote for someone who votes against your interests because they are “tougher.” Maybe in a crowded field you recognize the “best” candidate isn’t electable, and in that situation perhaps you vote for someone who can win the race but is a better alternative to the worst candidate that is polling well (you vote for the least bad person who has a shot of denying the worst person the nomination). You wouldn’t vote for the worst person just because they are the toughest though.
People liked Trump because they saw him as standing up for them against a swamp (or at least that’s what they hoped he would do based on how he campaigned). So you’re missing half the equation, and in my opinion the more important part of the equation. The toughness with no context doesn’t mean a lot. Street gangs and terrorists are tough too. You may fear them and concede their means of violence are effective — it doesn’t mean you support them.
Toughness varies by context. Are they fighting for what’s good? That’s what matters.
If the differences are minor, it’s possible people consider all the factors and pick the candidate who is “good enough” but tougher (probably not what I would do, but some people might). I don’t know enough about the differences of these two candidates to judge either of them.
All these consultants, politicians, and writers who are labeling people as “RINO” or “establishment” or “America First” aren’t doing voters any good. What do these politicians support and oppose? Where are they on the issues? That’s what voters want to know. Giving yourself a “good guy” label and giving the opponent a pejorative label doesn’t help. This is lazy campaigning. Anybody can call anybody “establishment” or call themselves “America First” or “Country First.” Anybody can call their opponent a fascist or a communist or a Xi puppet or a Putin puppet. Without explaining what candidates believe and how they are different from one another, it’s all gibberish.
That’s the problem with American politics. It’s way too dumbed down. It’s meant for little soundbites and tweets that rile people up but is not very informative.
BullshitScientest, like all who are afflicted by TDS, simply cannot “tolerate” the truth,
he finds those who speak it to be intolerable.
His many so-called advanced degrees at Leftist controlled institutions of higher learning have warped his mind.
Because says:
“Then there are the “pee tapes”.”
Not very smart or bright to insinuate that the “pee tapes”, the “Trump Dosier”, were important or even had credibility or somehow diminished Trump.
It has been established that the Hillary Rodman Clinton Campaign and elements of the former Obama Administration promoted that total fraud. The “pee tapes” were part of the phony Trump Dossier written by a Russian along with a former British spy. The Dossier was commissioned by the Hillary Clinton Campaign of 2016.
The Russian Collusion falsely alleged against Trump was actually connected to the Hillary Campaign.
It is extremely disturbing that the current National Security Advisor to President Biden, Jake Sullivan, was part of the 2016 Hillary Clinton Campaign and their shenanigans to discredit Trump the candidate.
Functions and responsibilities of the National Security Advisor per WIKI include:
“The National Security Advisor serves as the principal advisor to the President of the United States on all national security issues. The National Security Advisor participates in meetings of the National Security Council (NSC) and usually chairs meetings of the Principals Committee of the NSC with the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense (those meetings not attended by the President). The NSA also sits on the Homeland Security Council (HSC).”
We all know how incredibly inept was Biden in his first year as president and also past years with regards to opposing actions or policies of the U.S. that were proven sound. It is not very reassuring to ALSO have a National Security Advisor to Biden who was part of the shenanigans of the 2016 Clinton Campaign to discredit Trump. Especially during these times of Putin’s threatening actions.
The world is full of countries where national boundaries were drawn by colonial powers with no regard for ethnic divisions.
If we start allowing nations to readjust those boundaries by the use of force, there will be chaos.
This is what started WWII.
All Hitler wanted was to “reunite German speaking people.”
Right.
“Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it.” George Santayana
“Those who do study history are doomed to watch those who don’t repeat it anyway.” Every History teacher.
An autocrat is trying to use military force to snuff out a fledgling democracy.
But the “conservatives” on this site and elsewhere are defending it.
Just when you think that Republicans can’t go any lower, they surprise you.
Mark Carroll, 47, elected village trustee of North Aurora and married father of 3
Jerry Evans, 38, successful business owner in his own name and married father of 2
Grace Greene, 43, Marine Veteran and successful corporate executive, married mother of 2
Andrea Heeg, 55, businesswoman and married mother of 4
Cassandra Tanner Miller, 34, domestic violence survivor married mother of 2, with 3rd on the way
Dean Seppelfrick, 58, father, and recently renounced his college degree from Aurora University due to “wokeness”
and you forgot
Catalina Lauf 28, no life experience, no job experience, not a car owner, not a home owner, still lives with parents, doesn’t know the issues or what ERA stands for or what Nuclear warfare is, and has mastered one thing-being so self-absorbed that taking selfies takes precedence over all else
Because science proves once again he’s spouting things he’s knows nothing about.
1. This whole matter of Biden deliberately putting hypersonic missiles in Ukraine to provoke a Russian reaction is to distract from his domestic/foreign disasters and to blow up the Nordstream gas line with Germany.
2. The Russian people of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions already voted to secede from Ukraine…….
“Ukraine broke off all economic relations with the separatist areas.” And that was in 2015!
https://m.dw.com/en/donetsk-and-luhansk-in-ukraine-a-creeping-process-of-occupation/a-60878068
3. Maybe the Washington DC pukes like Biden, Pelosi, Mitch and Dual National Schumer (D-Isr)!should start defending American borders and wuit trying to start new wars thousands of miles away.
It has started boys and girls.
I hope you are happy.
I’m confused why Mr. Alex is referred to as a hired gun?
He’s never managed (or been associated with) a winning campaign.
He just talks about all these campaigns he’s worked but yet can’t show any actual clients accept for Lauf, but it seems all he does for her is act as a troll on twitter.