Courtesy Photo / H-E-B
H-E-B Chairman Charles Butt grabbed headlines earlier this month after his Public Education PAC funneled $1.3 million to campaigns of anti-school voucher conservatives.
GOP officials in Brazoria, Harris, Trinity and Tyler counties passed resolutions last Saturday denouncing H-E-B and Butt for "advocating for policies contrary to the Republican Party of Texas platform," reports right-leaning news site The Texan.
Those policies include advocating against "election integrity," sponsoring "drag queen shows for children," providing food to the less fortunate and lobbying "against parents' God-given rights and against empowering parents to choose the education that is best for their children."
Butt's flak from county GOP officials comes less than a month after the Current reported that the billionaire's Charles Butt Public Education PAC funneled $1.3 million to the campaigns of anti-school voucher conservatives ahead of the recent state primaries.
As for the other accusations outlined in the anti-H-E-B resolution, Butt did fund lobbyists in an attempt to block Texas' anti-sanctuary city legislation in 2011. What's more, H-E-B was listed as a sponsor of an LGBTQ+ Pride event in Austin in 2022, which included an all-ages drag show, The Texan reports.
And, yes, H-E-B does accept food stamps — apparently a sin among some Texas conservatives.
However, it's not too difficult to understand why a Texas business leader might advocate for policies that run counter to the Texas GOP's official party platform, a document Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson described as "further right than MAGA."
"As far as the platform goes, that literally has dozens of party positions, many of which have been in the platform in prior years, and many of which are very, very far right," Jillson explained.
Indeed, the state GOP's 2022 official platform advocated for the removal of the federal minimum wage, the abolition of labor unions and the repeal of anti-hate crime laws.
Folks will have to wait until the Texas GOP's convention in San Antonio in May to find out whether an anti-HEB clause makes it into the party's official platform.
Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter| Or sign up for our RSS Feed
