Post by Logan on May 9, 2016 4:07:54 GMT -6
From GOP Moderate to Democratic Lege Hopeful to Trump Campaigner
From 2011 to 2012, George Clayton was a moderate Republican member on the notoriously extreme Texas State Board of Education — a “voice of sanity,” Texas Freedom Network board-watcher Dan Quinn once called him. Halfway through Clayton’s term on the board, activists on the religious right began spreading speculation about his sexuality, and Clayton issued a statement that he did, in fact, “have a male partner who lives with me in my home.” In his bid for re-election, which would have made him the first openly gay Texas Republican elected to such a high position, he finished last in a three-way primary. “I think the party, even before the primary, was working against me,” Clayton told the Observer recently. “I’m convinced of it.”
Clayton wasn’t finished with politics, though. In 2014, he ran as a Democrat for an open state House seat in North Dallas, and lost again. He’d been recruited to run, he said, by a local party official, and was promised support from Battleground Texas that never materialized. “They just disappeared into the gubernatorial race and I never saw them again,” he said.
In December 2015, he made another big pivot: He joined Donald Trump’s campaign as a co-chair for the congressional district in which Clayton lives.
(In a statement to the Observer, a Battleground spokesman responded, “In 2014, we met with many Democratic candidates around the state, including George Clayton, to ensure active Democratic campaigns worked together. We didn’t work with him then, and we would never support anyone aligned with the hateful and intolerant Trump campaign.”)
Read more: www.texasobserver.org/george-clayton-gop-dem-trump/
From 2011 to 2012, George Clayton was a moderate Republican member on the notoriously extreme Texas State Board of Education — a “voice of sanity,” Texas Freedom Network board-watcher Dan Quinn once called him. Halfway through Clayton’s term on the board, activists on the religious right began spreading speculation about his sexuality, and Clayton issued a statement that he did, in fact, “have a male partner who lives with me in my home.” In his bid for re-election, which would have made him the first openly gay Texas Republican elected to such a high position, he finished last in a three-way primary. “I think the party, even before the primary, was working against me,” Clayton told the Observer recently. “I’m convinced of it.”
Clayton wasn’t finished with politics, though. In 2014, he ran as a Democrat for an open state House seat in North Dallas, and lost again. He’d been recruited to run, he said, by a local party official, and was promised support from Battleground Texas that never materialized. “They just disappeared into the gubernatorial race and I never saw them again,” he said.
In December 2015, he made another big pivot: He joined Donald Trump’s campaign as a co-chair for the congressional district in which Clayton lives.
(In a statement to the Observer, a Battleground spokesman responded, “In 2014, we met with many Democratic candidates around the state, including George Clayton, to ensure active Democratic campaigns worked together. We didn’t work with him then, and we would never support anyone aligned with the hateful and intolerant Trump campaign.”)
Read more: www.texasobserver.org/george-clayton-gop-dem-trump/