Republican candidate for governor Allen West visited Tyler on Tuesday where he discussed his plans for Texas.
“I think folks are looking for true, principled and resolute leadership that will restore the state of Texas,” West said.
With an audience of about 150 people, West discussed topics such as border control, property tax issues, medical freedom, educational freedom, fighting sex trafficking and drug control during the Grassroots America meeting at the Holiday Inn conference center.
West said people are beginning to forget they live in a “constitutional republic, we don’t live in a constitutional monarchy.”
If elected governor, West said he looks to bring back the important aspects of constitutional government which is “the individual, your rights, your freedoms (and) your liberties.”
The government has no place imposing mask mandates, deciding what is essential, telling someone their business has to shut down but others don’t and more, West said. The rule of law says the federal government is supposed to allow every state a republican form of government, he added.
While this is true, West said President Joe Biden has already declared twice, “no amendment to the Constitution is absolute.”
“If no amendment to the Constitution is absolute, nothing is absolute,” West said.
As an example, West said the First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion and the free exercise of it; however, even in Texas churches were closed during the pandemic. Things such as this are what take away our freedoms, he added.
West also said he will protect the state’s borders if elected. Invasions are one thing every state is supposed to be protected from, “yet hundreds of thousands of people are pouring across the border, crossing into the state of Texas illegally,” West said.
In the Texas Constitution it says one duty of the governor, or commander in chief of the Texas military department, is to “propel invasions,” which he intends to do at the border, West said.
Those at the border are sent without enough equipment and no purpose, West said. When ICE and the border patrol are not doing it, West looks to arrest, detain and deport those who are coming to Texas illegally.
Last year overdoses in Texas were the highest in the U.S. at over 100,000, West said. The main culprit being the drug fentanyl, he added.
This has largely contributed to the cartels, he added. Fentanyl comes from China and is shipped to cartels as if they are a business, but they are “terrorists,” West said.
Now is the time to stand up to this and “cripple” the cartel, he said.
The protection of people’s natural rights, “life, liberty and property,” is also something West said he’d stand up for. If property is a natural right, then “how is it that we’re taxing property in the state of Texas, he asked.
Other issues West said he would fight for if elected governor were lowering sex trafficking, as Texas is No. 1 for this in the U.S.; bettering education so Texas is not one of the lowest out of the 50 states; stopping the use of puberty blockers and hormonal therapy; and reestablishing that parents have rights.
West said he would provide “strong leadership” to Texas and protect the people from the “unconstitutional actions” of the federal government.
“The preeminent issue for the state of Texas is our sovereignty,” West said. “If we don’t protect our sovereignty, we’re just a piece of land…”
West represented Florida’s 22nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013 and served as the Republican Party of Texas chairman from 2020 to 2021.
West is challenged by Abbott, Paul Belew, Danny Harrison, Kandy Kaye Horn, Don Huffines, Rick Perry and Chad Prather in the Republican primary for governor.
Early voting for the March 1 primary begins Monday.
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