While Jake Neidert is the least famous of his twin set, his hateful and violent ideology is no less alarming.
Recently, Representative Tony Tinderholt launched a bid to become House Speaker. The reason is to limit Democrats’ influence in the Texas House, even though the GOP only has their majority because of racial gerrymandering. Tinderholt has long been known as an extremist on the very furthest right on the political spectrum..
The far right in the Texas House, Tinderholt, Bryan Slaton, Matt Schaefer, and Brian Harrison, have indicated some of the types of legislation they would like to see passed in the 88th Legislature, including the death penalty for women seeking abortions, school segregation, and the persecution of LGBTQ youth. However, they believe that if the Texas House follows the tradition of non-partisan chair appointment, then those terrible things won’t come to fruition, which is dumb because although plenty of Republicans want hurtful legislation, plenty of others won’t get on board with it.
How bad would things be if Tony Tinderholt was appointed House Speaker? Look no further than his recent hire for Legislative Director.
Who is Jake Neidert?
Jake Neidert is the twin of Kelly Neidert. Kelly has become the face of white nationalism and bigotry in North Texas. She leads the hate group “Protect Texas Kids.” This group partners with Proud Boys and targets Drag Shows and Transgender Texans for harassment and bullying.
Kelly Neidert claims to be a proud Christian Fascist and has ties with Nazi sympathizers.
The stated goal of “Protect Texas Kids” is to fight “indoctrination of CRT and trans acceptance.”
Twins Jake and Kelly share much more than identical faces and body types. They also share the same violent and hateful ideology.
While Kelly Neidert received a lot of heat for her hateful activity under the Young Conservatives of UNT, Jake Neidert also received a lot of heat for his hateful activity under the Young Conservatives of Baylor. Although Jake’s activity got a lot less publicity, his behavior mirrored his twin.
What does a legislative director do?
Legislative directors in the Texas House request hearings on legislation, prepare bill analyses, identify people who support legislation to testify, and manage the process, so bills pass the committee and are set on a House Calendar.
What happens if Tinderholt becomes House Speaker while Jake Neidert is his legislative director?
While Tinderholt has picked up some support from the bottom of the barrel in the Texas House, Empower Texans/Texas Scorecard has jumped on board to attempt and pressure other Republicans to get behind Tinderholt rather than Dade Phelan.
Currently, Tinderholt doesn’t appear to have the support of the majority of the House GOP, but if that should change by January, it could spell big trouble for millions of Texans.
It’s the House Speaker who brings bills before the full body and has the power to bring up the worst bills or kill them.
Tinderholt would bring up bills like school segregation and the death penalty for women who have miscarriages.
Then, the full House would have a chance to vote on these bills.
It isn’t about what Texans want or each of their constituents. Most Republicans in the Texas House are bought and paid for by Texas Oligarchs.
If Richard Weekly, Tim Dunn, or the Wilks Brothers want school segregation in Texas, they’ll dump millions into the Republican’s pockets to get their votes. (Watch Deep in the Pockets of Texas if you haven’t seen it already.)
Even though Dade Phelan has been a hard-Conservative speaker, and under his reign, abortion was banned, even in cases of rape and incest, vagrancy laws were reinstated, and voting rights were chipped away; don’t ask if it could be worse because it could always be worse.
Phelan is smart enough to know how to pander to the Conservative base while placating Texas businesses.
One thing we all know, in the eyes of the Texas government, business executives are the most important people in the state. So it’s not good for businesses to have their headquarters in a state that re-implements segregation or kills women who have miscarriages.
Tony Tinderholt is an ideologue who would push bad legislation regardless of whether it would alienate businesses.
This could result in Texas companies packing up and moving to other states. Of course, that’s the last thing that Texas Republicans want.
This is the reason why most Republicans will back Phelan over Tinderholt.
But we never say that nothing is impossible.
With Jake Neidert as Tinderholt’s legislative director, we can expect to see Tinderholt pushing the worst and most extreme bills during the 88th Legislature.
If Tinderholt became speaker, all of the worst and most extreme would come from the Texas House.
House members work closely with their legislative directors, and among their staff, they’re one of the most important people.
On his social media and website, Tinderholt makes hints of Christian Nationalism but never comes out proclaiming to be one.
Jake Neidert claims to be Christian Nationalist and is proud of it.
As his legislative director, there is no doubt that Tinderholt knows about Neidert’s ideology, beliefs, and extracurricular activities.
At the very top of Neiderholt’s public Facebook page, he shared a post that claims:
- The intention is to turn America into a Christian Theocracy.
- Roe is just a taste of things to come.
Do you really want to know how bad things can get if you live in Texas and are Black, Hispanic, a woman, gay, trans, or poor?
What can you do?
Call your house rep, especially if they are a Republican, and demand that they back Phelan over Tinderholt for House speaker.
Don’t know who your rep is? You can find out here.
Get ready for January. You’re going to be needed to show up and testify on bills or attend protests.
Most importantly, get involved now. The 2024 elections will be here before we know it, and it will be time to fight again.
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