Local needs neglected

I entered the race to be your next State Representative because I saw our local needs go neglected. Our slice of Texas is running out of water. Our public schools are being crushed by an overreaching state bureaucracy. Our roads continue to go un-fixed. I put my name on the ballot to address the practical needs of my neighbors, our children, and our grandchildren.

We deserve the power to chart our own course, as cities and communities. Every legislative session, that power is taken away from the People, piece by piece. State leaders vilify our mayors, council members, county commissions, school board members—our elected representatives. The Austin establishment has forgotten “No taxation without representation.”

I am resolved to not succumb to the ugly and nasty tactics that some political consultants and dark-money PACs in this state have perpetuated for far too long. My opponent and his consultants want to make a State Representative race about Trump, rather than about the immediate and urgent needs of this House District. They want to distract voters from the real issues. I wish that this campaign could have simply pitted my policy ideas for the district and Olcott’s voting record.

Wouldn’t a plain and simple, clean debate have been nice? But that’s not how the political consultants behind him operate.

In the heat of the vitriol-filled 2024 campaign, I made some tweets about my frustrations with a campaign that was not running a positive campaign. I was saddened to see American citizens so divided. Now, my words, made when I was just a private citizen concerned about the welfare of our country and the well-being of my fellow citizens, are being manipulated, taken out-of-context, and used as personal attacks against me.

I have always and will continue to always condemn political violence anywhere I see it. I believe in the power of unity and I pray everyday that the divide that plagues our politics will soon be healed. We need leaders who lower the temperature, protect free speech, and keep Texans safe.

When political consultants resort to personal attacks on a candidate like me, they are attacking you, the voters. They are attacking a fundamental element of our republic, attacking the freedom to disagree. I am a threat to those consultants and dark money PACs because my priority would be the constituents of House District 60 and nobody else.

God has always pushed me in directions that I wasn’t expecting. He put me in the race to shine a light on the issues that matter most and to encourage voters to ask the tough questions. I know that whatever God is doing now, it is bigger than me. Jesus Christ taught us to turn the other cheek, so today, I am turning the other cheek.

- Amy Fennell
Willow Park