Allen West is new chairman of the Texas GOP
Former Florida Congressman Allen West, known best for tossing verbal grenades, is new chairman of Texas Republican Party.
Notable from his time in office representing South Florida was West calling one of his elected colleagues “vile, unprofessional, and despicable” and suggesting LGBT people choose their sexual orientation the way people pick an ice cream flavor.
West won his new job by ousting the previous state chairman in votes that concluded early Monday morning.
“Congratulations Allen, great job!” President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter.
West has been a senior adviser at an organization called the Committee to Defend the President but hasn’t always been 100% enthusiastic. During a 2017 speech in Broward during Trump’s first year in Office, West said he would only give the president a “C” grade.
In May, West was injured in motorcycle crash after riding in a protest against coronavirus lockdowns.
West’s style
After failing to win a second term in Congress and deciding against attempting to run for statewide office in Florida, he left Democraticleaning South Florida for the more Republican pastures of Texas in 2014.
He took his trademark style — making attentiongrabbing comments that endeared him to legions of fans and produce disgust among critics — along with him. His style seems to have served him well in Texas.
Last month, for example, West posted a video on social media in which he lambasted the Black Lives matter movement.
“This organization has nothing to do about being Black. It has nothing to do with any of the issues facing the Black community,” said West, who is Black.
He said policies that come from “the progressive socialist left” have destroyed the Black family and that there isn’t a widespread problem of white police officers killing unarmed Black people. A far bigger threat to the Black community, he said, is the “genocide” of abortion.
“Black lives matter, you guys don’t matter to me. You guys truly don’t matter to the black community. But what you are doing is a good job of extorting and shaming and guilt driving the white community into believing they need to wash your feet and kneel down before you and shine your boots. How insidious,” West said.
West in Texas
Texas Republicans liked what they heard. The Austin American-Statesman reported that West apparently won an “overwhelming victory” in separate caucuses of delegates from each of Texas’ 31 state Senate districts at the end of “a delayed and snafu-laden virtual state convention.”
On Saturday, West sought to cast doubt on the process that led to his victory — in an approach that’s similar to President Donald Trump, who has asserted without evidence that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election.
In a video he posted to Facebook on Saturday, West decried “this debacle of a Republican Party of Texas convention” and said it appeared the James Dickey, the three-year chairman he ended up defeating, of attempting to close West’s supporters out of the voting.
This is how West described the situation: “Right now this is what we call in the United States military a Charlie Foxtrot. So shut it down and get it right.” The phrase used by West, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, is slang for a messed-up situation known as a “clusterf—-.”
West in Florida
West challenged then U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, a Democrat, in 2008, and lost. But in 2010, West rode the tea party wave to victory, ousting Klein from his Broward-Palm Beach county congressional seat.
While in office, West made headlines when he called U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, now chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, “the most vile, unprofessional and despicable” member of the House, labeled her a “coward,” told her to “shut the heck up,” and said she had “proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady.”
When controversy flared over fast-food company Chick-fil-A’s donations to groups opposing LGBT rights and some called for a boycott, the then-congressman’s response was, “I love some Chick-fil-A.” He followed up by delivering Chick-fil-A chicken and biscuits to the weekly meeting of the Democratic-dominated Congressional Black Caucus when it was his turn to buy lunch.
In 2012, the Republicancontrolled state Legislature redrew congressional district boundaries, prompting him to move to a congressional district in northern Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties, hoping he’d have an easier time winning a second term in more Republican territory. West lost.
He’d considered running for U.S. Senate in 2016, at a time when U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R- Fla., was getting ready to run for president. Instead, he said in 2014, he was moving to Texas.
In a farewell message on his website, West told his followers that they should “rest assured, I will continue to make my voice heard.”
He considered running for a Texas congressional seat this year but opted not to make the run.