Swanson’s Swan Song?
What do you call a State Representative who spends 10+ months solely focused on vanity legislation in the hopes of proving their Conservative street cred to GOP primary voters?
You call them Valoree Swanson.
Unfortunately for Swanson, her multi-session crusade against transgender Texans does not seem to have endeared her among voters in her own party…and there’s a lesson to be learned in that.
Swanson worked across a regular session and 3 special sessions of the Legislature to pass legislation designed to exclude transgender children from participation in school sports — legislation that was built entirely on lies and a severe lack of understanding of who transgender Texans are along with a complete disconnect from the medical science around transition-related care. As one of her constituents recounted after meeting with Swanson the Representative said she, “didn’t really understand what chromosomes did.”
For nearly 10 months, Swanson peddled in fear tactics, dishonest rhetoric and the worst kind of misogyny. Her singular focus for the entire legislative season was unnecessary legislation that was, in large part, designed to show GOP primary voters just how conservative she was. With that kind of unbridled bigotry on display, you would have thought she’d be a shoe-in for smooth electoral sailing come time for re-election.
But that hasn’t happened.
As we near the filing deadline it looks as if Swanson has drawn 3 separate Republican opponents in her primary re-election campaign — including a former State Representative. For a member who devoted nearly all of her time at the Capitol on an issue that was specifically fabricated to appeal to the GOP base, you have to wonder if all of that time was well spent considering the forceful message that multiple primary opponents sends about how constituents perceive Swanson’s record.
Now make no mistake, I’m not suggesting that any of these opponents are challenging Swanson because they disagreed with her campaign of bigotry against transgender Texans — the evidence suggests that most of her opponents would support expanding the cruel and vicious attacks on Texans that Swanson spearheaded.
What I am suggesting is the old expression of , “all politics are local” feels like the most appropriate explanation as to why Swanson is facing multiple challengers from within her own party.
Rather than spending the 10-month super-sized session working on issues that would have uplifted her constituents or addressed any one of the myriad of challenges facing the people living in House District 150, Swanson proudly chose the role of bully to transgender children.
Think about how many hours Swanson and her staff devoted to drafting, researching, defending and whipping votes for what ultimately became House Bill 25.
In special sessions 1 and 2 Swanson filed no legislation at all and in special session 3 she filed just 4 pieces of legislation, 3 of which focused on attacking Texas children who are transgender. There was zero legislation across the special sessions that focused on the actual needs of the people of House District 150.
When leaders at Spring ISD issued a mask mandate to protect their students from contracting and spreading COVID-19, where was Swanson? Was she defending and supporting these educators and actually standing up for children? Of course not, she was too focused on singular legislation designed to harm kids that she personally dislikes.
Elected officials with a strong track record of delivering results for all of the people they represent generally don’t have to worry about challengers from their own party attempting to unseat them — an effective legislator is a safe legislator.
One primary challenger may be a fluke, but three is a statement.
The people of House District 150 deserve better than a representative who will devote the power of her office entirely to a vendetta against transgender children. And whether or not you understand what it means to be transgender, you have to wonder why your state representative would spend nearly a year ignoring the actual needs of her district in lieu of feeding the fires of a fabricated ‘emergency’.
I doubt any of Swanson’s primary opponents will be more accepting of LGBTQ+ Texans, but should one of them win I hope they take one lesson with them. Valoree Swanson is a vulnerable incumbent at risk of losing her seat in the Texas House for one reason and one reason only — she forgot about the people she was supposed to be representing, including the ones who are not members of her political party. And at the end of the day, transgender Texans exist in every House District in our state including HD150 — in fact Texas has one of the largest transgender populations in the nation, and those Texans vote and they matter as much as any other voter, GOP or not.
The lesson for all lawmakers is that you would be better served, and so would your constituents, if you spent the precious little time you have at the Legislature delivering on real issues that uplift the communities you represent and acknowledge that not every person in your district is going to vote for you, but you should still represent them faithfully.
Don’t be a Valoree Swanson.
