A member of the Texas Republican Party’s 2018 platform committee proudly declared himself a "white nationalist," according to The Texas Observer.
Ray Myers, 74, is very familiar with the political process. After serving as a delegate for Senator Ted Cruz's (R-TX) presidential campaign, the GOP operative worked as a volunteer for President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.
On November 27, 2018, the platform committee member wrote on Facebook, "Damn right, I'm a WHITE NATIONALIST and very proud of it."
As the president has, Myers defended the nationalism by equating it with patriotism.
"I am Anglo, and I’m very proud of it, just like Black people and brown people are proud of their race," Myers told the Observer. "And white nationalist, all that means is America first. That's exactly what that means. That's where the president's at. That's where I'm at, and that's where every solid patriotic American is. It doesn't have anything to do with race or anything else."
Myers blamed the media rather than history for the term's current negative connotations and asked, “Is there anything wrong with saying they’re Black and proud? Is there anything wrong with being an American Indian and saying that we’re red and proud?
According to The Hill, Myers has been unafraid to use the BLM movement to support his pro-white views.
"I mean, just like Black Lives Matter, white lives matter, too," Myers has said. "We're all in the same melting pot. Now, why can’t we say, as Anglos, that we're proud?"
It was, according to an interview the GOP official gave to Empower Texans, the election of Barack Obama that pushed him toward his current views.
"I knew immediately that America was in trouble," he said of Obama's rise to power. The policies of the Obama administration prompted him to form the Kaufman County Tea Party, a far-right activist group located east of Dallas.
J.T. Edwards, a Black member of State Republican Executive Committee, denounced Myers' remarks shortly after they were posted. However, he does not think Myers' opinions represent any larger opinions within the party.
"To have so-called white nationalists in our party is basically an abomination of the very foundations of the Republican Party," Edwards said. "If you’re not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Mr. Myers' position is part of the problem."
The Texas GOP has yet to comment on the issue.
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