Flatonia’s Dennis Geesaman to Challenge State Rep. Stan Kitzman in GOP Primary

Representatives.

Geesaman, a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force, airline pilot, and former councilman and mayor of Flatonia, will run against incumbent Stan Kitzman in the race to represent Texas House District 85. They’ll face each other in the Republican Primary Election next March.

Kitzman has come under fire by conservatives recently over his voting record on certain issues.

“I feel like my opponent has moved more to a ‘uniparty’ position than a Republican or populist conservative position,” Geesaman said in an interview with the Record last Thursday.

Following the 2022 redistricting that put Fayette County in District 85, Kitzman won the Republican Primary and the General Election that year. Kitzman took office in January 2023. Since then, Geeaeman said some conservatives around the district began souring on their new representative over some controversial votes.

“It kind of started with him voting to impeach (Attorney General) Ken Paxton,” Geesaman said. “Then it went on to him breaking with the Republican Caucus and voting with the Democrats to elect the Speaker of the House. And then voting with the Democrats on the rules for the House’s operations. Basically, I feel like it was designed as a way to kill conservative populist legislation “I feel like there’s a strong grassroots looking for a change,” he added. “But we’re in the far western end of the district. So I have a need to reach out to the eastern end if I have any hope of making this happen.”

District 85 contains the counties of Fayette, Colorado, Austin, Waller, and Wharton along with about half of Fort Bend County.

Geesaman said he was among a group of Republicans in the district who were looking for a candidate to run against Kitzman.

“We had some tepid response, but no one was really willing to do it,” Geesaman said. “So I said, ‘If somebody’s got to do it, then I’ll do it.’” So far, no other Republicans have announced their intention to run for the seat. Geesaman officially announced his candidacy at a meeting of the Fayette County Republican Women on May 21. At the meeting, Geesaman spoke alongside Dan Huffines, who’s running for State Comptroller on a platform of bringing D.O.G.E. (the Elon Musk-inspired Department of Government Efficiency initiative) to Texas.

During the interview with the Record, Geesaman spoke about his position on government spending. Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar projects a nearly $24 billion surplus for the 2026-27 biennium.

“My position is that excess tax money should go back to taxpayers,” Geesaman said.

For example, Geesaman said he opposes a bill in the State Legislature that would take some of the surplus to support the film industry in Texas.

“I’ve heard as high as $2 billion going out of the budget to what some people are calling ‘Hollywood,’” he said.

Geesaman recently volunteered without pay to serve a brief stint as the interim City Manager in Flatonia during a vacancy in that position. During that time, Flatonia was designated a Texas Film Friendly City by Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Film Commission. Geesaman said the City had been working on that designation for a while and it just so happened to come while he was interim City Manager.

While he supported the designation to promote his hometown as a filming designation, he opposes the State using tax dollars to financially support the film industry.

“I’m not in favor of any surplus going to film production,” Geesaman said. “We can stand on our own two feet.

“My position is this,” he added. “We keep having this $20 billion, $30 billion excess every two years. All of that should go towards reducing the tax burden. If we have excess revenue, pay down the tax burden. Don’t start new programs.”

Read more about his campaign at goose4texrep. com. Listen to his May 21 announcement speech at https:// kingwm.com/facotx-rep-women- 5-21-2025-candidatesdon- huffines-for-state-comptroller- and-dennis-geesamancommitment