Leman Defends Voting Record in Front of Local Crowd; Nixes Secession Talk

The Fayette County Republican Women hosted a talk by State Rep. Ben Leman at the Courthouse in La Grange on Monday, Jan. 25.

Leman spoke about the new legislative session in Austin, especially his recent vote against a rules amendment in the Texas House of Representatives that would have barred Democrats from holding leadership positions.

“I believe a lot of you are wondering about my vote last week on the House (rules) resolution,” Leman told the crowd.

Freshman State Rep. Bryan Slaton, a Republican from Royse City filed a controversial amendment to the rules resolution that would have limited the chairmanships of committees to only members of the majority party. The Texas House rejected the proposal by a vote of 5-135. Slaton’s amendment was praised by some conservatives. However, Leman said the move would have united Democrat members of the House to oppose Republican bills.

Leman posed a question to the crowd on Monday: “So we’re going to pre-load this thing so (Democrats) don’t have a chance to get anything through committees like Republicans do – now that doesn’t sound necessarily bad, does it?”

The question was met with nods and chuckles from the audience.

“But what’s the unintended consequence?” Leman asked. “When you have a divided Democrat caucus, some of these Democrats are pro-gun. Some of them are pro-life.”

Leman said many state house Democrats from the Rio Grande Valley ally with rural Republican members on water rights and property rights issues.

“They’re more conservative than the urban (Republicans) on those issues,” Leman said. “It’s urban versus rural.

“If we had 100 Republicans (in the House), we might get away with it,” Leman said of Slaton’s proposal. “But the truth is, we don’t have that.”

Leman spent much of the talk explaining his vote on the Slaton amendment. He also addressed the so-called “Texit” movement in the Legislature spearheaded by state house Republican Kyle Biedermann of Fredericksburg. The proposal would allow citizens of Texas to vote on whether the Texas Legislature should create a committee to develop a plan for achieving Texas independence. Biedermann filed a bill to that effect (H.B. 1359) on Tuesday, Jan. 26.

“I’m not for succeeding, that’s not what I’m for at this point,” Leman said. “I’m for saving our country. I think there’s a lot to that conversation that has to come out, and I look forward to that being discussed in committee.”

Leman raised a number of practical problems with secession.

“What happens to your social security?” he asked. “What happens to disability or veterans benefits, those type of things?”

“Those are socialist programs,” said one person in the audience.

“OK, I just want to make sure, because some people might say, ‘That sounds good except I need that money,’” Leman said. “Do people know what they’re voting for? That’s my issue with that vote being considered.”

Leman said he does support the idea of the State government nullifying federal laws that he sees as unconstitutional.