Jonathan Stickland
Jonathan Spence Stickland (born September 4, 1983) is a Texas politician. From 2013 to 2021 he served as a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 92, which includes a portion of Tarrant County in suburban Fort Worth. He was re-elected in 2018. He did not seek re-election in 2020.
Contents
- 1 Political life
- 1.1 Ratings and endor*ts
- 2 2016 reelection campaign
- 3 2017 legislative session
- 4 2018 reelection
- 5 2019 legislative session
- 6 Personal life
- 7 References
- 8 External links
Political life
In 2015, the political newsletter Quorum Report published online posts made by Stickland given to them by his Republican primary opponent, Scott Fisher. On an fantasy football forum, Stickland made comments regarding marital rape and * use. Stickland stated in a prepared statement that during college "I wasted much of life, said and did things I wish I hadn't." Strickland has supported cannabis decriminalization and partial legalization.
Ratings and endor*ts
In 2017, Texans Uniting for Reform & Freedom scored Stickland 104 percent. In 2017, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility scored him at 100 percent and rated him as one of the top 10 Best Legislators of 2017.
In 2019, civil rights group Equality Texas gave Stickland a 0 percent rating. Environmental groups gave Stickland low ratings; the Texas League of Conservation Voters gave Stickland a 14 percent rating in 2015, while Environment Texas gave Stickland a 10 percent rating in 2019.
The * legalization advocacy group National Organization for the Reform of * Laws (NORML) gave Stickland a 58 percent rating in 2019. The Texas *ociation of Realtors gave Stickland a 50 percent rating in 2013.
2016 reelection campaign
In the Republican primary on March 1, 2016, Stickland faced opposition in his bid for a third term from Scott Weston Fisher, the senior pastor since 2000 of the Metroplex Chapel in Euless, Texas. Fisher carried the backing of former Governor Rick Perry, who in 2008 appointed Fisher to the Texas Youth Commission. Stickland defeated Fisher in the primary election with 58% of the vote.
Comments made by Stickland in 2001 and 2008 in online forums generated controversy amid his primary campaign against Scott Fisher. Stickland apologized for his remarks. In 2008 in a post on a "fantasy sports message board, Stickland responded to a user's request for sex advice by saying, 'Rape is non existent in marriage, take what you want my friend!'"
2017 legislative session
In 2017, Stickland offered an unsuccessful amendment to prohibit state aid to the abatement of feral hogs. In retaliation for Stickland's amendment, his Republican colleague, Drew Springer, Jr., of Muenster, backed by Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio, obtained p*age of another amendment to defund $900,000 from the Texas Department of Transportation earmarked for Stickland's hometown of Bedford.
Stickland in 2017 aut*d HB375 which would allow Texans who were legally able to own firearms, to carry handguns without a permit from the state of Texas.
Stickland is one of only twelve House Republicans organized through the House Freedom Caucus, which he claims is the true representative of most conservative Republicans statewide. He has emerged as a critic of Speaker Joe Straus and an ally in the House of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, the presiding officer of the Texas State Senate. In 2017, Patrick and Straus quarreled over the bathroom bill sponsored by State Senator Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham, which would require persons to use the public rest room corresponding with their genitalia at birth. Straus agreed to a more moderate bill because of what he called concerns about economic boycotts of Texas by business and athletic groups who view the bathroom legislation as infringing on the rights of transgender persons. The Patrick-Straus split created an imp*e on the legislation as the regular session wound down. Stickland said, "I absolutely think that there is a fight going on for the heart and soul of the Republican Party."
Stickland used a legislative procedure called "chubbing" to prevent the consideration of over 200 bills by the Texas House, effectively killing the bills, in what Texas media referred to as the "Mothers Day M*acre."
2018 reelection
Stickland retained his state House seat in the general election held on November 6, 2018. With 29,697 (49.8 percent), he defeated his Democratic opponent, Steve Riddell, who polled 28,251 votes (47.4 percent). Libertarian Party choice, Eric P. Espinoza, received 1,641 votes (2.8 percent).
2019 legislative session
Stickland was the author of a bill to ban red light cameras in Texas. The bill p*ed both the House and the Senate. Governor Greg Abbott signed the bill into law on June 1, 2019.
At the end of the 2019 legislative session, when Texas Monthly published its perennial Best and Worst Legislators list, they gave Stickland the "first-ever *roach Award" and wrote that they were "enshrining the term for a lawmaker who accomplishes nothing but always manages to show up in the worst possible way." The reasons given for the newly created award included a "needless" Twitter fight between Stickland and a prominent vaccine researcher, in which Stickland called vaccines "sorcery" before saying he was only objecting to government-mandated vaccines, and Stickland's verbal sparring with other representatives who resurrected Governor Greg Abbott's signature $100 million plan for high school mental health services after Stickland used a procedural maneuver to kill it.
Personal life
Stickland and his wife, Krissy, met in church. The couple has two daughters.
References
External links
- Campaign website
- Jonathan Stickland at Ballotpedia
- Jonathan Stickland at Texas House of Representatives
- Jonathan Stickland at Texas Tribune