Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak.
OXON HILL, Md. — One of the biggest Republican events of the year is underway this week in suburban Washington, D.C., and Texans are part of the action. The Conservative Political Action Conference, better known as CPAC, features some speakers from the Lone Star State, as well as attendees who traveled across the country.
The sparkle of Texas is on full display with a group of Beaumont, Texas, residents donning red, sequenced jackets with the words “Proud Texan.”
“I wanted to be noticed, seen and heard, and here at the CPAC, we’ve hit all three,” Michael Reaud of Beaumont said.
The Texas-sized pride came with a hefty dose of support for former President Donald Trump’s bid to retake the White House. Reaud and his friends each wore yellow shirts with letters that spell out “Trump.”
Reaud, the owner of a boutique clothing store, said he was a Democrat for more than 30 years but decided to support Trump after seeing “the burning and the looting of small businesses around the country.”
“President Trump all the way,” he said.
They are small business owners from the coast city and said they are frustrated by Washington and the economy.
“The carefree spending, you know. It’s easy to spend other people’s dollars, but what happens when our dollars run out?” said Allyse Wolf, another Beaumont resident. “Once we lose that backbone of small businesses, we lose much of the population that we need to stay growing and go ing in southeast Texas.”
Melissa Cornwell attended CPAC with her 20-year-old son Cole.
“We need security. We need a strong financial industry so that my children thrive and my grandchildren thrive,” Cornwell said.
Another Texan attendee was Roman Garcia, a 21-year-old councilman from Kerrville. “First of all, what young conservative doesn’t want to be at CPAC?” Garcia told Spectrum News.
Garcia said he grew up in a conservative household and started increasingly getting involved with community service, which was how he decided to pursue public service. He was invited to speak about efforts to recruit the next generation of conservatives.
“It’s so important to not only get young conservatives involved in recruiting and training them to run for office, but also to hear from everybody, other elected officials, other minority leaders who are here speaking, you know, learn from them, partner with them to some way, bring all of that knowledge they have to the local level, which is where I’m serving,” Garcia said.
One of Thursday’s featured speakers, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, picked up where he left off at a House Committee on the Judiciary hearing on Wednesday when he jousted with Attorney General Merrick Garland. During that hearing, they sparred over why the Justice Department had not prosecuted protesters demonstrating outside of the homes of Supreme Court justices in the wake of the leaked draft opinion signaling the end of Roe v. Wade. Garland disagreed with those claims, saying he did what no attorney general had done before by sending several dozen U.S. Marshals to protect the justices.
“What is happening at the Department of Justice is heartbreaking, because it is turned into the political weapon for the Democrats to attack their enemies and protect their friends,” Cruz said.
Cruz was doing a live recording for his “Verdict with Ted Cruz” podcast with Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and conservative radio host Ben Ferguson. He spoke to the CPAC crowd for nearly 40 minutes. The Texas senator also called for investigations into Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, over the federal government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
President Joe Biden’s border policies were repeatedly skewered by Thursday’s speakers – and not surprisingly, by members of the Texas delegation who were there at CPAC.
“The policies welcome them. If we change the policies, and we start detaining people, and we build a wall, they won’t come, we will have to detain the millions of people that are coming today, because they will stop coming. Policies have consequences.” Rep. Keith Self, R-Plano, told Spectrum News.
On why it was important for him to attend CPAC, Self said, “This is where we’re going to articulate against the weaponization of the U.S. government, where we’re going to speak for the border, where we’re going to speak for the rights of our citizens against the Biden administration, where we’re going to point out that the Biden administration policies on the border had failed.” Self said it is too early to say who he’ll support in 2024, but like many Texans at CPAC said he would like seeing a Texan in charge.
“We absolutely adore Sen. Cruz and he would make a phenomenal president. Trump-Cruz combination would be outstanding,” Cornwell said.
Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, is scheduled to speak Saturday to discuss the construction of the border wall and Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo, will be making remarks as well.
Notably absent from CPAC is Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida who will be attending fundraisers this weekend in Texas instead.