A rematch between Rep. Stephanie Klick, R – Fort Worth, and David Lowe from North Richland Hills will play out in the primary runoff on May 28. In March, Klick edged out Lowe by two points, falling just short of the fifty percent plus one vote threshold. She also defeated him in 2022.
House District 91 covers Watauga, Haltom City, North Richland Hills, and parts of Fort Worth in Tarrant County.
Klick is the former chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party. She first was a precinct captain in the local GOP in 1986 and helped build the Republican Party up in North Texas. Many of the advocacy groups have endorsed Klick, including Texas Right to Life and Texas Alliance for Life.
Rep. Klick was appointed Chair of the Public Health Committee by Speaker Dade Phelan, R – Beaumont.
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Governor Greg Abbott, former Gov. Rick Perry, and Tarrant County State Senator Kelly Hancock, R – North Richland Hills are supporting her. She’s also raised more than $800,000 since July 2023 with major recent donations coming from Speaker of the House Dade Phelan, R – Beaumont, and Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a pro-business group that defends House incumbents.
Lowe has the support of grassroots groups organized to oust incumbent members they feel aren’t governing in a conservative enough way. He’s a stay-at-home dad and veteran.
Attorney General Paxton has endorsed Lowe after Klick voted with two-thirds of House Republicans to impeach the attorney general. He was acquitted in the Senate and has since been on a “revenge tour.” Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is supporting Lowe, also believing Klick has not governed in a conservative way. A group of grassroots groups like Abolish Abortion Texas and Texas Gun Rights are backing him as well.
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Lowe has raised roughly $150,000; a big portion has come from the group Texans United for a Conservative Majority. That organization had to rebrand after the president of its former organization, Defend Texas Liberty, stepped down after meeting with a neo-Nazi.
NBC 5’s Lone Star Politics spoke with both candidates. There is no democratic opponent in November so the winner of the Republican primary will fill the seat.
Rep. Klick says “I’ve got a record. He’s got rhetoric.” When asked what the race is about, Klick said it’s about: “Someone who's distorted my record. He's got support from West Texas, groups that met with Nazi synthesizers. I represent my district. I grew up here, lifelong resident. He represents West Texas.”
West Texas billionaires Farris Wilks and Tim Dunn the primary funders to Defend Texas Liberty.
Rep. Klick says her priorities for the next session are border security and property tax relief. She supports paying down local school taxes with state tax dollars.
The right flank of the Republican Party has put a spotlight on how the Texas House is organized, where the Speaker often gets support from Democratic members and then some Democrats are appointed as committee chairs. That aspect of governing the House is a decades-long tradition and it's one of the key issues with Speaker Dade Phelan’s primary runoff race down in Beaumont. Rep. Klick says she supports Phelan the practice of allowing Democratic some power in the lower chamber.
“You know, we've gotten record accomplishments. We've passed constitutional carry. We've passed some of the strongest pro-life legislation in the country. We have done property tax reform, some of the strongest border security bills in the country. If you're going to have criticism, you've also got to give credit for leading us to that,” said Klick.
"Some of my biggest problems in getting bills heard and out of committee have been with Republican chairs, not Democrat chairs,” she said.
She voted to impeach Ken Paxton on a lengthy list of abuse of power and corruption allegations. Some of which he still remains under FBI investigation for. However, the Senate voted to acquit him. Rep. Klick said some things in the impeachment process can change but she stands by her vote.
“I don't believe anybody is above the law," she said, “Timing, I think, could have been better. We could have had more time in the House on that, but by and large, the state constitutional process is different than the process in D.C. We don't have two trials."
Much of this race has hinged on social issues of abortion and transgender laws. Recent anti-abortion laws that nearly banned all procedures in the state passed through Klick’s Public Health Committee.
Rep. Klick tells NBC 5 next legislative session she wants to make the laws regulating abortion inducing pills sent through the mail stricter.
“We have folks from out of the country and from other states sending in abortion pills illegally,” she said.
Lowe and his allies have criticized Klick for a past vote on transgender issues. In a bill sending state money to expand child hospital emergency rooms, there was an amendment from an ultra-conservative lawmaker to ban state money from going to hospitals that do social transition work, that is the non-surgical care like therapy. The amendment was voted down because most lawmakers thought it was random and unrelated to the bill.
“Again, another distortion in life from my opponent. That bill had absolutely nothing to do with transgender care. What it had to do with was providing crisis mental health services in pediatric emergency rooms that do not provide behavioral health. I had a constituent with a child 17 years old, nearly diagnosed with schizophrenia, that tried to kill the family. And when they showed up at the emergency room, they didn't provide behavioral health there. They had to transfer the child to another facility. There weren't any bets available.”
Rep. Klick was a main driver of the law banning transgender sex change operations and the use of puberty blockers for children.
For David Lowe, the Texas House isn’t delivering enough and “dragging our feet.”
“Texas Republicans have had the majority for over two decades and CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) has ranked us the 26 most conservative state. We are not moving the ball forward,” said Lowe.
He opposes appointing Democratic chairs to lead any Texas House committees and thinks the Democratic party is “too dangerous” because of positions on abortion and transgender care.
“The Republican Party should have the majority and act like it,” said Lowe.
On the transgender care issue he gives Rep. Klick credit for “finally, after much delay” passing a bill outlawing surgery and puberty blockers for teenagers and children, he supports naming any transgender care “child abuse.”
When asked what he thinks the race is about he said: “This race is about the old guard and the new guard, right? The truth is our border is still open, elections are still not secure, property tax property taxes are still out of control people are still getting priced out of their homes and People are time tired for change.”
On abortion, Lowe supports a law bringing criminal charges against women who receive abortions. The Republican Party platform views the procedure as legal murder and Lowe wants the legislature to enforce the Republican Party platform.
“The same laws that protect you and myself should protect an unborn child,” said Lowe.
“The death penalty for a mother that has an abortion is the dumbest, most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life, but again, I support the same laws that protect you and protect me, protect an unborn child,” he said.
Lowe says he opposes Speaker Dade Phelan for the top spot in the Texas House, calling him “the head of the snake.”
Critics, including Rep. Klick in an interview, pointed to the fact in the past Lowe purchased some porn domain names to sell among with others for multi-level marketing and other websites. He calls the criticism “an absolute distraction from her miserable voting record.”
“Look, I owned domain names. I owned over 200 of them and I think they all expired to the last one. I think it was 2011 and I was trying to make a quick buck in the military I didn't sell or run any porn sites and it's disgusting that she would try and transition from policy attacks, policy issues to personal attacks.”
