Texas House Speaker Accuses Republican PAC President of ‘Fraternizing’ with ‘Nazi Sympathizer’

Speaker of the Texas state House Rep. Dade Phelan, R, on Monday accused the president of a Texan Republican PAC of "fraternizing" with a "nazi sympathizer."

In a post on X, Phelan said that Jonathan Stickland, a former Texas state lawmaker who is now the president of the Defend Texas Liberty PAC, "fraternized for six hours with a notorious, anti-Semitic, nazi sympathizer who denies the existence of the Holocaust."

Phelan said the behavior is recurrent within the Republican Party. He urged party officials to take action and stop accepting donations from the PAC, saying that the money the Republican Party of Texas has received from the PAC should be donated to charity.

"This is not a casual misstep. It's indicative of the moral, political rot that has been festering in a certain segment of our party for far too long," Phelan wrote. "Anti-Semitism, bigotry and Hitler apologists should not find sanctuary in the Republican Party."

The comments from the state House Speaker are referencing Strickland's meeting with far-right activist and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, which was first reported by the Texas Tribune.

The speaker also asked for every candidate who has accepted funds from the Defend Texas Liberty PAC to "disavow their toxic affiliation."

The PAC earlier this year donated millions to GOP Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick ahead of the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.