Some Tarrant County GOP Leaders Still Want To Remove Their Muslim Vice Chair

Our weekly look at what’s happening in Texas politics.

By Rhonda FanningDecember 7, 2018 1:33 pm,

Time for the week that was in Texas politics, with Rebecca Deen, professor and chair of the Political Science Department at University of Texas at Arlington.

GOP leaders in Tarrant County are set to vote on whether to remove the group’s vice chair. Shahid Shafi is Southlake city council member, and a practicing Muslim. Deen says the decision to remove Shafi is explicitly due to his religion, Party members who support the move equate his religion with Islamic extremism. But not everyone is on board.

“The current chair of the Tarrant County Republicans has said very unequivocally, ‘I will not remove him, someone else will have to do this.’ I am certain that GOP leaders understand the writing on the wall here,” Deen says.

The Texas GOP is under fire this week following a post from a platform committee member, Ray Myers. He wrote, “I’m a WHITE NATIONALIST and very Proud of it.”

Listen to the full interview in the audio player above.

Written by Alexia Puente.