Facebook/Ray Myers Ray Myers is a proud 'white nationalist' on the Texas GOP platform committee.
Ray Myers is a member of the Texas Republican platform committee who declared that he is a very proud “white nationalist” in a Facebook post last week.
“Damn Right, I’m a WHITE NATIONALIST and very Proud of it,” Myers wrote in response to a clip of CNN reporter Jim Acosta discussing President Donald Trump’s declaration that he is a “nationalist” and whether he is secretly a “white nationalist.”
“What on earth are you spewing now Acosta?” wrote a Facebook user whose post Myers commented on. “Trump is a Nationalist, for AMERICA. He is white, except for when you’re calling him orange. So, I guess he is a white nationalist. Yay!”
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Ray Myers is a Tea Party Activist
At the Texas GOP’s 2018 convention, Ray Myers was a part of a group of activists charged with crafting the platform for the biggest and most influential state party in the country.
Myers is also a white nationalist, a fact that he declared last week.
Myers, 74, has been involved in Republican politics for decades, The Texas Observer reports. He told Empower Texans that “the pivotal political moment came when Obama came on the scene. I knew immediately that America was in trouble.”
After Obama’s election, Myers founded a tea party group in Kaufman County, which is located just east of Dallas.
2. Ray Myers Was a Ted Cruz Supporter in 2016
Myers was a member of Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s “Texas Leadership Team” during the 2016 presidential campaign, The Texas Observer reported.
Myers served as a Cruz delegate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
After Cruz dropped out of the race, Myers became a volunteer on the Trump campaign.
3. Ray Myers Helped Draft The Texas GOP Platform
Myers, who sits on the Texas Republican Platform committee, helped draft the controversial 2018 platform in June.
The Texas Observer reported that the platform includes “numerous planks that espouse a nationalistic view” including a demand for “English, and only English” voting ballots, calls for the “reasonable use of profiling” to defeat radical Islamic terrorists, condemns the United Nations, calls for shutting down the refugee resettlement program, calls for banning any form of immigration amnesty, and calls for a constitutional amendment defining citizenship as “those born to a citizen of the United States or through naturalization.”
Myers was also part of an effort to replace Republican Texas House Speaker Joe Straus in 2010 because he was Jewish.
“We finally found a Christian Conservative who decided not to be pushed around by the Joe Straus thugs,” he wrote.
4. Ray Myers Claims Nothing Wrong With Being a ‘White Nationalist’
Myers told The Texas Observer that he sees nothing wrong with being a proud “white nationalist.”
“I am Anglo and I’m very proud of it, just like black people and brown people are proud of their race. I am a patriot. I am very proud of my country,” Myers told the newspaper. “And white nationalist, all that means is America first. That’s exactly what that means. That’s where the president’s at. That’s where I’m at and that’s where every solid patriotic American is. It doesn’t have anything to do with race or anything else.”
“We’re just patriotic Americans, just like anybody else. I’m a tea party guy and I’ve got brown and black and American Indians in our tea parties,” he said.
“Is there anything wrong with saying they’re black and proud? Is there anything wrong with being an American Indian and saying that we’re red and proud?” he added. “I mean, just like Black Lives Matter, white lives matter, too. We’re all in the same melting pot. Now why can’t we say, as Anglos, that we’re proud?”
5. Ray Myers’ Comments Condemned
J.T. Edwards, an African-American member of Republican Executive Committee, told The Texas Observer that Myers’ beliefs fly in the face of conservatism and said Myers does not represent the party’s views.
“To have so-called white nationalists in our party is basically an abomination of the very foundations of the Republican Party,” said Edwards. “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Mr. Myers’s position is part of the problem.”
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