Last year, we wrote about a protest against Senate Bill 4, where a Republican legislator decided to call ICE on the protesters. Well, that same legislator is projected to lose his bid for re-election according to Texas Observer.
Ex-State Representative Matt Rinaldi trailed behind opponent Julie Johnson, a Democrat. Rinaldi obtained 43.3 percent of the votes, while Jonhson won with 56.7 percent.
The protest against SB 4 happened on May 29, 2017, about a week after the bill was passed. More than a 1,000 protesters were present to take a stand against the “show me your papers” law. Last year, Rinaldi reportedly told two Democratic colleagues during the protest, “Fuck them, I called ICE”. Some of those protesters volunteered on Johnson’s campaign.
Here’s more on the incident via Texas Observer.
Representative Matt Rinaldi, R-Irving, told Democratic Representatives Ramon Romero Jr. and Cesar Blanco on the House floor that the hundreds of protesters who were chanting in the gallery were a “disgrace,” Romero told the Observer. “Fuck them, I called ICE,” Rinaldi said, according to Romero. The comments nearly sparked a fight among the three lawmakers before their colleagues broke it up, Romero said. “He saw a bunch of people who look Latino, and he assumed they’re undocumented,” Romero told the Observer. “So how can he say SB 4 won’t lead to racial profiling?”
Johnson’s win is one of several in Texas where women beat Republican incumbents.
*Waves goodbye*
