These GOP runoff contenders aren’t just from the right. They’re from another universe | Opinion

I spent an hour in another universe this week.

In the faraway brains of some Republicans I heard Wednesday, the Texas Legislature is full of leftists, there’s no reason for Fort Worth to help with fighter jets for Ukraine and women who have an abortion should face trial for murder.

This was not on some scratchy AM radio show, or at a John Birch Society convention.

This was at the Fort Worth Republican Women’s forum.

The same conservative Republicans that mainstream club members have been cheering and applauding for the last 12 years at their monthly City Club luncheon — congressional candidate Craig Goldman and state Rep. Stephanie Klick of Fort Worth — received quiet ovations.

But their beyond-the-fringe opponents in the May 28 party runoffs, longtime Fort Worth banker John O’Shea and Republican Party campaigner David Lowe, were greeted with applause and even a few whoops.

Klick, a nurse who has been a quiet hard worker for 12 years in the Texas House, repeated her conservative bona fides for anyone who didn’t already know them: Republican since college, precinct chair, county Republican Party during six successful years of growth, endorsed by pro-life activist groups.

But Lowe, Klick’s opponent, made a long career sound bad. Suddenly, she hasn’t done enough.

“How come she didn’t mention about the border in 2013? 2014? 2015? 2016?” he asked.

Maybe because she was leading the way to pass new laws on medicine and in particular, to stop so-called hospital “death panels” from leaving patients to die.

And we are truly in another universe when Klick is no longer the most hard-line anti-abortion candidate.

Lowe is one of several Republican House members and candidates who has suggested the state could charge women who have an abortion with felony murder of a child.

He said as much again Wednesday.

Then he turned right around and claimed he never said it.

His 1-year-old daughter’s life is protected by law now, he began, and she should have been protected by “the same laws ... before she was born.”

In Texas, that would be the felony criminal law against baby killing.

The penalty is either death or life without parole.

Yet in the very next breath, Lowe complained that: “People say, ‘You want to kill women who have an abortion.’ That is the sickest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Nobody seemed to notice the blatant backflip.

Both Lowe and O’Shea, Goldman’s opponent for the nomination to succeed U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, spent much of their 5-minute speeches criticizing the Texas House as establishment under Speaker Dade Phelan, a Beaumont Republican.

Like Klick, Goldman introduced himself by listing his GOP credentials. He worked for U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm and is now endorsed by Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

O’Shea began, “I’m not running against Representative Goldman. I’m running to be obedient to God.”

He went on to say he stands for “America First values.” Former President Donald Trump was derailed, he said, by “the Republican part of the establishment.”

O’Shea has not been involved in politics until recent years. But 20 years ago, he said, his family became friends with Attorney General Ken Paxton through now-state Sen. Angela Paxton, a Rendon native.

Goldman and Klick both voted last year to consider removing Paxton over 20 allegations of bribery, dereliction of duty, disregard of official duty and obstruction of justice. Privately, the Texas Senate reportedly came within a couple of votes of removing him.

At an earlier debate, O’Shea said that he is a “hard no” on weapons for Ukraine and that he doesn’t believe Russia will invade other countries.

After the forum Wednesday, he said: “The reality of it is that Ukraine lost. They never were going to be able to have the manpower or the weaponry.”

The U.S. should have sought peace, he said. America can’t afford the aid.

Goldman talked about the danger of isolationism, both for America and Fort Worth.

“You’re not a student of history if you don’t understand the importance of Ukraine” and how Germany overran country after country leading up to and during World War II, he said.

He talked about being overseas when another country received its first delivery of an F-35 fighter from here at Lockheed Martin.

“The leaders literally had tears in their eyes because they knew what a game-changer it would be,” Goldman said.

“With 19,000 employees going to work every day at Lockheed Martin, it is essential that we have somebody who understands the importance of a strong defense for this nation.”

That was how Republicans talked before some flew off to another universe.

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