Texas Representatie Matthew D. Rinaldi joins other republicans in Texas who believe in buying a seat at the table. He shares the table with Kathleen Wall, Angela Paxton, State Representative Dennis Paul, State Senator Don Huffines, David Mays Middleton, and State Senator Joan Huffman.
Bennett Ratliff, a Republican who preceded Matt Rinaldi as state representative for House District 115 in Dallas County, on Friday endorsed Rinaldi’s Democratic opponent, Julie Johnson, in the Nov. 6 election.
He called Immigration and Customs Enforcement to report that some of the protesters in the gallery were undocumented immigrants. Then he walked over to a group of Latino legislators and taunted them about his call to ICE. This seemed exactly the kind of racial profiling that Hispanic lawmakers had feared. The resulting shoving match was predicable. We won’t try to parse whether Rinaldi had legitimate cause to fear for his safety. But we do know that he escalated the incident when he threatened to put a bullet in the head of Democrat Poncho Nevárez. The Democrats weren’t blameless, but Rinaldi was the instigator. His conduct embarrassed himself, the House, and Texas.