Drew Springer, Jr.
| Drew Alan Springer, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Texas State Representative from District 68 (Childress, Collingsworth, Cooke, Cottle, Crosby, Dickens, Fisher, Floyd, Garza, Hall, Hardeman, Haskell, Jack, Kent, King, Montague, Motley, Stonewall, Throckmorton, Wheeler, Wilbarger, and Young counties) | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 8, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Rick Hardcastle |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 27, 1966 Place of birth missing |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse(s) | Lydia Walterscheid Springer (married 1992) |
| Children | Austin, Grant, and Katherine Springer |
| Residence | Muenster, Cooke County, Texas |
| Alma mater | Weatherford High School |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Religion | Roman Catholic[1] |
Drew Alan Springer, Jr. (born October 27, 1966),[2] just completed his freshman term as the Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 68 in North Texas and the eastern South Plains. Among Texas communities represented by Springer are Gainesville, Graham, Childress, Vernon, and Springer's own Muenster.[3] The district, the second largest in the state in terms of square miles, includes a wide swath of twenty-two counties:[4]Childress, Collingsworth, Cooke, Cottle, Crosby, Dickens, Fisher, Floyd, Garza, Hall, Hardeman, Haskell, Jack, Kent, King, Montague, Motley, Stonewall, Thorckmorton, Wheeler, Wilbarger, and Young counties.[5] If District 68 was a state it would be roughly the size of Maryland.
Background
Springer graduated in 1985 from Weatherford High School in Weatherford in Parker County west of Fort Worth, Texas. He then studied accounting at the University of North Texas in Denton. He and his wife, Lydia, who married in 1991, have three children, Austin, Grant and Kate. They reside in her native community of Muenster in Cooke County.[6] A businessman, Springer is a former controller of a railcar company. He thereafter was a manager of three companies with a total of more than one thousand employees. In 2005, he joined his father in business in the financial services industry.[6]
Political career
Springer was elected in 2012 when the incumbent Republican, Rick Hardcastle of Vernon,[7] stepped down after fourteen years[4] because of multiple sclerosis.[8] Representative Springer was appointed to the Agriculture and Livestock and the Land and Resource Management committees.[5]
It initially appeared that Springer had lost the 2012 Republican primary election, when his chief opponent, Trent McKnight, a rancher from Throckmorton County, backed by Governor Rick Perry, state agriculture commissioner Todd Staples, the Texas Farm Bureau, and the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.[4] finished with 49 percent of the vote.[9] However, in the runoff election on July 31, with backing from two eliminated candidates in the primary, Springer topped McKnight, 8,434 (56.4 percent) to 6,521 (43.6 percent).[10] Springer was unopposed in the 2012 general election in his heavily Republican district.
Himself a favorite of the Tea Party movement, Springer noted that McKnight is a former Democrat who had never voted in a Republican primary election until his own race in 2012. McKnight, the winner in eighteen of the twenty-two counties, blamed his loss on a high turnout in Springer's Cooke County, where there was also a competitive election for sheriff, and the much less participation in the counties in which McKnight led in the primary, despite the high-profile U.S. Senate primary between David Dewhurst and the winner, Ted Cruz. In addition to Cooke, Springer won in neighboring Montague County and Garza and Floyd counties.[11]
In 2013, Springer, who considers himself a conservative in politics, joined the large Republican majority in the Texas House in supporting the successfully-passed legislation to limit the time during which a woman may procure an abortion from twenty-six to twenty weeks and to require upgraded health and sanitary conditions wherever abortions are performed. "This legislation will save thousands of unborn lives, while at the same time improving health and safety conditions for Texas women", Springer said.[12]
Springer introduced the Shopping Bag Freedom Act,[13] based on his opposition to an Austin municipal law which requires reusable shopping bags in stores in the capital city; he contends that banning one-time-use bags may pose a threat to consumers through the ready spread of food-borne illnesses, a view disputed by some of his critics.[14] Springer calls the ban on plastic bags in Austin part of the "nanny-state" agenda.[15]
Springer also filed HB 3218, commonly known as "Concealed Carry Everywhere",[16] the most thorough Second Amendment bill filed in the Texas Legislature during the 83rd Legislative Session. He refiled the bill a second time during the first Special Session of the 83rd Legislature, but the bill was not given a hearing. Springer did however have some luck revising the law surrounding finger printing for Concealed Handgun Licenses, making the process simpler for citizens of rural Texas.
In 2015; Republican state representative Drew Springer filed HB 464, a bill to require minor party nominees to pay filing fees. Libertarian National Committee executive director Wes Benedict commented, "Republican Drew Springer's bill is a poll tax on minor parties, including the Libertarian Party. It's an injustice, and it's unconstitutional."
The bill would require all minor party nominees to pay fees to be allowed to appear on the November election ballot. The fees range as high as $5,000, depending on the office.
Kurt Hildebrand, chair of the Libertarian Party of Texas, said, "This law would effectively shut down third parties in Texas, and I believe that is the intent behind it."
According to ballot access expert Richard Winger, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled twice that this sort of filing fee is unconstitutional.
On April 6, the Texas House Elections Committee voted 5-1 in favor of the bill. (Five Republicans voted yes, one Democrat voted no.) Similar bills have been filed by Texas Republicans in past legislative sessions.
Benedict explained, "Republicans have claimed in the past that their bills make things 'fair' because Republicans and Democrats have to pay filing fees for their primaries. Nothing could be further from the truth.
"Republicans and Democrats have to pay primary fees because their primary elections are financed by taxpayers. Political parties are private organizations, even though they are regulated by the state. Nevertheless, taxpayers are forced to hand over a lot of money to help the Republicans and Democrats pick their nominees. The filing fees pay for a tiny fraction of these costs. "Libertarians and Greens, on the other hand, don't use primaries. We don't force the taxpayers to pay for our nomination process. So there's no reason our candidates should be forced to pay any fees. "If Republicans and Democrats are upset about their primary filing fees, they should just get rid of them. They control 100% of the seats in the legislature, so it should be pretty easy for them. "The purpose of Drew Springer's bill is simple: it has nothing to do with fairness, it's just an attempt to shut all minor parties out of the election process. If this bill gets passed, there will be many more unopposed Republicans and unopposed Democrats in the 2016 elections.
"Representative Drew Springer has also filed a bill to prohibit school districts from offering same-sex couples the same benefits as opposite-sex couples. That gives us an idea of what 'fair' means to him. "I urge legislators who support democracy to oppose this poll tax, which is designed to silence minority opinions. Republican state representative Drew Springer of Muenster, Texas has filed HB 464, a bill to require minor party nominees to pay filing fees.
Libertarian National Committee executive director Wes Benedict commented, "Republican Drew Springer's bill is a poll tax on minor parties, including the Libertarian Party. It's an injustice, and it's unconstitutional."
The bill would require all minor party nominees to pay fees to be allowed to appear on the November election ballot. The fees range as high as $5,000, depending on the office.
Kurt Hildebrand, chair of the Libertarian Party of Texas, said, "This law would effectively shut down third parties in Texas, and I believe that is the intent behind it."
According to ballot access expert Richard Winger, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled twice that this sort of filing fee is unconstitutional.
On April 6, 2015, the Texas House Elections Committee voted 5-1 in favor of the bill. (Five Republicans voted yes, one Democrat voted no.)
Similar bills have been filed by Texas Republicans in past legislative sessions.
Benedict explained, "Republicans have claimed in the past that their bills make things 'fair' because Republicans and Democrats have to pay filing fees for their primaries. Nothing could be further from the truth.
"Republicans and Democrats have to pay primary fees because their primary elections are financed by taxpayers. Political parties are private organizations, even though they are regulated by the state. Nevertheless, taxpayers are forced to hand over a lot of money to help the Republicans and Democrats pick their nominees. The filing fees pay for a tiny fraction of these costs.
"Libertarians and Greens, on the other hand, don't use primaries. We don't force the taxpayers to pay for our nomination process. So there's no reason our candidates should be forced to pay any fees.
"If Republicans and Democrats are upset about their primary filing fees, they should just get rid of them. They control 100% of the seats in the legislature, so it should be pretty easy for them.
"The purpose of Drew Springer's bill is simple: it has nothing to do with fairness, it's just an attempt to shut all minor parties out of the election process. If this bill gets passed, there will be many more unopposed Republicans and unopposed Democrats in the 2016 elections.
"Representative Drew Springer has also filed a bill to prohibit school districts from offering same-sex couples the same benefits as opposite-sex couples. That gives us an idea of what 'fair' means to him.
"I urge legislators who support democracy to oppose this poll tax, which is designed to silence minority opinions. "This is America. The people should decide who gets to run for office, not the incumbents. Libertarians stand for freedom on every issue, and we oppose bullies who would try to stop us from participating in the election process."
Benedict added, "Texas isn't the only place that Republicans are trying to step on voting rights. In New Hampshire, the Republican National Committee is trying to get involved in a lawsuit over the state's petitioning law. The law was changed in 2013 to make it harder for small parties to get petition signatures to appear on the ballot. The Libertarian Party filed a lawsuit against the change, but the Republican National Committee is trying to intervene in support of the change."
"This is America. The people should decide who gets to run for office, not the incumbents. Libertarians stand for freedom on every issue, and we oppose bullies who would try to stop us from participating in the election process."
References
- ↑ "Representative Drew Springer". votesmart.org. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- ↑ "Drew Alan Springer". texastribune.org. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- ↑ "State Rep. Springer announces district tour July 30". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, July 16, 2013. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Doug McDonough, "Drew Springer wins Texas House District 68 nomination," August 1, 2012". myplainview.com. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Drew Springer, Jr.". lrl.state.tx.us. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Weatherford grad takes his seat as state legislator, February 1, 2013". Weatherford Democrat. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- ↑ "Rick Hardcastle". lrl.state.tx.us. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- ↑ "Stem cells for Texas Representative Rick Hardcastle". YouTube. Retrieved September 22, 2013.
- ↑ "Republican primary election returns, May 29, 2012". elections.sos.state.tx.us. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- ↑ "Texas Republican runoff primary returns, July 31, 2012". elections.sos.state.tx.us. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- ↑ "Enrique Rangel, "Springer takes office in Tuesday surprise", August 1, 2012". amarillo.com. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- ↑ "Recent News". votedrewspringer.com. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- ↑ http://votedrewspringer.com/press-release-hb-2416-the-shopping-bag-freedom-act/
- ↑ "Far North Texas Rep. Drew Springer Is Using Bunk Science to Prove Reusable Bags are Killing People". frontburner.dmagazine.com. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- ↑ "Texas Rep. Drew Springer says Austin’s plastic bag ban part of 'nanny-state agenda,' files bill to overturn it, March 6, 2013". onenewspage.com. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
- ↑ https://www.texasfirearmscoalition.com/index.php/frontpage-articles/52-time-to-recognize-exemplary-conduct
| Preceded by Rick Hardcastle |
Texas State Representative from District 68 (Childress, Collingsworth, Cooke, Cottle, Crosby, Dickens, Fisher, Floyd, Garza, Hall, Hardeman, Haskell, Jack, Kent, King, Montague, Motley, Stonewall, Throckmorton, Wheeler, Wilbarger, and Young counties)
Drew Alan Springer, Jr. |
Succeeded by Incumbent |