Gov. Greg Abbott's Republican primary challenger, former state Sen. Don Huffines, said he's "honored" to receive Texas Home School Coalition's endorsement this year after the group previously endorsed the governor.
In an exclusive interview with the Austin Journal, Huffines thanked the coalition for their endorsement and reiterated his strong belief in parental rights and his opposition to critical race theory and "sexually explicit content" in schools.
"I am honored to have the endorsement of Texas Home School Coalition, a group that has been at the forefront of the fight for parental choice and rights," Huffines told the Austin Journal. "As a father of five homeschooled kids, I'm a strong believer in parents' rights to choose the type of education their children will receive."
Under Abbott's administration, critical race theory and explicit sexual content have "invaded" Texas classrooms, Huffines said.
"As governor, I will stop this lackadaisical approach to our kids’ education and will ensure a quality education for every Texas child," he said.
Texas Home School Coalition endorsed Abbott in 2014, when he first was elected, and again during his first re-election bid in 2018. Abbott is the state's 48th governor who previously was Texas' longest-serving attorney general of Texas.
Huffines, on the ballot to face Abbott in the gubernatorial primary on March 1, represented Texas' 16th State Senate district from 2015 to 2019. He is CEO of Huffines Communities, a Dallas/Fort Worth-based real estate development firm.
The coalition used its Facebook page to announce its endorsement of Huffines, saying he "has demonstrated that he is a man of principled convictions, and has shown that he believes parents have a God-given right to raise their children as they see fit by his actions, not just his words!"
"Texas families need a champion who will not just give 'lip service' to support parental rights but will actually use the power of the Office of the Governor of Texas to defend families from state agencies, schools and destructive legislation," the coalition continued in its Feb. 4 Facebook post.
The coalition also announced in a YouTube video why it has been "disappointed" in Abbott, with a spokesman saying in the video that the governor "has had numerous occasions to support parents in our litigation, our legislation, to protect the fundamental right of families and parents to raise their kids – and he's declined to do so."
The coalition continued in its Feb. 3 YouTube video, accusing Abbott of "a political posturing" when he announced last month his support for a "parent bill of rights." The coalition is "skeptical" about that claim, the spokesman in the YouTube video said.
"If he's serious, we'll work with him," the spokesman said. "But today, we are endorsing, in the Republican primary for the governor of Texas, someone we believe IS a champion for parents' rights in Texas: Donald Huffines."
In May, Abbott signed a bill banning public schools from teaching that "an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously."
It isn't just Abbott or even Texas. Across the state and nation, parents are attending school board meetings to express concern about what they deem as sexually explicit and age-inappropriate books in school libraries. A parent in Leander Independent School District, near Austin, stated that their 11-year-old student had brought home from school the book "Queerfully and Wonderfully Made." The parent read an excerpt from the book: "How do queer people even have sex? Can I look at porn? OK, but I’m serious. Help, I’m really horny." A parent in Round Rock ISD expressed concern over the presence of books such as "Lawn Boy" and "Gender Queer," available in school libraries that describe and depict sexual acts, including oral sex and molestation.
The Texas Scorecard reported in May that Grapevine-Colleyville ISD in North Texas incorporates critical race theory principles in schools, despite denying doing so. The training programs for teachers in this district have included helping them look through a "critical race lens," the Texas Scorecard report said. The training also helped them identify various privileges they or their students may have had, including gender privilege and white privilege. The conclusion of the training program concluded with book recommendations, including "White Fragility" by Robin DiAngelo.