FORT WORTH, Texas — A Tarrant County tea party group won’t be attending a dinner for the local Republican Party, sharing an article that promotes the idea the event’s keynote speaker is “trying to force-feed the normalization of homosexuality within the party.”
The excerpt was shared in a Jan. 3 post on True Texas Project’s Facebook page in reference to U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a 25-year-old Republican who recently won a North Carolina House seat.
Cawthorn is the keynote speaker for the Tarrant County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner on Feb. 6. In a recent interview with Fox News, Cawthorn said he wanted the Republican Party defined as the “Freedom Party.”
“I want us to be a big tent party that says I don’t care if you’re gay,” he said. “I don’t care what your religion is. As long as you believe in freedom and believe in our founding principles, you’re welcome in our party.”
True Texas Project, previously called the Northeast Tarrant Tea Party, seemed to take issue with the choice on social media. In a Facebook post, the group quoted Current Revolt, which describes itself as a social welfare organizations “run by proud Texans.”
“So here we have the ‘Keynote Speaker’ at the Tarrant County Republican Party ‘event of the year,’ a 25-year-old trying to force-feed the normalization of homosexuality within the party under the auspices of ‘lol we need a big tent, man,’ ” reads the Current Revolt post.
“Is homosexuality really a winning issue at the ballot box? Let’s dive into this.”
Julie McCarty, the group’s CEO, said in a separate Facebook post that the True Texas Project won’t attend the event.
“Who in the world signed off on this yahoo for the Tarrant GOP banquet?” she said.
Julie McCarty did not return a request seeking comment, but Fred McCarty, Julie’s husband and the group’s PAC treasurer, wrote in an email: “The fact that the Republicans are pushing a guy like Cawthorn is proof that they want the Trump era to be over with and want to go back to being a Bush/Romney style, non-controversial party.”
A spokesperson for Cawthorn declined to comment on the posts. Tarrant County Republican Party Chair Rick Barnes did not immediately return requests for comment.
Marco Roberts, chairman of the Log Cabin Republicans of Texas, a conservative LGBT group, said he’s disappointed in the reaction to Cawthorn’s attendance at the Lincoln Dinner.
“It is unfortunate because they do misrepresent what he’s doing,” Roberts said. “At no point is he promoting or forcing anyone, anything. What he is saying, very clearly, is that if people support the principles of the Republican Party, they’re welcome to support the party, which seems like a commonsense, basic approach.”
In a June Republican runoff for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, Cawthorn defeated real estate company owner Lynda Bennett, who was supported by President Donald Trump and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, according to the Charlotte Observer. The race was for Meadows’ former congressional seat. Cawthorn won the November general election against Democrat Morris “Moe” Davis, a retired Air Force colonel.
According to the Charlotte Observer, Cawthorn has been accused of having ties to white supremacy, sexual misconduct and racism. He has denied the accusations.
Cawthorn, who was sworn into office on Jan. 3, is now the youngest member of Congress. Previously, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, was the youngest member.
True Texas Project made headlines after Fred McCarty made ‘replacement theory’ posts on Facebook following the Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart. The man charged in the attack is accused writing a white supremacist manifesto before the shooting that killed 23 people.
