When Texas lawmakers reconvene next month in special session, much of the agenda will be based on the state Republican party's platform.
New state GOP chairman James Dickey will be front and center pushing school and property tax reform, school choice for special needs students and locker room privacy.
“There's not a single thing in the bill that requires anything of independent businesses or private businesses, it's not primarily about bathrooms, it's about privacy in showers and lockers,” Dickey says of Senate Bill 6.
City leaders across Texas have argued the special session is chock-full of items limiting local control similar to Senate Bill 4, the anti-sanctuary cities law going into effect this fall.
“We have local officials who have been trying to impose their will on Texans, and the state is righfully stepping up to protect those Texans from those local tyrants,” says Dickey who believes the special session agenda reflects the GOP's willingness to listen to voters.
“Communities thrive when they're under conservative framework not a democrat framework,” he says. “Find a democrat-run city for the last 40 or 50 years that has thrived, you can find plenty of examples of the Detroits of the world that have not.”