Garrit: So, you started years ago. You ran against an incumbent and narrowly lost. You ran again and narrowly lost. You ran a third time and finally won. You were elected in the general election. You were sworn in and served in one regular session and three special sessions. Now, you are home. After this long journey, how would you rate your time as an elected official?
Representative Slaton: That all depends on what measuring stick you use. If you’re going to use the measuring stick that Austin, House Leadership, and lobbyists use, then probably not a good rating. If you look at the grassroots, I think they’re delighted with what I’ve done, and scorecards show that I’ve voted conservative. The one I use is, and I still tell people this, back when I was a youth minister, you have to understand how the Bible and God determine success as a Christian. God determines success through obedience. So, I feel like I went down there and was obedient to what God called me to fight for—Christian conservative values. I fought to expand religious liberty. I fought for free-market economics—which was initially taught by Christians using Scripture and Solomonic monks. The Bible teaches us morals, ethics, and how to treat one another. So, I feel like, based on that measuring stick of just being obedient, I did that. I went down there, there were things I wanted to do, and I didn’t back down despite the pressure. I felt like it was the right thing to do. So, I feel like it went just fine. I felt like I was obedient and, therefore, I felt like I was successful—successful in God’s eyes. Everyone else gets to determine that on their own.
Garrit: Can you speak on what precisely you got accomplished?
Representative Slaton: Sure. Some big things are, I nullified CDC, Fauci, and others that had people dying alone in the hospital. I got it in two amendments where if someone is in the hospital or assisted living and requests religious council, the hospitals can’t keep someone from being there with them, pray with them, and be with them at the end of their life. So, you look at what’s going on with Covid, you have the left that sees people as flesh and bones that get sick and die, but as a Christian, we are human beings created in God’s image, and we have a spirit. We have our soul, we have our flesh, but we also have our emotions and our morale. So, that was big to make sure people never died alone in Texas—it was horrible that people were dying alone. I also got audits on the elections. After every general election, the Secretary of State will audit two counties. After I got that on, I had a member come up to me and say, “Brian, a lot of people were mad at you about that.” I said, “Why are they mad? Do they not like the amendment?” He said, “they’re frustrated because we’ve been trying to get audits on elections for years and Bryan Slaton did it on his first try.” Well, I told him, “That’s not anger—that’s jealousy.” So, that was a big one to get on the election integrity bill. I got some protections on the constitutional carry bill for foster parents. It’s in current law now, but it took them over ten years to get under the concealed handgun license law that we were under. We prioritized rural broadband for education—public, private, elementary school through colleges—ensuring that they get the help they need because students had a tough time COVID working from home. Then they couldn’t get on rural broadband, and it was even worse. Those were some highlights of some things we got done. Then we had about five or so others that we might not have been as successful on, but, as I said, success depends on what measuring stick you use.
Garrit: Yeah, so you started off making some noise when you got elected. You didn’t vote for Dade Phelan for Speaker, and you started by introducing an amendment about making sure Democratic members are not in leadership positions on committees. So, what has it been like taking on the establishment from the inside?
Representative Slaton: It’s been fine. I mean, they make it uncomfortable, but if you live your life worried about what somebody thinks about… it’s impossible to please everyone. It’s not that I don’t care what House leadership thinks. It’s just that I can’t manage what House leadership wants and think about the grassroots and what they want. There’s no way I can make every one of those people happy. So, I try to do the right thing. If someone’s upset, just be kind to them about it. So, the Speaker chose to run to the Democrats for support to become Speaker, and I have a problem. Before I was elected, I’ve had a problem with that because he would not commit to any RPT Legislative Priorities. I told him that I couldn’t commit to him. He knew that, and every other candidate knew that. It was such a low bar, and they wouldn’t commit to the priorities. So, I did what I felt like I needed to do. Otherwise, if I make these requests and the Speaker candidate ignores it, and then I vote for them anyway, they won’t care in the future. So, now at least whoever the Speakers know that I mean what I say. Then, I have a request, and I feel like it’s very reasonable, for a Republican Speaker to commit to one item out of eight of the RPT Priorities—that is very reasonable. I mean, that’s not very high—that’s a failing grade in the class if you get a one out of eight. So, I voted no because I felt like it was the right thing to do. Then yes, I had an amendment that would be good all through time and history in the Texas house. It just says that whoever is in the majority party could be a chairman—that’s it. So one day, if the Democrats take over, only Democrats can be chairmen, and that, I believe, honors the voter’s will. So, if we’re begging for votes, and in the general election, a majority of Texans want Republicans, then they should get that. It just makes sense. We’re about the only state that doesn’t do that. We’re one of the very few, if not the only one that gives chairmanships to the Democrats—which allows them to kill any bill. Republicans can also destroy it, but that should be on us. That should be something we could hold them accountable to in Republican primaries. So, though my amendment honors the will of the voters, it’s not a slight at Democrats. That’s what it got painted as—no Democratic Chairmen. However, the amendment just plainly said that whoever is in the majority party are the only people that can be chairmen. We only got five votes—that’s how much the Republicans in the Texas House want Democrats to be in leadership. That’s pretty sad.
Garrit: Why do you think they want Democrats in leadership?
Representative Slaton: There are two reasons. The biggest one is the loyalty to the Speaker. So, when I voted against the Speaker, the Speaker and his people started telling people, “Slaton has an amendment and I know this is going to be tough for you to vote no, but we need to know that you’re with us.” At this point, these guys hadn’t been assigned to committees, committee chairs, or anything like that. So, their thought was, “well, we’ll just vote no on this and take a little bit of a hit back home, but the Speaker will help my bills get through and also, maybe, make me a chairman or vice chair.” A big part of it was loyalty. The second one is that some of the Republican representatives down there believe that the Democrats are different from those in DC. That’s one question I kept asking them: could you tell me or explain to me how the Democrats in the Texas House are different from the Democrats in DC? Tell me how they’re different from Kamala Harris. Well, I got fortunate by asking those questions because when the Democrats broke quorum—a lot of our House leadership broke quorum, including our Speaker Pro-Temp—the number one person they enjoyed meeting with was Kamala Harris. So, they are the same as the National Democratic Party.
Garrit: Do you think there’s anybody you would like to see replace Phelan as Speaker? Anybody currently serving in the House?
Representative Slaton: No, I don’t. I don’t have a thought on that. I’m sure I’ll talk to Speaker Phelan at some point and ask him what commitments he can make to her RPT priorities, and if he wants to commit, then I’m willing to support him. Based on what’s happened, it will be difficult because now there are other things—the opposition to RPT priorities that we saw. So at first, it was just what will you help support, but we actively saw him (Phelan) and his House Leadership kill the ban on gender modification to children. That’s not a political issue—that is a moral and an ethical issue. We don’t let kids ride their bikes without helmets and knee pads—I mean, parents may have their kids taken away if they let them ride their bicycles without those. We don’t let kids get tattoos, we don’t let them smoke cigars, we don’t let them do all kinds of stuff, but we’re going to let them have medical surgery or chemical castration. That is irreversible. It’s a moral and ethical issue, not a party-line issue.
Garrit: Continuing with that topic, as you said, the bill to end gender modification on children was killed. When you get reelected and serve another term, do you have any plans to address that issue?
Representative Slaton: Oh, absolutely! So this time, I talked to two members that had been there longer than me. Of course, I’m brand new. Before the session started, I told them, “if you can file a bill that Jeff Younger approves, I won’t file one. But I promise you, that I’ll fight for your bill like it’s my own.” I said, “if you don’t follow a bill that Jeff Younger approves, I’m going to file my own.” Anyway, each of them filed bills that Jeff Younger approved of. So, I fought like they were my bills. I took every opportunity I could to help these children and parents who are having this forced on them. So, I plan on fighting on this because this is a moral and ethical issue. This isn’t a party line. If we can’t protect children from this, what good are we? I mean, the Republican Party was started to end slavery, and they did. The Republican Party ended slavery in America, and it was a hard, long, and brutal fight, but they fought even when no one was with them until they finally were successful. This is the same moral and ethical issue that we must fight.
Garrit: Continuing with a similar topic. You certainly gained a lot of attention when you filed the bill banning abortion in the state. Can you remind me what the bill number was?
Representative Slaton: HB 3326. So, there was a bill filed in previous sessions that went into all kinds of stuff about criminalizing the mother and all that. My bill didn’t do that. My bill was simply a legislative issue. So you got legislative, then you got prosecuting, and then you got judicial. So, I was working on legislation that said, “a baby in the womb from conception till the time it’s born has equal protection under the law.” This goes back to the debate on slavery. Back then, the Democrats said that a slave or black person was not fully human and didn’t have equal protection of the law. It took the 14th amendment to do that and say they are fully human and have equal protection under the law. So, my bill was trying to say that in the womb, a human being has equal protection under the law—legislatively. So, people want to talk about prosecuting and penalizing that mother for having an abortion after my bill, but the thing is, you’ve got to speak to a prosecutor, a local DA, and you’ve got to talk to a judge. They’re the ones that prosecute and give sentences; my bill is just saying a baby is a human. Based on what’s happening in our large metropolitan areas, where they’re not prosecuting a bunch of crimes, and they’re letting people out of jail, I think it’s very, very, very, very, very unlikely anyone would. However, that’s not the point of my bill. My bill wasn’t about the prosecution; my bill was about the legislative coding into law who is a human and adding unborn children to that. The head of the Church of Satan came out against me, which I thought was pretty cool because I hadn’t been there maybe a month, and I was like, “man, I’ve been out here a month and the head of the Church of Satan knows who I am and is mad at me.” I say job well done because we’re known by our enemies a lot of times. I mean, if the head of the Church of Satan is mad at me, then that’s awesome. It’d be a shame to have this opportunity to be down here fighting for our values, and no one knows you’re in the building.
Garrit: What happened to the bill? Was it killed?
Representative Slaton: It was killed by a Republican Chairman. She refused to hear it.
Garrit: Was it Klick?
Representative Slaton: It was Chairman Klick. She told me she refused to give it a hearing, and it was an RPT priority.
Editor’s Note: Here is a website for Klick’s primary opponent David Lowe. Also, here is a link to the Texas Horn’s interview with David Lowe.
Garrit: So, the bill got killed, but the legislature did pass the Heartbeat Bill. What are your thoughts on the Heartbeat Bill?
Representative Slaton: The Heartbeat Bill has a lot of potential and seems likely to save lives—that’s what we’re hearing. After a few years, I think we’ll be able to see if it does, but it has problems. You’ve got two strategies in trying to end abortion—there’s full out abolishing abortion (like what I filled), and then you’ve got the incremental way of just chipping away at it. Some people think the ability for civilians to sue Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities and that all the threats of litigation could end abortion. I understand the goal is to save lives, but the problem with the incremental view is you’re still saying it’s okay to kill babies—just not certain ones. We don’t do that with any other law. We don’t say “rape is wrong except in these cases.” That doesn’t make sense with any other thing we have. So abortion, if it’s wrong and if it’s ending human life, then it needs to end. If you don’t think it needs to end automatically, why does it need to complete incrementally? Because, if you think it’s morally wrong, well, why is it only ethically wrong to do it on some and not on all? That’s a tricky question for people to answer. They mainly go back to punishing the mother, but the thing is… so it’s okay to do this immoral thing to unborn kids because you don’t want to do justice on this side? So, do the right thing and protect kids, but back to the Heartbeat Bill. I think it has potential. We’ll see what happens, but it’s still taking us down the path of “it’s okay except in these situations” instead of saying abortion is wrong, and that abortion is murder. We’re saying with our incremental view that it’s okay, as long as you don’t do as many as you did before. I have mixed feelings. I’m happy it passed, but I also recognize that it still supports our old thought process of incrementalism. I believe it’s the civil rights issue of our day. Back to the slavery example, they didn’t say it’s okay to do some and not all; they wanted to abolish slavery. So, I want to abolish abortion. The incremental way may make us happy, but is it 100% the proper stance? I don’t think it is. If some good comes out of it and some babies are saved, that’s good. However, we don’t do it hoping that it helps a little. We do it to do the right thing.
Garrit: Do you plan on filing another bill like you did this past session to abolish abortion outright?
Representative Slaton: Absolutely!
Garrit: Okay, so moving on, there’s been a push for another special session to address vaccine mandates, and you’ve come out in favor of that. So, is there any possibility of a fourth special session?
Representative Slaton: My personal opinion is I don’t think we will. We’ve been in session more than Congress was in session, and I believe Governor Abbott is ready to spend his campaign money telling Texas how great he is. When we go into a special session, that changes things; when we go into a special session, it opens Abbott up to getting attacked—he’s already got, three challengers. People will ask, “why didn’t you put this on the docket?” So, he will get attacked for what he didn’t do or should have done more of—that’s been happening almost this whole year. We’ve got the elections nearly 90 days away, and he doesn’t want any conversations on what he hasn’t done. He wants the conversation on what he’s done, and he wants to brag about accomplishments under his leadership as governor. That’s why I believe he won’t call a special session—it makes him open to attacks.
Garrit: If there is no special session and regardless of the state of the pandemic by the time the next session starts, do you think there should be any legislation to ban vaccine mandates?
Representative Slaton: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I’ve told people that we need to have a special session to pass some great things like constitutional carry and the Heartbeat Bill. We could give some things that voters like. However, when you start affecting people’s livelihood, when people are losing their job, their retirement isn’t going to happen when they plan six or eight years from now. You start affecting their livelihood; you better buckle up because people will vote you out. So, we need to do something. In my opinion, Abbott needs to call a special session, even though he’s open to attacks because people are losing their jobs and careers. It’s a shame that if we get into the next session and file a bill, it wouldn’t take effect until September 2023. Think about all the people that will lose their jobs between now and then. It’s just horrible leadership on our part as Republicans. Joe Biden and the federal government have shown that they’re not going to back off any. They’re going to continue pushing tyranny in our lives, and we need to do something. Unfortunately, if we did something, I believe it would be too late.
Garrit: Is there anything else you want to see done next session when you’re reelected?
Representative Slaton: Well, one item is “Defend the Guard.” “Defend the Guard” is an outstanding bill. It says that our Texas National Guard can’t be deployed unless Congress declares war—which is exactly what the Constitution says. We have the president using executive orders to get our troops into harm’s way and, what I would say, abuse our National Guard—the men and women of Texas who are willing to risk their lives to protect freedom and liberty. It’s a great bill. I think we need to push it. It’s in both party platforms, and after the debacle in Afghanistan, with the exit strategy of our president, think about all the people who lost their lives, the families that lost a loved one, and the lives that were altered. Some of them may be severely disabled or have PTSD and trauma. There was no declared war. We didn’t, as a country, say we wanted to do it. Many of these veterans are questioning, and they still should be proud of what they did. Why are we there when they see what happened as soon as we pulled out of Afghanistan. What a great bill if we could pass it. We could stand up for Texas, and they could have been here to help us in the winter storm, with COVID testing, with COVID vaccines, or with our border. We’ve been securing borders all over the world for 50 years or more—we need to ensure our own. So, I think that is an outstanding bill to push forward with. I think it stands up for the individuals, our state’s rights, human life, and it honors the Constitution. I mean, it’s just a wonderful bill. We need to increase the penalties for election fraud that was taken out when we passed the election integrity bill that no one knew happened. I think we do need to abolish abortion and gender modification. We’ve got to do something with property taxes. That’s just to list a few, but I think there’s going to be, based on the president we have and the tyranny that’s been forced on us, ample opportunity to fight for Texan’s liberty and the right of Texas as a state, to stand up to the federal government. We don’t have to do it like the federal government. We can choose to do things on our own. We don’t have to have groupthink as a country.
Garrit: Yeah, absolutely. Moving on then to your reelection, you have garnered a primary opponent in Clyde Bostick. As we saw with redistricting, Representative Jeff Cason’s district was made more favorable to the Democrats. I know he was a friend of the office; he was also the other representative who did not vote for Phelan. You managed to garner a reputation as one of the most conservative legislators in the state (along with Cason). So, is this an attempt by the GOP leadership in the House to get rid of you?
Representative Slaton: So, my first thought, based on some things that have happened since I’ve been home, is that it’s mainly coming from the individual I’d beat last time—the former state representative. Now, will the Texas House leadership take this opportunity to help him? Probably so—they can always prove me wrong. But that’s what it probably is. There are rumors of a few others that will come around and run, but right now, we only have one opponent. He hasn’t filed as of today, but he’s got 14 days or so to do that. Once we get the fieldset, we’ll see who jumps in his corner and helps him out.
Garrit: How has the campaign been going for you?
Representative Slaton: Pretty good. As I meet people and talk to them, I get great responses. People who supported me from the beginning are thrilled that I went there and did what I said I would do. Then some people didn’t vote for me but are so happy I’m there, and they’re like, “Yeah, you’re the right man for the job.” So, it’s been very positive. I wouldn’t say that I can kick my feet up and do nothing. We’re going to fight like we’re trying to take out an 18-year incumbent Chairman. We’re going to fight—that’s the only way we can do it. It’s been great, though. Some people are frustrated, but there’s a chance that those people never voted for me anyway. They’re Democrats, and they’re just trying to stir the pot and say, “Oh, I’ll never vote for you.” Well, you probably never did. You might be a Democrat; you might be mad that I fought to abolish abortion. You might be angry that I pushed for RPT priorities, and I understand how the fight I put up for our Republican Party priorities would upset a Democrat. I have to trust that there are enough Republican voters that are proud of what I did and will send me back there.
Garrit: You touched on this a little bit earlier, but would you mind expressing some of your thoughts on the governor’s race?
Representative Slaton: Oh, yeah. In other interviews, I’ve made it very clear that I will not be supporting our governor. I am not telling you about who I’m picking. One, I don’t think people know who I am and care. Plus, I know all three gentlemen are running. I respect all of them, and I don’t want to hurt one of them. I’m not voting for Governor Abbott. Here’s why—all of the COVID stuff, the shutdowns, and everything else. Let’s say we sit down and talk. You could say, “Bryan, here are the reasons why the governor had to do X, Y, and Z. This is the data, and this is what he had at the time. We didn’t know this until a year later. But at the time, these decisions were made.” You could say, “I think it was okay that he shut things down, and these are the reasons why based on what we knew. “Okay, fine, I don’t agree but move on.” The issue that I will not move on from and cannot move on from was when he closed churches. I’m sorry. He has no right to tell any church what to do. He has to have forgotten or never known church history to make that decision. When we have people fleeing religious persecution from every country in Europe, till they get to the Netherlands (the last place for religious freedom), and then from the Mayflower over here, people were over here because they were fleeing religious persecution. Our First Amendment—no government should ever tell the church what to do—and I cannot believe most of the pastors obeyed the shutdown. So, even if you could convince me of all the shutdowns and all of the government micromanaging of COVID…if you convinced me it needed to happen, I’m sorry, but I will never agree that shutting down churches is a good thing. Because of that one issue, I can no longer support Abbott for Governor. I doubt he loses sleep over that. He crossed the line that you don’t go back from. So, my suggestion is to vote for anyone other than Abbott for Governor.
Garrit: Yeah, absolutely! The final question is, do you have anything else to say as we end the interview?
Representative Slaton: I do. Garrit, thank you for helping in our office. You were great. You took a lot of nasty phone calls at times from people, but you are also an asset and fun to have. I appreciate you being there during this session. It was a lot of fun to have you there.
Garrit: Oh, thank you so much, sir. That means a lot. Everyone make sure to go check out Bryan Slaton’s website. Thank you.
