It was on this date in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, as well as 2022, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” shared its first profile about the sitting U.S. House Representative from Texas’ 19th Congressional District, Jodey Arrington, the man who just took the place of FRED alumni Randy Neugebauer for his seat in Congress. Nine Republicans were in the GOP primary to replace Neugebauer, and Arrington emerged based on the political capitol he build up working first for George W. Bush as an aide while he was still Governor of Texas and in the Bush White House, and helping him fill up executive appointed posts during his administration. That included the choice of hiring a man named Michael Brown as head of FEMA, whose only experience was breeding horses. Remarkably, this led to Arrington being thrown into the fire to clean up the Gulf Coast after Brown had to resign in disgrace, where Arrington served as deputy federal coordinator for the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding.
Now, in an election year where it benefitted more candidates to be the political outsider on the conservative side, it might seem odd that Arrington still managed to narrowly win his primary on a run-off. Well, in spite of maintaining his strong Bush Administration credentials, he also won a Breitbart endorsement by doing, what else? Taking a trip down to the U.S./Mexico border and talking tough about illegal immigrants. As it turns out, the now Rep. Arrington’s disdain for Mexicans was not something he just did in campaign mode, as he went on record as a supporter of Donald Trump’s useless white nationalist border wall.
Arrington's support of xenophobia is not limited only to Mexicans, though, because Arrington also came out in defense of Trump’s bigoted Muslim ban when it was announced. Hell, Arrington’s drinking Trump’s Kool-Aid so much it looks like he’s visiting Jonestown, as he gave Trump’s First 100 Days in office an “A”.
But what Jodey Arrington did that is completely new for him (but sadly not for Republicans), happened back in late March 2017. Arrington, in a hearing on SNAP benefits, quoted the Bible’s 2 Thesslalonians 3:10, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” Now, there are wiser and more well-versed Biblical experts will point out that Jesus was pretty much the guy who was ALL ABOUT FEEDING THE HUNGRY, Jodey Arrington is the latest Republican to use this verse out of context to take away food stamp benefits that, guess what? All too often go towards feeding CHILDREN. See also former FRED profiles on Kevin Cramer and Stephen Fincher for others who tried twisting scripture out of context to turn it into something resembling a religion Ayn Rand would have possibly been into.
Even Arrington’s constituents are starting to question his level of extremism, including local firefighters in his district expressing disbelief that he would vote against the bill to provide medical care to the 9/11 First Responders. Jodey Arrington, ever the douche-canoe, started lying out of his arse and claiming that his vote was justified because of “questionable” claims that seemed to indicate there was “waste and fraud”. For those in the back not listening, he all but accused some the 9/11 First Responders of “faking it” for more money. There is not a big enough foreign object we can recommend he goes and f***s himself with for that.
Jodey Arrington was one of the loudest members of the Texas delegation giving the worst advice in 2020, Covid-19 pandemic. Like how he boasted about how he fully expected “Texas to lead in the nation’s recovery”. (SPOILER ALERT: Texas became one of the top three Covid-19 hotspots after carelessly reopening businesses) Maybe that’s why we’re also concerned that Arrington wanted to send kids back to school in August of 2020 to allow parents to “return to work”.
Now, what do you think Arrington is doing right now as Texas Republicans’ anti-mask/keep-everything-open/question vaccines strategy approach to Covid-19 is made them one of the hottest hot spots for the virus in the country? Well, this bigoted pile of trash was trying to blame it on illegal immigrants coming into the United States, even though Mexico’s vaccination rate is higher than Texas’, and as are their Covid positivity rates were less than the USA's.
This dips*** would put his hand on a hot stove, get burned, put it back on the stove, and then claim Mexicans seared him with a branding iron.
Now in his fourth term in office, Jodey Arrington’s streak of partisanship continues:
- December 18th, 2019: Arrington ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
- October 2nd, 2020: Jodey Arrington votes against a resolution is presented in the House to condemn the Qanon conspiracy theory after its followers started to make death threats against Democratic Congressman Tom Malinowski.
- December 10th, 2020: Arrington signs his name to an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, begging them to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The same election that he won re-election in.
- January 6th, 2021: Jodey Arrington votes for the objection to the electoral college’s votes in the 2020 election, a failure to send any sort of message that he wasn’t intimidated or sympathetic to those who attacked the Capitol to attempt a violent coup.
- January 13th, 2021: Rep. Arrington votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers.
- February 25th, 2021: Arrington votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
- March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Arrington doesn’t votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
- March 3rd, 2021: Jodey Arrington votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
- March 10th, 2021: Arrington votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
- March 17th, 2021: Rep. Arrington votes against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
- May 19th, 2021: Jodey Arrington votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
- May 20th, 2021: Arrington is one of 63 Republicans who vote against the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act.
- November 5th, 2021: Jodey Arrington [URL="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/117-2021/h369"]votes against HR 3684
- March 31st, 2022: Arrington votes against HR 6833, the Affordable Insulin Now Act, which would limit the cost that drug companies could list insulin at to $35 and make sure no diabetic was priced out of surviving their condition. Jodey Arrington would rather they be gouged by pharmaceutical giants and/or die.
- May 18th, 2022: Jodey Arrington is one of 192 Republicans who vote against HR 7790, to create supplemental funding for infant formula (while claiming to be pro- life).
- May 18th, 2022: Rep. Arrington votes against HR 350, the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, because these days, a plank of the Republican Party is ostensibly domestic terror.
- May 19th, 2022: Arrington votes against HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.
- July 15th, 2022: Jodey Arrington votes against House Amendment 262, which would require the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Secretary of Defense to publish a report on the infiltration of American law enforcment by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, offer measures to be taken to remove them from their ranks, and prevent further infiltration by others.
- July 13th, 2022: Arrington votes against the Honoring Our PACT Act, to provide healthcare to veterans affected by toxic burn pits while serving in the War on Terror that leave them more susceptible to forms of cancer.
- July 19th, 2022: Rep. Arrington is one of 157 Republicans who vote against the “Respect for Marriage Act”, which would codify same sex marriage into law nationally.
- July 21st, 2022: Arrington is one of 195 Republicans who vote against the Right to Contraception Act, which codified the right of Americans to have access to birth control.
- September 29th, 2022: Jodey Arrington is one of 49 Republicans who vote against HR 8888, the Food Security for All Veterans Act.
- December 1st, 2022: Rep. Arrington doesn’t bother to show up for the vote on HR 6878, because he is perfectly fine with pregnant women in prison being placed in solitary confinement while claiming to be “pro-life”.
- December 6th, 2022: Arrington, embracing the GOP’s white nationalist, anti-immigrant sentiment votes against HR 7946, which was meant to honor the promise to grant citizenship to immigrants who served in the United States Armed Forces.
Jodey Arrington declared Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate being raided by the FBI to recover classified documents he stole and kept refusing to return as the result of “political corruption” on the FBI and DOJ. Arrington is a “Ride or Die” Trump Republican, make no mistake.
But he isn’t getting the backing of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who has straight up slagged him to the press for wanting to cause a government shutdown over the smallest of grievances. We don’t exactly think that makes him in danger of losing a primary… in fact, nothing would galvanize support for him in a deep red Texas district than if he’s known to be someone McCarthy, the weakest speaker in modern memory, resents. There’s a lot that can happen between now and 2024, though.
Click Here for Full FRED Archive
One Year Ago, August 20th, 2022: Jodey Arrington (TX)… 2022 Update
One Year Ago, August 20th, 2021: Jodey Arrington (TX)… 2021 Update
Two Years Ago, August 20th, 2020: Jodey Arrington (TX)… 2020 Update
Three Years Ago, August 20th, 2019: Jodey Arrington (TX)… 2019 Update
Four Years Ago, August 20th, 2018: Jodey Arrington (TX)… 2018 Update
Five Years Ago, August 20th, 2017: Jodey Arrington (TX)… Original Profile
Six Years Ago, August 20th, 2016: Randy Neugebauer (TX)… 2016 Update
Seven Years Ago, August 20th , 2015: Randy Neugebauer (TX)… 2015 Update
Eight Years Ago, August 20th , 2014: Randy Neugebauer (TX)… Original Profile