On this date in 2016, as well as 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had its original profile of Jonathon Stickland, a high school dropout and exterminator turned into a “pro-life” politician and Tea Party hero as a member of the Texas House of Representatives who has held office in District 92 since 2012. Stickland’s upward trajectory seemed remarkable, as he had co-sponsored a lot of successfully passed (albeit radically conservative) legislation at but 32 years old. That is, until in December 2015, when comments Stickland made online in a fantasy football forum under the moniker of “Stick” surfaced, where he “joked around” with a friend whose wife wouldn’t have sex with him in a particular sexual position by advising him that “Rape is non existent in marriage, take what you want my friend!” Stickland also was looking for some companionship from possible aficionados of marijuana on the forum, giving his e-mail if they wanted to be his “smoke-buddy” and also ranting about being called upon to undergo a random drug test at work (that he also tried to avoid getting a positive result on by drinking a detox drink). This was pretty hypocritical considering Stickland voted to drug test welfare recipients, because of course he did. After his comments were unearthed online, and the media began to circulate them, he got on Twitter to post a one word defense of his remarks… “LIBERTY!” Despite of being caught claiming that there is no such thing as spousal rape and admitting to illegal drug use, Stickland’s one word defense managed to be enough for Texans in his district to re-elect him in 2016.
Since we last checked up on Jonathan Stickland, the upstart Tea Partier’s act had begun to wear thin with the more mainstream Republican Party of Texas, forming a Texas version of the House Freedom Caucus whose concept of “freedom” seems to be to spitefully sabotage any and all legislation from EITHER the GOP or Democrats because… well… he’s just an irritant, really. Still, Stickland did managed to co-sponsor legislation that got passed in the last session, although we’re reasonable certain that courts will overturn a law that allows adoption agencies to deny services based on the religion of the applicants for those adoptions.
Past that, his creepy brand of misogyny reared its ugly head again in May 2017 when he asked the Texas Parliamentarian to “smile for him” during the daily session of the legislature, and that’s the sort of behavior you get when he isn’t calling for the complete abolition of abortion at the state capitol.
The Texas Republican Party, however, chose not to have anyone primary Jonathon Stickland, the embarrassment that he’s been the past three years or so, and instead, Stickland only had to face off against Democrat Steve Ridell in the 2018 general election in November for Texas’ District 92. Which isn’t to say that Stickland let himself get bored. Instead, he inserted himself into the race for Euless, Texas City Council, where he attacked the Muslim religion of the Pakstani candidate for that office, Salman Bhojani, in social media posts, and blamed him for “the Koran being read in a Euless City Council meeting”, and described Bhojani’s representation of his religion as “sneaky”. This bigoted effort at least failed, with Bhojani winning the race by 37 votes.
Stickland himself has developed such a streak of being an incompetent hack that both sides of the aisle in Texas seem intent on getting rid of him, and that’s why nobody hesitated to carry out an ethics investigation after he and his aides were caught forging witness affirmation forms for testimony they had no intention of ever giving at the capitol. They only narrowly avoided being criminally prosecuted for this endeavor.
Suffice to say, we’re going to keep tabs on Jonathon Stickland, because he seems like enough of a moron with general disregard for the actual law that we’re expecting him to end up in jail long before he ever is voted out of office (hopefully in 2020).
One Year Ago. February 8th, 2018: Jonathon Stickland (TX)… 2018 Update
Two Years Ago, February 8th, 2017: Katrina Pierson (TX)
Three Years Ago,February 8th, 2016: Jonathon Stickland (TX)… Original Profile
Four Years Ago, February 8th, 2015: Leo Berman (TX)
