Some Texas House lawmakers think honoring Beyoncé is a waste of time. They would know | Opinion
When Texans like George Strait, Willie Nelson or Kacey Musgraves won Grammys, nobody in the Texas Legislature complained.
But this year was — different.
This year, some House members tried to start a stink.
It so happens that the winner of Country Album of the Year was Beyoncé — a Black Texas woman.
For some reason, a few white lawmakers said thanking her was a waste of time.
It was a drowsy, warm afternoon Feb. 4 in the Texas Capitol when Houston lawmakers gathered to offer a routine congratulations to the Houston singer for her record Grammy haul.
The House had just passed a series of other ceremonial resolutions without complaint.
Nobody said it was a waste of time to declare Andrews County Day.
Or Cedar Creek Lake Day.
Or Wise County Day.
Or Texas Association of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Day.
But when lawmakers gathered to spend 5 minutes celebrating Beyoncé — she wasn’t there and they weren’t even declaring a special “day” — white state Reps. Brian Harrison of Ellis County and Nate Schatzline of Fort Worth threw a fit.
According to a fellow Republican lawmaker quoted in the Quorum Report newsletter, a House sergeant-at-arms stepped between Harrison and Black lawmakers from Houston when Harrison fussed about the lost time.
Yes, about 5 minutes.
After this column was initially published, Harrison told a Star-Telegram editor that he was not the lawmaker involved with the sergeant-at-arms. But he didn’t say who was.
After the resolution passed on a simple voice vote, 10 House members went out of their way to have the record show they voted “no” to congratulating one of the greatest singers in Texas history.
“This is Operation Run Out the Clock,” a showboating Harrison fumed later at the microphone, saying the House just hasn’t done enough work yet and opposing a motion to take a long weekend off just like the Texas Senate was doing.
“The leadership of this body intends to kill many pieces of important legislation this session,” Harrison said with Schatzline at his side: “ .... We’ve been here three weeks, and we’ve accomplished nothing.”
But the House never accomplishes much in the first three weeks of the session, particularly under a new speaker.
Speaker Dustin Burrows of Lubbock was only elected Jan. 14 to one of the two most powerful offices in Texas. It takes a few weeks to get started.
Over in the Senate, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has been in office 10 years. He’s fixated on passing bills with lightning speed as a way to boss the House.
So the House wasn’t wasting time Feb. 4 when it took up a series of typical thank-you resolutions.
But of all the resolutions, Harrison and Schatzline just happened to pick the one about Beyoncé to complain.
I wonder why.
On X.com, Schatzline devotes a great deal of his energy to “banning DEI” — diversity, equity and inclusion — and touting a desire to “MAKE MERITOCRACY GREAT AGAIN IN TEXAS!”
It is not clear whether he thinks Beyoncé merited a Grammy.
Maybe he liked Post Malone.
Rookie state Rep. David Lowe of North Richland Hills, a newbie still learning his way around, actually made them publish his own racially driven comments in the House Journal:
“I have not, and will not, support a resolution to honor Beyoncé,” he wrote, adding: “Beyoncé’s public endorsement of Black Lives Matter, a Marxist terrorist group, makes it inappropriate.”
Lowe supports an anti-abortion activist group that wants to completely abolish abortion and punish it as a crime. An “abolitionist” from another such group was connected to a 2007 bombing attempt at a Burleson church.
That does not make all such activists violent terrorists, just like the fact that some BLM supporters participated in riots in 2020 doesn’t indict the entire cause.
Honoring Beyoncé, Lowe wrote, could be “disrespectful to law enforcement professionals.”
Bashing equal justice is definitely disrespectful to law enforcement professionals.
For the record, here are the 10 House lawmakers, all Republicans, who voted against having Texas honor Beyoncé: Harrison of Waxahachie; Janis Holt of Liberty; Andy Hopper of Decatur; Helen Kerwin of Glen Rose; Lowe; Mike Olcott of Parker County; Keresa Richardson of McKinney; Schatzline; Steve Toth of Spring; and Terry Wilson of Georgetown.
Ask them why honoring Wise County is fine, but honoring a Black woman is suddenly a waste of time.
Updated Friday to include Rep. Brian Harrison’s description of what happened on the House floor. Updated Feb. 14 to clarify the anti-abortion group connected to a church bombing attempt.
This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 11:42 AM.
