10924 Grant Road, Suite 133 • Houston, Texas 77070 • www.terrylowry.com On the web at www.TerryLowry.com Archives posted since January 1st 2005 January 2024, Volume 32, Number 6 LINKING TEXAS CONSERVATIVES SINCE 1993 WEEKDAYS 2:00-3:00PM ON KKHT 100.7FM THE WHAT’S UP Radio Program EARL Y VOTING DA YS FEBRUAR Y SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 March 1 2 3 4 MARCH 5 6 7 8 9 For Times & Locations Election Day Go To Voting Information Tab HOPE FOR THE FUTURE By: Terry Lowry, Editor Over time, America has changed. Because of change, many have lost respect for our country and its people. May we re-learn respect for our neighbors and practice civility. May we have hope for the future. Look up! God is not through with our country and He is not through using you and me. We may not be able to correct problem-areas all at once. But we can all do something to help right what’s wrong in America. Primary Election Time is upon us. Much information about various candidates can be found inside this issue. Study the candidates seeking your vote. Visit their websites. Pray about your selections. It is legal to carry the tear-out Sample Ballot inside this issue to the voting booth. Another is provided for a family member or friend. Visit our website at www.TerryLowry.com to find your voting location. Be informed. Study. Pray. And GO VOTE. COLLIN COUNTY SPECIAL EDITION FOR THE PRIMARY ELECTIONMeet John Devine: Supreme Court Justice For The People By Terry Lowry Editor of the LINK Letter Host of the What’s UP Radio Program Why Seek Re-election? When asked why he decided to seek re-election for the Supreme Court of Texas, John responded: “I am committed to maintaining the trust and confidence the people of Texas have placed in me over the past eleven years. The Texas Supreme Court is critical in upholding the rule of law and protecting the rights of all Texans. I remain steadfast in ensuring the court system is fair and just. It is a tremendous honor to serve the people of Texas and I look forward to continuing to do for another full term.” Judicial Experience Justice John Devine was first elected to the Supreme Court of Texas in November 2012. He previously served for seven years as Judge of the 190th State District Court in Harris County and for nine years as an appointed Special Judge for the Harris County Justice of the Peace Courts. During his tenure in District Courts, he tried nearly 350 jury trials and presided over more than 500 bench trials. In 1998, he was voted “well qualified” by the Houston Bar Association. Justice Devine reduced his court’s case backlog by more than forty percent during his two terms and was awarded the title of “Texas Size Hero” by Focus on the Family magazine. Endorsements Abound Justice Devine has been endorsed by eleven former Texas Supreme Court Justices, including the Honorable Eva Guzman and the Honorable Dale Wainwright. Many State Republican Committee Members have endorsed his campaign, as well as numerous grassroots leaders and elected officials. John Devine is proud to have the support of Conservative Republicans of Texas, Texas Alliance for Life, Texas Eagle Forum, the Texas Home School Association, and Texas Values Action, to name a few. Faith. Family. Determination. Justice John Devine has been married since 1989 to Nubia Piedad Gomez, formerly of Venezuela, and the couple have seven children. Following his graduation from Ball State University in 1980 with a B.S. degree in business administration and marketing, John Devine moved to Houston to work for Shell Oil Co. While working at Shell, he attended law school at the South Texas College of Law, graduating with a juris doctorate in 1986. Editorial Endorsement of John Devine As Editor of The LINK Letter and Host of The What’s UP Radio Program, I have known John and Nubia Devine for decades. In fact, my oldest daughter babysat their children! It is with pride and confidence that I wholeheartedly support and endorse Justice John Devine. John is a proven Conservative who will uphold the law for the citizens of Texas until his last breath. For more information about Justice John Devine’s campaign, visit www.justicedevinetx.com John Devine! T ear this page out and use it in the voting booth. Tear this page out and use it in the voting booth. COLLIN COUNTY Republican Primary Ballot President Vivek Ramaswamy David Stuckenberg Donald J. Trump Nikki Haley Ron DeSantis Asa Hutchinson Ryan L. Binkley United States Senator Holland “Redd” Gibson R E (Rufus) Lopez o ✔ Ted Cruz US Representative District 3 Suzanne Harp Tre Pennie Jeremy D. Ivanovskis John Porro o ✔ Keith Self US Representative District 4 Don Horn o ✔ Pat Fallon US Representative District 32 Gulrez “Gus” Khan Darrell Day Juan Feria o ✔ David Blewett Railroad Commissioner Christie Clark o ✔ Christi Craddick JPetra Reyes Corey Howell James “Jim” Matlock Justice, Supreme Court, Place 2 Jimmy Blacklock Justice, Supreme Court, Place 4 o ✔ John Devine Brian Walker Justice, Supreme Court, Place 6 Jane Bland Presiding Judge, Court Of Criminal Appeals o ✔ David J. Schenck Sharon Keller Judge, Court Of Criminal Appeals, Place 7 Barbara Parker Hervey o ✔ Gina Parker Judge, Court Of Criminal Appeals, Place 8 o ✔ Lee Finley Michelle Slaughter Justice, 5th Court Of Appeals District Place 12 Mike Lee Justice, 5th Court Of Appeals District Place 13 Emily A. Miskel District Judge, 199th Judicial District Angela Tucker District Judge, 380th Judicial District Ben Smith District Judge, 401st Judicial District Kim Laseter Shayla Smith o ✔ Joel Petrazio District Judge, 416th Judicial District Andrea Stroh Thompson District Judge, 468th Judicial District Lindsey Wynne District Judge, 469th Judicial District Piper McCraw District Judge, 470th Judicial District Brook Fulks District Judge, 471st Judicial District Andrea Bouressa District Judge, 493rd Judicial District Christine A. Nowak Sheriff o ✔ Jim Skinner Sherwood Holmes County Tax Assessor-Collector Cam McCall o ✔ Scott Grigg Angela Powell County Commissioner Precinct 1 Susan Fletcher County Commissioner Precinct 3 Jim Garrison Darrell Hale County Constable Precinct 1 o ✔ Matt Carpenter Cris Trevino County Constable Precinct 2 Dwayne Kurtz County Constable Precinct 3 Sammy Knapp County Constable Precinct 4 o ✔ Steve Asher Mike Rumfield Member, State Board of Education, District 12 Matt Rostami Pam Little Chad Green o ✔ Jamie Kohlmann State Senator, District 8 Angela Paxton State Senator, District 30 Jace Yarbrough Carrie De Moor o ✔ Brent Hagenbuch Cody Clark State Representative District 33 Justin Holland o ✔ Katrina Pierson Dennis London State Representative District 61 Keresa Richardson Frederick Frazier o ✔ Chuck Branch State Representative District 66 o ✔ Matt Shaheen Wayne Richard State Representative District 67 Daren Meis o ✔ Jeff Leach State Representative District 70 Steve Kinard Joe Collins State Representative District 89 Abraham George o ✔ Candy Noble Chief Justice, 5th Court of Appeals District Justin Jay “J.J.” Koch Justice, 5th Court Of Appeals District Place 2 Jessica Lewis Justice, 5th Court Of Appeals District Place 5 Cynthia Barbare Justice, 5th Court Of Appeals District Place 9 Matthew J. Kolodoski Justice, 5th Court Of Appeals District Place 10 Earl Jackson Justice, 5th Court Of Appeals District Place 11 Gino J. Rossini Primary Ballot Propositions approved by the State Republican Party Executive Committee. Vote Yes or No on each. Your vote will determine the priorities for the Republican Party of Texas for the next two years. Proposition 1 Texas should eliminate all property taxes without increasing Texans’ overall tax burden. YES o NO o Proposition 2 Texas should create a Border Protection Unit, and deploy additional state law enforcement and military forces, to seal the border, to use physical force to prevent illegal entry and trafficking, and to deport illegal aliens to Mexico or to their nations of origin. YES o NO o Proposition 3 The Texas Legislature should require the use of E-Verify by all employers in Texas to protect jobs for legal workers by preventing the hiring of illegal aliens. YES o NO o Proposition 4 The Texas Legislature should end all subsidies and public services, including in-state college tuition and enrollment in public schools, for illegal aliens. YES o NO o Proposition 5 Texas urges the United States Congress not to grant any form of amnesty or a pathway to legalization for illegal aliens. YES o NO o Proposition 6 The Texas Legislature should prohibit the deployment of the Texas National Guard to a foreign conflict unless Congress first formally declares war. YES o NO o Proposition 7 The Texas Legislature should establish authority within the Texas State Comptroller’s office to dminister access to gold and silver through the Texas Bullion Depository for use as legal tender. YES o NO o Proposition 8 The State of Texas should ensure that Texans are free to give or to withhold consent for any vaccine without coercion. YES o NO o Proposition 9 The Republican Party of Texas should restrict voting in the Republican primary to only registered Republicans. YES o NO o Proposition 10 The Texas Constitution should be amended to restore authority to the Texas Attorney General to prosecute election crimes. YES o NO o Proposition 11 Texas parents and guardians should have the right to select schools, whether public or private, for their children, and the funding should follow the student. YES o NO o Proposition 12 The Texas Constitution should be amended to require proof of citizenship before any individual can be registered to vote. YES o NO o Proposition 13 Texas should ban the sale of Texas land to citizens, governments, and entities from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. YES o NO o ! T ear this page out and use it in the voting booth. Tear this page out and use it in the voting booth.PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID DALLAS, TX PERMIT # 3260 the LINK Letter 10924 Grant Road, #133 Houston, TX 77070 www.terrylowry.com COLLIN COUNTY SPECIAL EDITION FOR THE PRIMARY ELECTION Terry Lowry host of the What's UP Radio Program invites you to visit www.TerryLowry.com Early and Election Day Voting Locations And a printable Sample Ballot Can be found at www.TerryLowry.com Click: Voting Information Time To Choose Leaders Republican Primary Election Time Collin County Vote Early just because you can. EARL Y VOTING DA YS FEBRUARY SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 March 1 2 3 4 MARCH 5 6 7 8 9 For Times & Locations Election Day Go To Voting Information TabInside this issue The Primary Election Day is Tuesday, March 5th, with Early Voting from February 20th thru March 1st. Please review the candidate information inside this LINK Letter. Turn the pages, read up, search for yourself. The LINK Letter endorsements are on the front and back. Tear off your copy, consider our endorsements, mark it the way you prefer and take it with you into the voting booth. IFC MEET JOHN DEVINE: SUPREME COURT JUSTICE FOR THE PEOPLE By Terry Lowry Editor of the LINK Letter 2 JIMMY CARTER PERSONALLY EXPERIENCED VOTER FRAUD. HIS FIRST ELECTION WAS STOLEN. By Hans Von Spakovsky 4 PROPOSALS BY MATT SHAHEEN By Representative Matt Shaheen 6 ELECTION INTEGRITY IS AT RISK IN TEXAS By Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton 8 KEEPING TEXAS PROSPEROUS AND SAFE By Terry Lowry Editor of the LINK Letter 10 SCHOOL CHOICE IS A PARENT’S CHOICE – NOT THE GOVERNMENT’S By Texas State Senator Mayes Middleton 12 PUTTING CHILDREN FIRST – NOT WOKE POLITICS By Jamie Kohlmann Candidate for Texas State Board of Education, District 12 14 I PLEDGE TO KEEP COLLIN COUNTY AND TEXAS A SAFE PLACE By Candy Noble Candidate for Re-election, Texas House District 89 15 MEET KERESA RICHARDSON: A TRAILBLAZER, ENTREPRENEUR, AND COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE By Sara Tracy Assistant Editor of the LINK Letter 16 TOGETHER COLLIN COUNTY CAN BE MORE SECURE, MORE CONSERVATIVE, AND MORE PROSPEROUS By Chuck Branch Candidate for Texas House, District 61 1 January 2024 www.TerryLowry.com www.TerryLowry.com January 2024 2 Jimmy Carter Personally Experienced Voter Fraud. His First Election Was Stolen. By Hans Von Spakovsky Originally posted on December 12, 2023 on www.dailysignal.com *Edited for space With the passing of Rosalynn Carter, former President Jimmy Carter lost his lifetime partner. My deepest sympathies go out to him and his family. The former first lady’s death reminded me of something relevant to election integrity that many Americans may not realize: Organized voter fraud in Jimmy Carter’s first run for office stole his election. The only reason Carter ended up in office when he did is because he claimed publicly that he had won and went to court to fight to overturn the election. He is one of the few leaders in the Democrat Party who has acknowledged that people should be seriously concerned about election fraud. This led to the 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform, which President Carter co-chaired with former Secretary of State James A. Baker III. Among the recommendations in the commission’s final report was a call for states to implement “a photo ID system for voters” that would provide “free IDs for those without driver’s licenses.” Jimmy Carter’s Stolen Election One of the best accounts of the Georgia State Senate Race in the Democrats’ Primary Election of 1962 was written by the late Jim Wooten, a highly respected jour- nalist and editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In his 1978 book, “Dasher: The Roots and the Rising of Jimmy Carter”, Wooten recounts how Carter challenged the local incumbent, described as “an entrenched establishment figure”, and worked hard campaigning throughout the district. Carter’s prospects seemed high until he arrived in Georgetown, a small town in Quitman County, on Election Day. Carter saw “no voting booths in the courthouse and all voters were marking their ballots on a table in full view” of the “local legislator and dominant political boss”, who was telling voters who to vote for and even pulling ballots out of the ballot box to check them. Carter’s attempt to get the Columbus, Georgia, newspa- per to write a story about the situation proved unavailing, because the reporter sent to cover the story just happened to be friends with the local political boss. Carter said the reporter “was not interested in writing any story critical of election procedures in Quitman County,” Wooten writes. 126 Voted in Alphabetical Order The results from Georgetown were the last to arrive with a total of 443 ballots and “according to the names listed, 126 of them voted alphabetically!” (Wooten wrote) Moreover, when the “ballots were unfolded, there were sometimes four to eight of them folded together,” making it obvious that “the box had been stuffed.” Carter and a lawyer went to Georgetown. When they began taking statements from local residents, they discovered that “what had happened that day had been happening on election days as long as most people could remember.” The “local Democratic machinery laughed at [Carter’s] efforts to reverse the decision,” Wooten writes, because the election was over and there “was nothing he could do.” But Carter and his lawyers doggedly continued their investigation, which resulted in their being followed by “local lieutenants of the organization” and targeted by Hans Von Spakovsky 3 January 2024 www.TerryLowry.com “threatening phone calls.” They discovered that votes had been cast by individuals who “were dead, in prison, or had long ago moved away and voted in other communi- ties.” Some even claimed they never voted, yet a ballot was cast in their name. Persistence Prevailed The newspapers characterized Carter “as a politically naïve sorehead and a poor loser,” while state Democrat Party officials were “aloof or downright hostile.” The “local judge and district attorney had strong ties in the county” and refused to do anything about the fraud, Wooten wrote. Carter never gave up even though the media, his own political party, and the local justice system were against him. Carter’s lawyer, Charles Kirbo, managed to get a hearing before a judge outside the state Senate district in which Carter was running. Tat judge declared Carter the winner because the election in Georgetown was “so thoroughly tainted by vote fraud that there was absolutely no way to deter- mine what had been the voters’ origi- nal and genuine intent.” Accordingly, the judge said, the election would be decided by the votes cast elsewhere in the Senate district. One would have thought that would be the end of the story. But a bizarre procedural quirk allowed the now-losing candidate to appeal the judge’s decision to Democrats’ local Executive Committee, which was controlled by the corrupt local political boss, who reinstated the incumbent. Carter Declared Winner Carter had to appeal to the state party chair, J.B. Fuqua, who was in Canada on a hunting trip. Carter’s lawyer went all the way to Canada, hunted down Fuqua, pre- sented Carter’s case, and convinced Fuqua to declare Carter the Democrat nominee the weekend before the general election. The Georgetown political boss eventually was convicted of voter fraud, not for what he did in Carter’s election, but for fraudulent acts in connection with a prior Congressional election. Once in office as a State Senator, Carter spearheaded a comprehensive reform of the state’s election code that passed the Georgia Legislature. According to Wooten, Carter recalled that, during the debate, “someone suggested as a compromise that no one be allowed to vote who had been dead more than three years.” In Review of the Facts Observers (witnesses) are important. If Carter had not seen what was happening on the ground in Georgetown, he would not have known his election had been stolen. Note the media’s lack of interest in covering the story of local prosecutors and judges who had ties to the political powers that be. Light sentences given by judges for attempts to subvert our democratic process often don’t fit the seriousness of the crimes. The theft was all within the same political party, some- thing that happens all too often. And finally, the US Supreme Court decision in Crawford v. Marion County (2008) stated “it could affect the out- come of a close election” when it upheld Indiana’s voter ID law. “Fraud is especially troublesome”, the high court ruled. If Carter had not had, as Wooten aptly describes it, the “stubborn, dogged determina- tion, fueled by his seething anger,” to fight to overturn his stolen election, would he ever have been elected president? We’ll never know. Next >