Conservative activist’s PAC looking to oust Waco State Rep. Pat Curry as GOP schism escalates
WACO, Texas (KWTX) - The ongoing rift between State Rep. Pat Curry and an out-of-state conservative activist is widening as the activist and his political action committee are spending thousands of dollars to recruit a primary opponent for Curry.
The conflict between Curry, Waco’s District 56 House representative, and Chris Ekstrom, a former congressional candidate from Wichita Falls who recently moved to Coral Springs, Florida, erupted during Curry’s successful bid last year to succeed longtime State Rep. Doc Anderson.
Curry sued Ekstrom and his Virginia-based Courageous Conservates PAC after they sent mass text messages out that called Curry a “turncoat” and claimed he “left the Republicans to side with Democrats in electing a new closet Democrat speaker, Dustin Burrows.”
Curry said his speaker vote went to State Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield, whom he had committed to supporting over Burrows, R-Lubbock. Curry’s lawsuit claimed Ekstrom and his PAC misrepresented his position and gave out his personal cell phone number to thousands of voters in the district.
Curry said the text “blast” resulted in him receiving a number of threats and hundreds of unwanted calls, prompting Curry to call for the Department of Public Safety to investigate Ekstrom’s tactics. Curry said Monday that the DPS investigation and his lawsuit against Ekstrom are ongoing.
In the latest salvo between the pair, Ekstrom and his new group, Texas Truth PAC, are beating the drum to find someone to run against Curry in the March Republican primary.
Ekstrom, a board member of U.S. Term Limits, said Monday the PAC has spent about $10,000 on radio spots and about $3,500 for text messages that started surfacing last week to fuel their efforts to find an opponent for Curry.
In one radio spot, the announcer says Curry owns a deer ranch in Mexico and voted for a study “tying Texas’ power grid to Mexican states controlled by cartels.”
“Ask yourself if Pat Curry is jeopardizing our grid to benefit his Mexican ranch,” the radio spot says.
Curry owns a ranch south of Eagle Pass in Mexico but said his property has nothing to do with the Mexican grid or drug cartels.
McLennan County Republican Party chairman Chris DeCluitt said that the local party supports all of its candidates and office holders.
“But we cannot support the self-cannibalization of our party members because doing so only helps the Democrats,” DeCluitt said.
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