Texas House Rep. Shine’s Liberal Voting History Again Affirmed
Texas Monthly Latest to Rate Lawmakers
The liberal voting record of Texas House Rep. Hugh Shine (R-Temple) was once again affirmed in a new ranking from Texas Monthly.
In The Texas GOP Civil War Is Messier Than Anyone Expected, the publication analyzed “the relative economic and social conservatism of all 104 Republicans in the Legislature alongside each member’s vote on impeachment.”
Texas Monthly determine lawmakers’ social conservatism using the “Faith and Family Scorecard” compiled by Texas Values Action, a group that opposes abortion rights and gay marriage. Economic conservatism ratings were based on the “Fiscal Responsibility Index” published by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, an organization which champions limited government spending. The ratings were based on a 100-point scale with 100 being the top score possible.
Scot Arey, administrator of the Central Texans for Property Tax Reform Facebook page, posted the following observations:
Arey’s inclusion of Shine’s rationalization for voting against the school choice bill is indeed one more example of the incumbent lawmaker’s institutional loyalty as discussed in School Choice Debate Shows Texas Public Ed More “For the System” than “For the Children”.
And this is not the first time that Shine has been tagged as liberal or liberal-leaning. An analysis by Grassroots America We the People, Inc., found Shine to be a “Republican who almost always opposes Republicans more than Democrats.” The group also issued a “House of Bad Cards” in which Shine was designated as the Jack of Spenders.
Even more recently, a Texas Tribune ranking of 84 Texas House Republicans along the ideological spectrum of their 2023 votes (from most conservative to least) firmly positioned Shine at the liberal end of the spectrum with #74.
Arey’s observations support the findings of these other rankings. Of his comments, this was most striking:
This is the reason I've been against Hugh Shine: he prioritizes government access to your money more than you - the person who earned it - keeping it.
Texas is blessed to have a better economy than many states, but we are not immune from the current turmoil that shows no signs of subsiding. With that, government habitually sees more government as the answer to economic, social and other woes while “the people” often see things differently.
March 5 offers voters opportunity to elect a representative who is pro-taxpayer, pro-citizen. To ensure that occurs, a closer look at what current representatives have done – not just what they say - is likely to suggest it’s time for a change.
Lou Ann Anderson is a writer, former radio producer and current podcaster at Political Pursuits. Her tenure as Watchdog Wire–Texas editor involved covering state news and coordinating the site’s citizen journalist network. As a past Policy Analyst with Americans for Prosperity–Texas, Lou Ann wrote and spoke on a variety of issues including the growing issue of probate abuse in which wills, trusts, guardianships and powers of attorney are used to loot assets from intended heirs or beneficiaries. She holds a degree from the University of North Texas in Denton.