By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them
Hard Pass on Gravell for County Judge. And where Did Williamson County's Zuckbucks Go?
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” 1 Peter 5:8 - 9
TL, DR;
Incumbent Bill Gravell, candidate in the Republican primary for Williamson County judge, has shown a stunning lack of discernment in his conduct as County Judge and he may not be very good at math.
Challenger Ryan Gallagher has put forward a refreshingly direct and surprisingly competent campaign with an understanding of how county government and sheriff’s departments can be a bulwark against draconian overreach.
Bill Gravell, Incumbent
Hard times show what we are made of. Covid showed that Wilco County Judge Bill Gravell is a muddle brained mess.
Gravell’s obedience to the Covid Cult in the early days of Covid Facism was pretty embarrasing, uncritically accepting every premise of public health “authorities”. He led the way in Covid hypocrisy by getting busted violating his own stay at home order. Then he posts this despicable letter to social media pushing “vaccine” propaganda on county letter head.
It is disgusting seeing public officials shilling for the Feds’ and Big Pharma's vaccination propaganda campaign on the taxpayer dime. These corrupt institutions are trying to create a facist, two-tiered society of the vaxxed verses the unvaxxed, where they control the citizens and set them against each other. Though Mr. Gravell's message included rhetorical fig leafs about respecting freedom of choice, it includes subtle shaming of unvaxxed citizens and the same, dishonest accounting we've seen from too many public officials since spring 2020. Elected officials throwing the weight of their platforms behind this regime of division, fear and control is detestable.
Given the lack of discernment Mr. Gravell has shown the last few years with Covid, one has to wonder exactly what happened to the $263K Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame gave to Williamson County for the 2020 election. “Zuckbucks” went to a shocking 94.5% of counties Biden won in 2020.
So what did Williamson County get for this beneficence from Mr. Zuckerberg? County wide election results that were…. odd. In every statewide or countywide race contested in Williamson County, the Republican candidate won by 3% - 7%. Even Swamp Creature John Cornyn bested his popular, Democratic opponent, MJ Hegar, by 3% in Williamson County . However, Joe Biden took home a ~1.5% victory in the county. Perhaps Donald Trump was just a uniquely divisive candidate who caused 4,000 to 5,000 Republican voters to split the ticket…. though he also happened to increase his county total by 35K votes vs 2016.
According to CapitalResearch.org data (see the table below), Mr. Trump’s vote total increase was 34% vs his 2016 total. Assuming about 14% population growth in the county from 2016-2020, the remainder of Mr. Trump’s increase can probably be attributed to incumbency, increased name ID and a greater overall turnout county wide in 2020. The Democrat’s numbers increased an implausible 71% over the same time period.
Of course, Williamson County has been slouching towards the Democrats in the last decade as Progressives fleeing Austin’s dystopian, Mad Max nightmare found refuge in southern Williamson County. But are a critical mass of those people Republican ticket splitters? When compared to other Wilco 2020 results, something just smells like something left in the fridge for too long.
To be fair, Mr. Gravell did the right thing in opposing the City of Austin’s disastrous proposal to buy the Candlewood Suites hotel (located in NW Austin and SW Williamson County) and convert it into a homeless housing (aka a lawless, drug den).
Finally, Mr. Gravell’s conduct in office has earned him possibly the funniest opposition website in Texas, The Truth About Bill Gravell, and a similar Twitter account, Judge Bill Gravell Commentary (@BillGravell_not).
Ryan Gallagher, Challenger
Ryan Gallagher’s candidacy is refreshing in its air of competence and simplicity.
We like his manufacturing plant manager mentality as well as clear and well-researched take on the election integrity issues that bedeviled the 2020 election in Williamson County: “If you cannot verify it, you cannot certify it.”
He also sees that that the true value of an elected, county sherrif’s department is to serve as a bulwark against overreaching state and federal government dictates. Combined with his explicit position against “vaccine” mandates and for medical freedom, thinking of the county sheriff’s department as a line of defense against tyrannical dictates shows he understands the doctrine of the lesser magistrates. This is a key concept for us all to understand: when federal or state dictates become onerous and tyrannical, it is the duty of to the lower levels of government to actively resist the encroaching tyranny. Washington DC is lost and Austin is not far behind. But in in the county seat of Georgetown, TX, our locally-elected county officials and sheriff can stand in the gap on our behalf. Of course, this falls short of the spiritual reawakening we desperately need in this county and state, but at least it gives us a fighting chance to avoid being dragged off to a Covid concentration camp.
Thankfully, we have a great opportunity to put someone in office who can live out and advocate for this view in Ryan Gallagher.