Far-right activist Jonathan Stickland starts new group, months after white supremacist scandal

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Months after a scandal over his ties to white supremacists, far-right political operative and former state lawmaker Jonathan Stickland has created a new group — with help from outgoing Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi.

On March 5, Stickland registered “RaTmasTeR Holdings LLC” with the Texas secretary of state, and Rinaldi is listed as the new group’s organizer. A week later, the chief operating officer of Pale Horse Strategies — a far-right consulting firm Stickland owns — separately registered another group, “Patriot Service Alliance LLC,” according to the Texas Voice, a conservative website that first noted the new groups on Friday.

“RaTmasTeR” is a reference to the alias that Stickland has used for decades in online gaming forums, where he was an infamous troll. Stickland parlayed the skills he honed during his early life as an internet antagonist to help lift him from a job in pest control to the Texas House and, eventually, one of the most powerful political positions in the state.

Stickland and Rinaldi, who is stepping down as Texas GOP chair next month, did not respond to requests for comment Friday afternoon.

Stickland has been at the center of a white supremacy scandal since October, when The Texas Tribune reported that he had hosted infamous Adolf Hitler fan Nick Fuentes at Pale Horse’s offices for several hours. Rinaldi was also spotted outside Pale Horse’s one-story office building in rural Tarrant County, but denied knowing Fuentes was inside.

The meeting — as well as subsequent reporting by the Tribune that uncovered other white supremacists in Stickland’s orbit — prompted House Speaker Dade Phelan and other Republicans to call for party members to redirect money they received from Stickland’s group, Defend Texas Liberty, to pro-Israel charities.

Defend Texas Liberty is a powerful political action committee that West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks have used to give more than $15 million to far-right groups, lawmakers and candidates. Dunn and Wilks are also Attorney General Ken Paxton’s biggest donors, and Defend Texas Liberty gave $3 million to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick last summer, before Patrick presided over Paxton’s impeachment trial in the state Senate.

In the fallout from the Fuentes meeting, nearly half of the Texas GOP’s executive committee called for the party to cut ties with Stickland and Defend Texas Liberty, which was the party’s biggest donor last year.

Stickland was quietly replaced as Defend Texas Liberty’s president in October, and Pale Horse Strategies later rebranded as “West Fort Worth Management LLC.” (Not long after it was registered last month, “Patriot Service Alliance” filed paperwork to operate under the name “West Fort Worth Management LLC”). Rinaldi, meanwhile, has continued to attack critics of Stickland and Defend Texas Liberty — while quietly working as an attorney for Wilks, one of the group’s billionaire funders.

In November, the Texas GOP’s executive committee narrowly rejected a resolution that banned the party from associating with Holocaust deniers, antisemites and neo-Nazis — language that some members argued could create a slippery slope and complicate the party’s relationship with donors or future candidates. After backlash, the party in January passed a resolution that banned it from associating with antisemites — a significantly watered-down version of previous proposals that specifically named Stickland and Defend Texas Liberty.

Disclosure: Texas Secretary of State has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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