Dallas GOP donor threatens Abbott, pledges to make 100,000 robocalls defending Confederate plaque
AUSTIN — A Dallas man angry over the removal of Confederate monuments has pledged to call 100,000 Texas households in the next few weeks urging them to contact their elected officials.
Dallas businessman and GOP donor Christopher Ekstrom said the Conservative Response Team, a politically active nonprofit he leads, plans to make the robocalls before Jan. 12. The calls will urge Republicans to call Rep. Dennis Bonnen, the Angleton Republican assumed to become the next speaker of the Texas House, who recently joined Gov. Greg Abbott in backing the removal of a controversial Confederate plaque from the state Capitol.
"This is part of a so-called intersectionalist attempt to whitewash and, I think as Condoleezza Rice said, sanitize our history," Ekstrom told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday. "It's a dumb argument."
Ekstrom said his group has already made 8,000 calls in Bonnen's district on the issue. That could not immediately be verified, and he declined to say who was funding the campaign. Abbott's office did not respond to requests for comment. A representative with Bonnen's office confirmed the office had received a couple of hundred calls.
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas-politics/2018/12/18/dallas-gop-donor-targets-abbott-pledges-make-100000-robocalls-defending-confederate-plaque