Influential Texas activist Jonathan Stickland hosted white supremacist Nick Fuentes at Fort Worth office

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FORT WORTH — Jonathan Stickland, the ultraconservative chief of a gaggle that has donated hundreds of thousands of greenbacks to high-profile Texas leaders, hosted outstanding white supremacist Nick Fuentes and different right-wing activists for a number of hours on Friday.

Acting on a tip, a Texas Tribune reporter and photographer noticed Fuentes and others — together with Kyle Rittenhouse, who used to be acquitted of murder after killing two Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020 — input a one-story office construction in a far flung industry park in west Fort Worth. The construction is the headquarters for Pale Horse Strategies, a consulting company for right-wing applicants this is owned by means of Stickland. Fuentes arrived round 11 a.m. and left simply after 5:30 p.m.

Matt Rinaldi, the chair of the Republican Party of Texas and an best friend of Stickland, used to be additionally observed getting into the construction whilst Fuentes used to be within. Reached by means of telephone on Sunday, Rinaldi denied that he had any wisdom that Fuentes used to be at the premises, and equipped screenshots of textual content messages from Friday morning through which he rescheduled a gathering for 1:45 p.m. at the Pale Horse office with Texas GOP Executive Director Jen Hall.

“We were just borrowing a conference room,” stated Rinaldi, who arrived at the office simply ahead of 1:45 p.m. and left 45 mins later.

He stated of Fuentes: “I completely condemn that guy and everything he stands for. I would never in a million years meet with that guy.”

Asked if he would condemn Stickland or Pale Horse for webhosting Fuentes, Rinaldi spoke back that he’ll “disavow Nick Fuentes but I’m not going to make assumptions” primarily based only at the Tribune’s reporting.

Stickland didn’t reply to calls and textual content messages on Sunday afternoon.

Stickland and Rinaldi are primary avid gamers in an ongoing civil war with the extra reasonable, however nonetheless deeply conservative, flank of the Texas GOP. Both are former state representatives who’ve attacked individuals of their very own birthday celebration, like U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, as insufficiently conservative.

And each had been bankrolled by means of a trio of West Texas oil billionaires — Tim Dunn and brothers Farris and Dan Wilks — who’ve given greater than $100 million to a community of campaigns, nonprofits, darkish cash teams and media firms to push their ultraconservative religious and anti-LGBTQ+ perspectives and oust fellow Republicans from energy.

Stickland could also be the president of Defend Texas Liberty, a political motion committee funded by means of Dunn and Farris Wilks that is a major donor to Attorney General Ken Paxton in addition to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who received $3 million in loans and donations from Defend Texas Liberty ahead of presiding over Paxton’s impeachment trial within the Texas Senate.

Patrick and Paxton may just no longer be instantly reached for remark Sunday afternoon.

In November, former President Donald Trump used to be condemned by means of leaders of his personal birthday celebration after eating at Mar-A-Lago with Fuentes and Ye, the rapper previously referred to as Kanye West, who at the time used to be embroiled in an uproar over antisemitic statements he made that fall. Numerous Republican leaders condemned Fuentes, together with former Vice President Mike Pence, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Fuentes’ consult with to Texas comes because the far-right flank of the state GOP continues to raise excessive figures, rhetoric and conspiracy theories, and because the birthday celebration’s internecine conflict continues within the wake of Paxton’s impeachment by means of the Texas House and eventual acquittal by means of the Texas Senate. Few figures had been extra central to the escalating pressure than Stickland and Rinaldi, who’ve sought to incrementally pull the Texas GOP additional to the correct by means of labeling fellow conservatives as Republicans in title most effective — RINOs — and backing boisterous, far-right number one applicants towards those that ruin with their hardline stances.

It’s a technique that Fuentes knows well. Since emerging to prominence on YouTube within the wake of 2017’s fatal neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Fuentes and his fans — nicknamed “groypers” — have sought to normalize their racist, antisemitic and misogynistic views by means of repeatedly attacking different conservatives, together with Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, from the some distance appropriate.

Fuentes, 25, has spoken incessantly about that means. He has puzzled whether or not the Holocaust came about and stated Hitler used to be “really fucking cool.” He has referred to as for a “holy war” towards Jews, “Catholic Taliban rule,” and “killing the globalists.” A “proud incel,” Fuentes has overtly fantasized about marrying a 16-year-old as a result of that’s “right when the milk is good.” He has celebrated a rising wave of hatred and violence that he hopes gets “uglier and a lot worse” for Jews and others he deems inferior.

“All I would like is revenge towards my enemies and a complete Aryan victory,” Fuentes stated last year.

Despite his well-publicized extremism — and corresponding, ongoing jumps in antisemitic and racist violence in Texas and nationally — Fuentes has not been completely cast out of right-wing circles. Hard-right Republicans, including U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona, have spoken at Fuentes’ annual conference alongside avowed white supremacists. Fuentes’ acolytes have also been employed in top echelons of the national GOP: In July, the presidential campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis fired a staffer after it was revealed that he created and then shared a pro-DeSantis video that featured a Nazi sonnenrad.

Other Fuentes followers have made their homes in Texas: Earlier this year, Ella Maulding moved from Mississippi to Fort Worth to work as a social media coordinator for Pale Horse Strategies. Maulding has praised Fuentes as ”the greatest civil rights leader in history,” and her social media is replete with references to “white genocide” — a foundational ideology for neo-Nazi and other violent extremist movements.

Maulding was observed for several hours at the Friday meeting with Fuentes, and she spent some time outside recording a video for Texans For Strong Borders in which she called on Texas lawmakers to crack down on immigration when they meet for a special legislative session beginning Monday.

Texans for Strong Borders wants to stem both legal and illegal immigration. Its founder, Chris Russo, was seen driving Fuentes to the Friday meeting at Pale Horse Strategies.

Russo and Maulding did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday.

Fuentes’ assembly comes as Stickland and different right-wing actors try to make inroads with younger conservatives. In August, the Tribune reported on a new company, Influenceable, that pays Gen Z influencers for undisclosed marketing and political messaging, including pro-Paxton social media posts ahead of his Senate impeachment trial. The company has a partnership with former Trump campaign chair Brad Parscale, who moved to Midland this year to work with Dunn, in step with Texas Monthly. In June, Parscale, Dunn, Maulding and leaders of the corporate were photographed at a gathering in downtown Fort Worth.

In August, the Tribune reported that Rittenhouse had formed a new nonprofit, the Rittenhouse Foundation, as he continues to ramp up his engagement in Texas politics. The foundation’s board includes the treasurer for Stickland’s Defend Texas Liberty. And its registered agent is Tony McDonald, a longtime attorney for Empower Texans and other Dunn-financed groups who was recorded in 2020 mocking Gov. Greg Abbott’s use of a wheelchair.

After the Tribune reported on Rittenhouse’s new foundation, Stickland made clear he was proud of their affiliation, posting a photo of himself with Rittenhouse on social media with the caption “let me end the speculation.“

“Most conservative boss out there!” responded Rittenhouse, who in the photo is wearing a hat and shirt for Pale Horse Strategies.

Pale Horse’s name appears to be an allusion to the Bible’s Book of Revelation, which says that one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, Death, will ride a pale horse as he carries out God’s judgment during the End Times.

Campaign finance records show that in 2022, Pale Horse Strategies received more than $828,000 for consulting and contractor services from Defend Texas Liberty. The same year, the PAC donated more than $5 million to challengers to more moderate, incumbent Republicans. Most of that money went to Don Huffines, a real estate developer and former state senator who unsuccessfully challenged Gov. Greg Abbott in the Republican primary.

Defend Texas Liberty has also bankrolled some of the most conservative members of the Legislature, including Reps. Tony Tinderholt of Arlington and Bryan Slaton of Royse City. Slaton was ousted from the Texas House in May after House investigators found that he gave alcohol to a 19-year-old aide and then had sex with her.

The PAC continues to wield major influence in Texas politics. After the House impeached Paxton in May, Stickland vowed primary challenges against those who supported removing the attorney general.

Over his political career, Paxton has received nearly twice as much in donations from Dunn and the Wilks brothers than he has from his second-largest donor, Texans for Lawsuit Reform. Paxton had also received more money from the trio of billionaires than any other state politician — until this summer, when Patrick surpassed him.