Meet the Republican candidates for congressional district 4

Fourteen candidates for congressional district four appeared on Saturday in a town hall-style forum in Sulphur Springs to discuss the issues facing the community at large. Nineteen total  candidates will vye for the Republican nomination, to be decided Aug. 8.  

The candidates seek to replace Congressman John Ratcliffe on the November ballot. Ratcliffe was confirmed as national security director on May 21, 2020 after his name was already on the ballot. By Texas law, the County and precinct chairs must choose a replacement.

Those who appeared are: Travis Ransom (R-Atlanta), Aaron Harris (R-Richland Hills), Jim Pruitt (R-Rockwall) Jason Ross (R-Rockwall), Rodney Adams (R-Royse City), John Cooper (R-Sulphur Springs), Bob Worthen (R-Texarkana), Christopher Schell (R-Dallas), Casey Campbell (R-Rockwall), Trace Johannesen (R-Rockwall), Zach Rateliff (R-Texarkana), Joe Vrasic (R-Mount Pleasant), Tim McCord (R-Rockwall) and Steve Gorman (R-Grayson County). 

Not present were Pat Fallon (R-Frisco), Floyd McLendon (R-Dallas), Robert West (R-Cooper), T.C. Manning (R-Houston) and David Bridges (deceased).

We’ve broken down each of the candidates background, qualifications and positions on key issues. While it’s the county chairs who will make the decision about which candidate will face off against the democratic opponent in November, it’s up to voters to be informed of each contender’s merits and weaknesses. 

For those candidates who were not present at the town hall on Saturday, quotes have not been added. 

Aaron Harris (R-Richland Hills)

Federal background- Chief of Staff, Congressional District 5 (Lance Gooden)

Voter fraud: “We exposed, in the public, voter fraud we were ridiculed and attacked by the Democrats… We criminalized voter fraud. For those of you who don’t know, voter fraud used to be a misdemeanor. It’s a felony because of our work, and that has resulted in ten convictions and five open prosecutions.”  

Confederate monuments: “A few months ago, I thought that the only people who destroyed monuments were the Taliban… I utterly don’t understand… A lot of these monuments that are there were put there by Democrats.” 

Bob Worthen (R-Texarkana)

Civil background: Managing partner, Granary Street Health Food stores

Lock box ordinances: “I’m a businessman and I have fought for the rights of the people. In Texarkana I… pointed out to the city council and people in charge that… the lock box ordinance is unconstitutional. I got that changed and any building on it under 5000 square feet in Texarkana now does not have a lock box.” 

Education reform: “I’ve got a fantastic resume… I’m a very successful business man… I can do every question on a math test in my head. I had a college junior miss nine out of ten. That’s unacceptable and we need to fix our education system. If I can get legislation passed that will fix our education system I will retire from this job [congress].” 

Casey Campbell (R-Rockwall)

Federal background- Staff member, Congressional District 5

Civil background- Koch Industries, medical malpractice law

Convictions: “Right now I’m in the middle of representing a doctor for writing hydroxychloroquine (sic) to his patients… I’m using what I know to be reliable science, reliable experts. Their only opposition to it is political weaponization of medicine. I’m in the middle of making that fight against the establishment at ‘risk of reputation’.” 

Immigration: “When sanctuary cities do things like [say] ‘oh, you’ve got a safe place here, I’m not going to turn you in,’ that’s violating the federal branch, which means it’s violating our constitution. It just goes to show you the entire system has gone wheels-off when it comes to the constitution. We have to start reigning back in control.” 

Christopher Schell (R-Dallas)

Federal background- Staff member, Congressional District 4 (Ralph Hall), Department of Defense, Pentagon

Immigration: “There’s a practical matter: you’ve got 700,000 people here who know nothing else. So I am sensitive to their plight… so the deportation idea to me is unworkable. The question is: how do we deter people coming across the border?... Every generation or generation and a half we have a slew of people. We can’t just say ‘You’re here, it’s okay.’” 

Supreme Court: “The Supreme Court is the final word on the constitution, but that can be amended as we well know… In my opinion, the people are the final word. If they don’t like what it (the constitution) says, or the outcome… it can be amended. It’s very difficult to do. They (Supreme Court) do get to say what they think it means, but they do not have the final say.” 

Jason Ross (R-Rockwall)

Federal background- Chief of staff, Congressional District 4 (John Ratcliffe) 

Continuity: “On Jan. 3, we have to change our member of congress, and I’m the only one who makes it so that we don’t have to start completely over. I’m running because of loyalty, authenticity and readiness… I’m the only one who has directly served this congressional district at the federal level.” 

Immigration: “Illegal immigration is one of my top pursuits… I helped draft the VOICES Act, which would strengthen penalties on coming to the US illegally. Right now we do  not have sufficient deterrents. Another thing we need, is coming across the border is only half the problem. Visa overstay is another half the problem, and we have to enforce our law-holding entity by enforcing those who overstay.” 

Jim Pruitt (R-Rockwall)

Municipal background- Mayor, City of Rockwall, former judge, Rockwall County

Term limits: “I am in my last year of my last term. If we had term limits, we wouldn’t have people like Nancy Pelosi. I believe in term limits and I think they work.” 

Voter fraud: “I have sued a Democrat for voter fraud and... I can guarantee you they have stolen elections from us. I’ve been to court with those guys.” 

Compromise: “There are things we can work on, farm bills, for example, that you can get Democrat support on. A lot of the United States is rural. They’re wrong in being Democrats, but they’re right in the things that they want to happen, and there’s some things we can work with them on.”

Joe Vrasic (R-Mount Pleasant)

Civil background- Farmer and rancher

Education: “The Department of Education is something we need to cut back on. We’re spending way, way too much… It’s completely unconstitutional and in some cases not even necessary. We need the state taking care of our education, and then further than that, our local governments would be ideal for that. Not somebody in Washington, a bureaucrat who’s completely unrelated with what’s going on in the districts.” 

Budget deficits: "It's out of control spending, and most of these departments need to cut back. We need to take that budget and trim this thing out, because we're post constitutional America at this point." 

John Cooper (R-Sulphur Springs)

Civil background- Owner, Cooper Land Surveying

Municipal background- Former member, City of Sulphur Springs Zoning Board of Adjustments

Education: “Our kids are going to be 26 to 30 trillion dollars in debt. What they’re being taught and are coming out of schools is that socialism and communism are great. Our biggest fight is against communism and socialism in the school system… I’ve passed out over 31,000 brochures last year about communism and socialism in churches, trying to get out the vote. Let’s have recall elections and put people on the defense for a change.” 

Kneeling during the National Anthem: “The communist/ socialist agenda has redefined taking a knee. Taking a knee used to be honorable and respectable… but now taking a knee means you should succumb to the forces of evil and the forces of murderers going on in our country right now… I would not kneel on my country. President Trump says those who burn the flag should spend some time [incarcerated] and I agree with that.”    

Rodney Adams (R-Royse City)

Civil background- Executive director, Munger Place Church

Federal background- Infantry officer, United States Marine Corps

Faith in America: “We’ve lost our way as a country. It’s no longer implied there’s a Creator from which we derive our certain, unalienable rights… there’s an attack on truth coming from the progressive, Marxist side and the number one issue facing America right now are the rotten fruits that have fallen from the tree of godlessness.” 

Separation of church and state: “You cannot tell me that our legislation is becoming more Biblical. It is becoming less Biblical, and I have a problem with that.” 

Policy: “My problem is that policy is downstream from culture, and we’re losing the culture war. If we’re not affecting how we act according to what we believe to be true about society… the problem is we’re not affecting culture. That’s directly related to the godlessness issue.” 

Steve Gorman (R-Grayson County)

Civil background- Farmer and rancher, aircraft mechanic

Healthcare: “They [government] were told it [Obamacare] wasn’t going to work before they passed it and they passed it anyway. They can’t take care of 40 million people in the VA ([eterans Affairs] they sure can’t take care of 340 million people [US population].”

Education: “I would like to get rid of the Department of Education and give it to the states. I would like to start talking to the colleges that are teaching our kids communism and socialism are the best thing in the world. And we have ways of doing that if we can get interested in doing it.”

Tim McCord (R-Rockwall)

Civil background- Lawyer, Rockwall

Healthcare: “The medical industry spends way more on advertising than they do on research. They need to ban that… when you’re paying them to tell you what to take. You shouldn’t be telling them ‘hey, I saw this on TV, should I be taking this?’ Like the one with the two people in the bathtub out in the woods, I still don’t know what that one’s about. I would ban advertisements in healthcare, as most every country does.” 

Abortion: “If Roe vs. Wade is overturned, it becomes a states rights issue again and then you have 50 states. The Democrats have redefined gender, family and marriage. Why don’t we redefine what is a human being?” 

Trace Johannesen (R-Rockwall)

Municipal background- City council member, City of Rockwall

Federal background- Marine Corps

The future: “I see a lack of leadership on many levels of government. We have double digit unemployment right now and people are making decisions based on fear… the last time I was this worried was on 9/11/2001 when I enlisted in the Marine Corps… that’s how dire of times we are in today. We’ve had 18 years of fairly decent life here… but when things start going bad, that’s when the cracks start to show.” 

Healthcare: "Repeal Obamacare, let's start with that. As Republicans, we know limited government is the way to go. Open up the market... we should create more incentives for Americans tax-deferred accounts... treating our healthcare like we do our automobiles. My wife and I do that now, we put $200 in there every month and it's become a big fat bank account."

Travis Ransom (R-Atlanta)

Municipal background- Mayor of Atlanta, TX, staff member, Texas state senate 

Federal background- Command Sergeant Major, US Army

Engaging young voters: “We’ve got to stop bad-mouthing Millennials… I lead them in the army, I lead them in the military and I’ve seen Millennials do some amazing things… we have to engage younger voters. You’ll never engage them if you bad-mouth them.”  

Rural representation: "Northeast Texans need a rural representative that understands their issues. Our rural voice has been muted to a large extent in Washington, and we need a representative that understands our issues. That we're struggling to have infrastructure, to have high-speed internet, those are very significant. The rural people of Northeast Texas are a missing entity. I think I can make an impact just by being that voice of the rural people." 

Zach Rateliff (R-Texarkana)

Civil background- Owner, A-Z Rateliff Properties

Local politics: “We need bold leadership in our party... Half of Bowie County is too cowardly to stand up and back a true conservative or a true Republican. They’re too cowardly to stand up against the system and say ‘we need to make a change.’ … If they don’t have the courage to stand up in front of you, precinct chairs, how are they gonna stand up in Washington?”

Democrats: “Democrats… for the last 100 years have had a plan to socialize and take over this country. If you look at Alexander (sic) Kruschev’s 42 points on how to take over America from the inside… that’s what’s happening. Take away art, take away the family, take away religion, take away all these things, crack America from the inside. As a Republican party, we will lose if we can’t find someone to go to (Washington) D.C. and say ‘I’m not for this.’”

Floyd McLendon (R-Dallas)

Federal background- Seal team member, US Navy

Civil background- Motivational speaker

T.C. Manning (R-Houston)

Federal background- US Navy

Robert West (R-Cooper)

Civil background- Farmer and rancher, aircraft mechanic

Pat Fallon (R-Frisco)

Federal background- Current Texas State Senator, District 30, former House of Representatives 106th District

Municipal background- Former Frisco city council