Those of us ancient enough to remember the beginning and heyday of the Tea Party know how impromptu and organic it was. Ordinary Americans from all walks of life were fed up with bigger and more overreaching government. The best example of this bloated government back then was Obamacare. The Tea Party people felt that the people of Washington, DC, were not listening to them. So in 2010 they took to the streets and to the ballot box and made them listen. The same thing happened again in 2024. Once again, gigantic government was on the ballot, and it inspired one woman to go beyond voting and do something about it.
Shelley Luther, the former Dallas salon owner who went to prison after reopening her salon during the COVID-19 pandemic, is headed to the Texas State House! This is the way!! 🤘 pic.twitter.com/m6dOit31Y1
– Jason (@Jason_The_Texan) November 10, 2024
Shelley Luther, a former hair salon owner, won one Seat in the Texas State Legislature last Tuesday. Luther defeated her Democratic challenger Tiffany Drake with 78 percent of the vote for Texas State District 62. Luther will represent residents of Fannin, Grayson, Franklin and Delta counties. Luther, like many Americans, said she wasn’t very political until it got personal. As COVID spread across the United States in 2020, strict lockdown orders also emerged. In order to comply with the requirements, Luther closed her salon. Within a month, Luther began receiving frantic calls from her hairdressers.
“After about a month, my hairdressers called me and said, ‘I can’t feed my kids.’ “I don’t know what to do, so we just made the decision to reopen and I ended up in jail.”
In order to keep her hairdressers in business, Luther opposed this Lockdown order and reopening her salon. For their problems, they spent a week in prison and paid a $7,000 fine. All while the dog grooming shop next to her salon remained open.
This is not Luther’s first run for public office. In 2020, she ran for the Texas State Senate and in 2022 for the State District 62 seat, but lost to incumbent State Rep. Reggie Smith. This time, Luther defeated Smith in the March Republican primary.
I’m so glad Shelley Luther won a seat in the Texas Legislature.
She was jailed for operating her salon during the COVID-19 crisis.
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi was getting her hair done in San Francisco and was caught.
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) November 10, 2024
While COVID may have been an extreme circumstance, it is this all-encompassing, intrusive government overreach that has pushed so many average Americans to the breaking point and said “enough.” Luther wasn’t the only ordinary American in recent history who knew he could do a better job and felt inspired to run for office. In 2019, now-Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) was also one of these average Americans. Boebert attended a rally for then-presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, who said during a Democratic presidential debate: made the now celebrated statement: “Hell yeah, we’ll take your AR-15, your AK-47,” Boebert responded to O’Rourke’s Statement on gun confiscationand said, “Hell no, you’re not.” The rest, as they say, is history.
Shelley Luther’s victory is one of many. Republicans at the state level who wore the coattails of President-elect Donald Trump and has done well in state legislatures the nation. Before the election, Republicans controlled 57 state legislatures and Democrats controlled 41. In some states, Republican candidates broke Democratic majorities in both chambers of state houses. Vermont Democrats lost their supermajority in the House of Representatives, while Republicans gained 18 seats. South Carolina Republicans flipped four seats in the state Senate and now have their first supermajority since Reconstruction. In Tennessee, Democrats lost all four House races they had hoped to win to weaken the Republican supermajority in the Volunteer State.
Attention tends to focus on national politics, but it is in state legislatures where many policies originate and ultimately make their way to the federal level. Chances are there are a lot more Shelley Luthers out there.
Shelley Luther, who was jailed for opening her salon during Covid, has been elected as a Texas state representative.
“My hairdressers called me and said, ‘I can’t feed my kids.’ “I don’t know what to do, so we just decided to reopen and I ended up in jail.” pic.twitter.com/kDFDZ18B48
— Julianna Frieman (@JuliannaFrieman) November 9, 2024
