(John Ransom, Headline USA) Two names popular among conservatives have said they will be joining a convoy of truckers planning to drive across Texas next week.
Lt. Col. Allen West, who is currently running for Texas governor, and rocker Ted Nugent will be joining the American Truckers Freedom Convoy/Frontline Truckers, the Liberty Daily reported.
West, a former US Representative from Florida who previously served as chair of the Texas GOP, is challenging incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott in the state’s March 1 GOP primary.
Please register to vote by January 31st. Early voting begins on February 14th. Our Texas Primary is on March 1st. My thanks to @TedNugent! pic.twitter.com/fCkXfQPGoD
— West4Texas (@West4Texas) January 30, 2022
Nugent, a resident of Waco, has endorsed West’s campaign for governor after supporting Abbott in the previous election.
“You know what, we have a pretty good governor down here in Greg Abbott,” Nugent said in a short video shared on West’s Twitter according to the Houston Chronicle.
“I worked hard to get him elected—but if you were a pretty good bass player you couldn’t be in my band,” Nugent continued. “Pretty good doesn’t cut it.”
West said that Abbott hasn’t done enough to fight back against the federal government’s COVID mandates or to help secure the Texas–Mexican border from illegal immigration.
The Texas Tribune reported that West would send more National Guard members to the border in addition to the existing 10,000 troops already there, while slashing or eliminating property taxes in the state.
The Texas convoy counts itself among several in the US that have arisen in response to the Canadian Freedom Convoy.
One of the more prominent groups, the People’s Convoy, is scheduled to depart from California on Wednesday and arrive in Washington, DC, ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address next week.
A separate convoy, the Freedom Convoy USA 2022, is being promoted by Maryland gubernatorial candidate Kyle Sefcik and purports to have 38,000 registered participants.
In response, Demcrat officials in Washington, DC, already were erecting fence and planned to deploy the National Guard.
Far-left Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., hinted that authorities might follow Canada’s lead in attempting to confiscate trucks and redistribute them illegally to others.
West, in a statement on his campaign site, said that he’s proud to join people who are peacefully assembling to petition the government over a redress of grievances, just as the truckers in Canada have done.
“The actions taken by the truckers in Ottawa and across Canada have been heroic, and I am proud to join a protest that was inspired by them” he said.
“Totalitarian vaccine mandates and mask mandates have no place in the West let alone Texas,” he added. “We cannot allow draconian measures to be cemented by leftist tyrants.”
