R. Grizzle Trojacek
R. Grizzle Trojacek (Libertarian Party) ran for election to the Texas House of Representatives to represent District 148. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Biography
Trojacek's professional experience includes working as a consultant designing corporate governance processes. He has attended classes at Texas A&M University.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Texas House of Representatives elections, 2022
General election
General election for Texas House of Representatives District 148
Incumbent Penny Morales Shaw defeated Kay Smith and R. Grizzle Trojacek in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 148 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Penny Morales Shaw (D) | 55.5 | 20,456 |
 | Kay Smith (R) | 42.6 | 15,691 | |
 | R. Grizzle Trojacek (L) | 1.9 | 697 | |
| Total votes: 36,844 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 148
Incumbent Penny Morales Shaw advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 148 on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Penny Morales Shaw | 100.0 | 4,748 |
| Total votes: 4,748 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 148
Kay Smith advanced from the Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 148 on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Kay Smith | 100.0 | 4,290 |
| Total votes: 4,290 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for Texas House of Representatives District 148
R. Grizzle Trojacek advanced from the Libertarian convention for Texas House of Representatives District 148 on March 12, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | R. Grizzle Trojacek (L) | 86.0 | 37 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 14.0 | 6 | ||
| Total votes: 43 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Campaign finance
2020
See also: Texas House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Texas House of Representatives District 139
Incumbent Jarvis Johnson defeated R. Grizzle Trojacek in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 139 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jarvis Johnson (D) | 85.9 | 48,841 |
| R. Grizzle Trojacek (L) | 14.1 | 8,029 | |
| Total votes: 56,870 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 139
Incumbent Jarvis Johnson defeated Angeanette Thibodeaux in the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 139 on March 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jarvis Johnson | 64.3 | 9,383 |
 | Angeanette Thibodeaux | 35.7 | 5,215 | |
| Total votes: 14,598 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for Texas House of Representatives District 139
R. Grizzle Trojacek advanced from the Libertarian convention for Texas House of Representatives District 139 on March 21, 2020.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | R. Grizzle Trojacek (L) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2018
General election
General election for Texas House of Representatives District 139
Incumbent Jarvis Johnson defeated R. Grizzle Trojacek in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 139 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jarvis Johnson (D) | 92.8 | 37,159 |
| R. Grizzle Trojacek (L) | 7.2 | 2,887 | |
| Total votes: 40,046 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 139
Incumbent Jarvis Johnson defeated Randy Bates in the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 139 on March 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jarvis Johnson | 60.4 | 5,673 |
 | Randy Bates | 39.6 | 3,725 | |
| Total votes: 9,398 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
R. Grizzle Trojacek did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
R. Grizzle Trojacek completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Trojacek's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
- Tax Reform
- Education Reform
- Criminal Justice Reform
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2018
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
R. Grizzle Trojacek completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Trojacek's responses.
What would be your top three priorities, if elected?
Tax Reform Educational Reform Decriminalization of Controlled Substances
What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?
Taxes - I tend to support the taxation views of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and other so-called classical liberals, but I also recognize different areas may have different needs. I think too often we focus on the "paying of a fair share", without realizing that it's not nice to make people pay for things they don't want. Examples include some of the fancy options such as swimming parks and multimillion dollar sports complexes being built by school districts across the state. I would generally support legislation allowing individuals to opt-out of funding all but the most essential government responsibilities. I believe this would allow people who like big sports complexes to have their say, and those who would rather spend that money (or not) elsewhere have their say.
Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?
Jesus, but I also believe most everyone tends to make Jesus into their own image, so I like to focus on the words attributed to the master in the "red letters" of the Bible. I like the notion of tolerance put into place by William Penn, and other political greats include Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Bastiant, and Locke. I regret that they were unable to unchain slavery during their time. I grew up reading the writings and ambitions of Carl Sagan, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison. I also like the ancients such as Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, at least in as much as we can learn from what remains of their writings.
Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?
Probably Agrarian Justice by Thomas Paine.
What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?
While I have my views, I believe the goal is to represent the principles of the body one has been elected to serve. Note that I did not say interests. Interests and principles are two different things. I believe the body that I'd represent would be best served by decriminalizing drug-related offenses. Basically, I think that the real issue is either misrepresenting a substance, which should fall under fraud of some sort, or making such substances available to children, which should fall under the same type of laws as exposing children to something harmful such as rat poison.
What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?
I have long been involved in corporate governance and have long observed how legislative efforts turn and enable the very thing they were trying to stop. So my goal would be to reduce laws where possible, and if not possible, be as holistic as we can by setting up review committees and similar to remove bad laws from the books, allow better exception handling, etc.
What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?
Represent the principles of the body one has been elected to serve.
What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?
The election of 1984.
What was your very first job? How long did you have it?
I have worked since as long as I can remember. I was maybe 6 or 7 when I started working in the fields.
If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?
It would be interesting to be any one of the characters in Jules Verne's writings.
What is your favorite thing in your home or apartment? Why?
Probably my black boots that I have worn for several years now. I bought them used.
What was the last song that got stuck in your head?
I once had Breakdown, by Tom Petty, stuck in my head for 8-9 months.
What is something that has been a struggle in your life?
I have long sought to live out the Truth as I understood it in my life, yet the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. It is quite humbling as sometimes I just want all the answers, now!
Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?
It can be helpful, but as with everything, it can also be a hindrance. I would present an outsider's view.
What do you perceive to be your state’s greatest challenges over the next decade?
I dread it, but the state will probably go to an income tax system if the property tax system isn't fixed correctly. If it were up to me, I'd be in favor of removing all taxes on improvements and labor. The basic idea is not taking something someone else labored to create. I think that the natural resources are a bit different though, since no one really made those. I also expect that there is probably some reasonable limit to where people won't get taxed on just having a place to live, similar to how we don't tax basic food, but do tax prepared food. These ideas are not new - Locke, Jefferson, Paine, and others since time immemorial have discussed. Hamilton was a proponent of the consumption tax, but I believe many of the worst ideas in our federal Government came from Hamilton, so I'd rather not emulate those ideas.
What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and the state legislature?
We have a balance of power for a reason. I suspect the ideal place for the governor and the legislature is healthy conflict.
Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.
Sure, as long as you don't trade favors with each other where the People lose and the politicians win.
What process do you favor for redistricting?
This is a difficult item to solve given present system constraints. The process has evolved to where politicians pick the voters instead of the other way around and I don't see an easy way out of that. But, if we had opportunity, I think we could probably reform the system to where the voters pick their representation. This would be a system where people elect a local captain or leader for a group of about 50 to 100 people. This leader would be approachable by the group - a phone call away. The members could go voice their concerns, etc. and have the ability to opt-out or choose another 'team' (other representation). I think this would have to be done through cyberspace, where people would choose virtual groups. In the past, this was not possible, but I think technology has come far enough to at least being the conversation and we can start retiring outdate and corruption encouraging methods.
If you are not a current legislator, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?
Committees are a method of trading political favors under the guise of getting something done. It seems to be a double edged sword. If I had to choose a committee, it would probably be one responsible for retiring legacy legislation or involved in virtualizing government.
Is there a particular legislator, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?
I find very few worthy of emulation.
Are you interested in running for a different political office (for example, the U.S. Congress or governor) in the future?
The future is unwritten.
Both sitting legislators and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?
Mainly I hear about the bureaucratic shenanigans in the school system, property taxes, and folks getting into trouble with the law over what seems to me like small issues.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 13, 2020
