Dewhurst Erases Provocative Speech from Site
"I support a guest worker program for those here illegally," Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said in a 2007 speech, which was recently taken down from his website. Photo courtesy flickr.com/photos/66946235@N04Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst recently removed all of his speeches from his state website – including a controversial address from 2007 in which he expresses support for giving work visas to illegal immigrants. Dewhurst is currently in a runoff with Ted Cruz for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Jay Root is a reporter with KUT’s political-reporting partner The Texas Tribune. He says this is a pretty significant distraction for the Dewhurst campaign.
“If you look at the quote, it’s pretty clear that he was expressing support for a guest worker program,” Root says. “He said, quote, ‘I support a guest worker program for those here illegally.’ That’s in the speech and that is no longer operative.”
Root says the countdown to the runoff should be very competitive. And he doesn’t believe either campaign is comfortable with the numbers they’re seeing in polls at this point. The runoff is slated for July 31.
