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Jackson says he can make things happen in Congress
Influence and the ability to make things happen separate Ronny Jackson from the other 14 people seeking the Republican nomination in the 13th Texas Congressional District race, according to the candidate.
Jackson, who retired as a Navy Rear Admiral in December, told the Enterprise Tuesday morning that his experience as a White House physician and as a senior advisor to President Donald Trump make him the best candidate to succeed Clarendon’s Mac Thornberry in Congress.
“Mac Thornberry has a huge voice in Washington,” Jackson said. “The day he leaves, that voice for the 13th District is zero, and we’ll have a freshman congressman with no influence. I’m the exception. I have influence. I just left the White House. I know every cabinet secretary and have all their home and cell numbers. If I call, they are going to answer, and I’ll be the only freshman congressman who can walk into the Oval Office and get the president to stop what he’s doing and listen to me.”
Jackson was born and raised in Levelland as the son of an electrician and a homemaker. He worked sacking groceries and in the oil field to put himself through South Plains College. While at Texas A&M University in Galveston, he got a job at the University of Texas medical branch there working in pathology, which spurred his interest in a career in medicine.
Utilizing a military program to help him pay for his medical degree, Jackson ended up as a deep sea diver with the Navy and was assigned as a physician to various diving units before becoming board certified as an emergency room doctor and then getting stationed in Iraq. In 2006, he was nominated for and received a position as the junior physician out of six doctors to serve in the White House under President George W. Bush.
“I’m still close to President and Laura Bush to this day, and in fact, he was the very first person to contribute to my campaign,” Jackson said.
What was originally supposed to be a three-year assignment turned into an almost 14-year career on the White House medical team under Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump with increasing levels of responsibility and influence, culminating as a senior advisor in the Trump administration.
“I became very close to President Trump and spent a lot of time with him at the beginning and end of every day,” Jackson said, noting that the two discussed many different issues, particularly health care and veterans’ issues.
The president even nominated Jackson to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, but he then got a dose of politics that left a bad taste in his mouth.
“There were a lot of false accusations leaked to the press that the liberal press just ran with,” he said. “It was distracting for the veterans, and veterans shouldn’t be a political football, so I withdrew my nomination.”
At that point, Jackson said he was just really ready to retire and leave the “sewer” that is Washington, DC, and get back to Texas. But as he thought about it and as Thornberry announced his retirement from Congress, Jackson realized he still had something to offer in a way of service to his country.
“I think have an opportunity for the district,” Jackson said. “Trump is going to be re-elected, and I feel like I have an obligation to continue to serve. We have a lot of vulnerable industries in the district that the Democrats may target – agriculture, oil and gas, Pantex, Bell Helicopter, Sheppard Air Force Base. Those things need to be protected.”
Jackson admits that he’s not originally from the 13th District. But he says he grew up just 40 miles from the district line and spent most of his life in the district, playing sports, hunting, and having family in the Panhandle. When he got ready to pick his own place to live after 26 years of the military choosing for him, he chose Amarillo.
“Oil and cotton were what surrounded us when I was growing up,” he said. “I understand the issues here. I’m always going to be three things: a veteran, a physician, and a small town boy from Texas.”
Jackson said on the issues there isn’t much difference between the 15 people running for the Republican nomination. The question for the voters, he said, is what do the candidates bring to the table?
“Do you just want someone from Amarillo? Or do you want someone who is still from this area and can make things happen?” he said.
Thornberry throws his support to Winegarner
Congressman Mac Thornberry (R-Clarendon) announced his support Monday for Josh Winegarner to succeed him in representing the 13th Texas congressional district.
Thornberry, who announced in September that he would retire at the end of his current term, had not previously shown support for any one of the 15 candidates seeking the Republican nomination for his position.
“When I announced that I would not seek reelection to Congress, I said that I would not try to pick my successor,” Thornberry said. “While I have talked to a number of potential candidates to answer their questions, I have never asked anyone to run or encouraged anyone to run for Congress. It is a deeply personal decision that each person must make on his or her own.”
The congressman went on to say that he believes there are several good candidates who are running to serve but that others seem to be running for their own agenda.
“With 15 candidates in the race for the Republican nomination, many people have asked me to express my views publicly about which candidate I believe would do the best job,” Thornberry said. “Like all voters, Sally and I must choose which of the candidates we want to represent us in Congress. We are looking primarily for two qualities, an attitude of true service and effectiveness in representing our district. We see only one candidate who is both running for the right reasons and can also be effective from day one. Sally and I have each decided that we will be voting for Josh Winegarner in the Republican Primary.”
As reasons for his support, Thornberry pointed to Winegarner having been born and raised in the district and worked in the district for 14 years, Winegarner’s experience working for Senators Phil Gramm and John Cornyn and directing government affairs for the Texas Cattle Feeders.
“I continue to believe that anyone who has never lived in the district, never voted in the district, never worked in the district cannot adequately represent the district,” Thornberry said. “Those candidates who have just moved here should try living here awhile, volunteering in the community, getting to know the people of our area, and then perhaps running for office.”
“I trust the voters to make their own decision for the best interests of the district and of the nation,” Thornberry said. “I encourage everyone to take time to study the candidates, including their backgrounds and their positions on issues, and to apply some good, old-fashioned common sense in carrying out this important responsibility of voting.”
Early voting starts Feb. 18 in primaries
Early voting opens next Tuesday, February 18, to determine the Democrats and Republicans who will advance to the General Election in November.
Voters can cast early ballots by personal appearance at the Donley County Courthouse Annex through Friday, February 28. Election Day will be Tuesday, March 3, 2020.
Three races of local interest are the Precinct 3 Commissioner’s position, the 100th Judicial District Attorney’s race, and a more than a dozen people seeking to succeed Clarendon’s Mac Thornberry to represent the 13th Texas Congressional District.
Donley County Commissioner Andy Wheatly is seeking re-election to his Precinct 3 seat and faces a challenge in the Republican Primary from Neil Koetting.
District Attorney Luke Inman also has an opponent this year from fellow Republican Bryan Denham.
Fifteen Republicans and three Democrats want to take over for Congressman Thornberry, who is retiring at the end of his current term. Seeking the Republican nomination are – in order of their appearance on the ballot – Monique Worthy, Chris Ekstrom, Matt McArthur, Catherine “I Swear” Carr, Jamie Culley, Ronny Jackson, Lee Harvey, Jason Foglesong, Josh Winegarner, Richard Herman, Elaine Hayes, Diane Knowlton, Asusena Reséndiz, Mark Neese, and Vance Snider II. On the Democratic ballot, Greg Sagan, Timothy W. Gassaway, and Gus Trujillo are seeking their party’s nomination.
Candidates face Feb. 14 deadline to sign up
With less than a week left for candidates to file, only two local governments have drawn enough interest to have contested elections this spring.
Citizens wishing to serve on one of seven local board have only until Friday, February 14, to sign up at the appropriate administrative offices.
As of Monday, the Clarendon Consolidated Independent School District and the City of Howardwick have enough candidates to warrant having elections.
School board incumbent Reneé Mott has filed for re-election to the school board and will be joined on the ballot by challengers Kyle Davis and Chrisi Tucek. There are two seats up this year on the Clarendon CISD Board of Trustees. The other incumbent, Weldon Sears, has not filed for re-election as of Monday.
Howardwick has five people running for three seats. Terms of Aldermen Mary Grady, Johnny Hubbard, and Marietta Baird are expiring. Grady and Baird are seeking re-election and will be joined on the ballot by challengers Jeremy Kindle, Terry Barnes, and Jada Murra.
At the City of Clarendon, Aldermen John Lockhart, Larry Jeffers, and Eulaine McIntosh have all filed for re-election and have drawn no opposition.
Likewise, at the Donley County Hospital District, all four incumbent members of the Board of Directors have filed for re-election without challenge. Those directors are Jan Farris – Place 4, Nikki Adams – Place 5, Mark C. White – Place 6, and Lori Howard – Place 7.
The Hedley ISD Board of Trustees has two incumbents seeking to return to the board. Troy Monroe and Cindy Lambert are running, but Susan Cosby has not yet filed, and there have been no challengers.
Clarendon College has three positions up on the Board of Regents this year, one of which is currently vacant. Regents Darlene Spier and Carey Wann have both filed for their positions, and Guy Ellis has also filed to run for the college board.
All incumbents at the City of Hedley have filed to run. Mayor Carrie Butler and Aldermen Dustin Shatswell and Danny Russell are all unopposed.
Elections are scheduled to be held Saturday, May 2, 2020.
CC reports lower spring enrollment
Spring enrollment figures at Clarendon College are down after four years of record growth.
CC Interim President Tex Buckhaults said total enrollment was 1,441 following the 12th class day last Wednesday, a drop of 2.1 percent from last spring’s figure.
Head count on the home campus in Clarendon dropped nine percent from 295 to 268, and the count at the Pampa Center was down about 19 percent from 206 to 167.
Buckhaults said the Childress Center was a bright spot in the enrollment report with the head count there increasing 100 percent from 21 to 42.
A year ago, low unemployment in the Childress area was pointed to as the reason for enrollment dropping there by 22 students from spring 2018.
Area high school students taking dual credit classes through CC continues to rise, up 2.5 percent from 631 to 647. The number of distance education students taking classes strictly online was up slightly from 124 to 129.
Numbers were down somewhat in the Jordan and Roach correctional units, from 73 to 65 at Jordan and from 84 to 76 at Roach.
Cosmetology students in Amarillo and Canyon were up, and Pampa saw increases in both cosmetology and nursing.
Buckhaults said thanks to the increases in cosmetology and nursing, the college only lost 0.3 percent in contact hours. He also said the college can take some steps to improve enrollment in the future.
“We need to work on scheduling in Pampa,” Buckhaults said. “Students can’t find what they need at the time then need it, and 30- and 40-year-olds don’t necessarily want it online.”
Genevieve Britt Caldwell
Genevieve Britt Caldwell, 98, of Amarillo, passed away peacefully at home with family and caregivers on February 7, 2020.
Memorial service will be at 2:00 p.m., Thursday, February 13, 2020, at Polk Street United Methodist Church, 1401 S. Polk St. Private family interment will be in Llano Cemetery. Arrangements are by Schooler Funeral Home.
Mrs. Caldwell was born July 24, 1921, on the Britt Ranch east of Wheeler to Thomas M. and Vera B. Britt. She attended a one-room rock school house, now on the National Register of Historic Places, located on the ranch. After 8th grade, she went to and graduated from Kelton High School. She attended Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., for one year before transferring to Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texsa, where several family members including her mother had gone. She was a member of Alpha Delta Pi and graduated with honors in 1942 with a degree in English.
After returning home for several months, she moved to a boarding house in Amarillo to try to find a job helping with the war effort. She was hired to work in the payroll department of the newly constructed Pantex Ordnance Plant. During this time and on a blind date, she met the love of her life, Navy Lt. T.M. “Red” Caldwell, Jr., of Amarillo.
After his 15-month tour of duty in the Pacific Theater as a torpedo bomber pilot aboard the USS Princeton, Lt. Caldwell returned home in April of 1944 and the couple married on May 4, 1944, at the Britt Ranch. Genevieve accompanied Red on several more duty assignments stateside until his Honorable Discharge in 1945 from Kingsville NAS.
Genevieve and Red moved to Amarillo in 1946 and subsequently to Clarendon in 1949 for Red’s saddlemaking business. Genevieve was a dedicated homemaker for Red and her two children. She was a devout Christian and very active in the First United Methodist Church. She loved children and taught Sunday School to preschoolers for many years as well as singing in the choir for almost 50 years with her beautiful voice. The couple moved to Amarillo in 1997, a few years after Red’s retirement from Chamberlain Motor Company. They rejoined Polk Street United Methodist Church where they had been after the war. They were very involved members until Red’s illness in 2009.
Genevieve and Red were very active in the community, especially Amarillo. She gave generously of her time and resources to numerous civic, artistic, and charitable organizations. She was a great advocate for the Panhandle and its people. She was also very dedicated to Southwestern University where she was awarded Distinguished Alumna of the Year in 1981 and served 12 years on the Board of Trustees. Over the years, Genevieve recruited more than 135 students from this area to attend Southwestern University. She and Red were awarded the first Southwestern University Medal for Outstanding Contributions in 1999. In 2007, one of the new residence halls was named after her.
It cannot be overstated how involved Genevieve was in the community for many years. She was recognized for her philanthropy and outstanding support by numerous organizations and served on the boards of many including the Amarillo Symphony and Guild, The Lone Star Ballet, Amarillo Opera and Amarillo Museum of Art to name a few. She was a Founding Board Member of the Harrington Cancer Center Circle of Friends. She was also very active for many years with the Donley County Unit of the American Cancer Society and was a member of several other local organizations as well.
She was recognized for Philanthropy by the Amarillo College Foundation and received the Community Service Award of Alpha Phi Omega, the Texas Panhandle Award for Distinguished Service from West Texas State University, a Susan G. Komen Foundation Race for the Cure Award, Outstanding Philanthropy Award of the Texas Plains Chapter of Fundraising Professionals and a Golden Nail Award for Extraordinary Support of the Fine Arts. She was a generous donor to both the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America as well as many other worthy causes. One of her proudest achievements was in 2007 when she received the Pioneer Spirit Award from the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society.
Genevieve and Red were a delightful and gracious couple with many friends and acquaintances. They truly enjoyed engaging with others and attended many social events over the years. They loved to travel and touched on every continent except Antarctica. In keeping with her faith, she made thre trips to the Holy Land. She was a wonderful and loving mother, grandmother and aunt who went out of her way to encourage and support her family members.
Mrs. Caldwell is preceded in death by her parents, her brother, and her husband of 66 years, who sadly passed away in 2010.
Genevieve is survived by her daughter, Mary Louise Nahon and husband Michael C. of New York City; son, Dr. Turner M. Caldwell III and wife Trina of Amarillo; granddaughters and great grandchildren, Dorothy G. Caldwell, her husband David E. Abeyta and son Owen C. Abeyta of Austin; Margaret C. “Maggie” Savage, her husband John M. and children Amelia J. and Emmett C. Savage; her sister, Louise B. Carvey of Ft. Worth; and sister-in-law, Paula B. Britt of Amarillo as well as a number of nieces and nephews.
The family would like to thank BSA Hospice of the Southwest for their wonderful care in her last few years as well as the loving home caregivers, especially Hazel Link who was with the family over 10 years, helping first with Red and then Genevieve.
Genevieve B. Caldwell was a loving, gentle, kind, thoughtful, uplifting and dedicated lady. She was always optimistic, looking for the best in everyone and living a truly exemplary life. She was an outstandingly generous member of the community and will be greatly missed by her family, friends and those who knew her.
Share condolences at www.schoolerfuneralhome.com
Phillip Randy Wiggins
Phillip Randy Wiggins, 63, of Pampa died Thursday, February 6, 2020, in Amarillo.
Services were held on Sunday, February 9, 2020, in the First Baptist Church in Hedley with Rev. Bruce Howard, officiating. Burial will follow in Rowe Cemetery in Hedley.
Arrangements are under the direction of Robertson Funeral Directors of Clarendon.
Phillip was born October 15, 1956, in Groom to W.B. and Geraldine Wiggins. He grew up in Hedley and was a graduate of Hedley High School. After High School, he went to West Texas State University where he graduated with a Bachelors in Accounting. He had been a resident of Wheeler County for 15 years and had worked for W.B. Supply and later Beck Supply in Wheeler prior to his illness. He was a Mason and was a member of the First Baptist Church in Hedley.
He was preceded in death by his parents.
He is survived by his two brothers, Billy Wiggins and wife Tobytha of Wheeler and Bobby Joe Wiggins and wife Cheryl of Lakeview; several nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, great great nieces and nephews, and other extended family.
The family request memorials be sent to Rowe Cemetery Association or the First Baptist Church in Hedley.
Sign the online guestbook at www.robertsonfuneral.com
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