Are we sure this isn’t all just performance art?
Local, state and federal officials have called for separate inquiries a week after a Houston Chronicle investigation detailed how a group of people from out-of-state was moving to wrest political control of a sparsely populated, but oil-rich West Texas county.
Their leader, Malcolm Tanner, calls his movement the Melanated People of Power. In numerous social media posts, he has declared his intention to take over Loving County’s government by moving in enough of his supporters, who he has attracted there by promising free homes and a $5,000 monthly stipend.
“Not too often do you see a brother that looks like me come into the county and take the entire county over,” he said in a July TikTok post. “Well, I have taken the entire county over, out here in Loving County, Texas. When these elections hit in 2026, we’re going to wipe the board. Everybody that I selected will be elected.”
News of the plan has alarmed Texas officials. “What is happening in Loving County should concern every Texan,” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy said in a written statement. In a separate Oct. 6 letter, Roy, a Republican whose Hill County-area district does not include Loving County, asked the U.S. Attorney’s office to investigate.
“We write to request immediate action and coordination among agencies to address serious election irregularities and threats of manipulation in Loving County,” added state Sen. Kevin Sparks, R-Midland, and Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, in an Oct. 3 letter to Secretary of State Jane Nelson, whose office oversees elections, and Attorney General Ken Paxton. “We urge your offices to use all available authority to investigate and address election fraud in Loving County.”
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Paxton suggested he was already on it. “My office is taking a very serious look at this situation,” he wrote on Oct. 1.
District Attorney Sarah Stogner, whose sprawling West Texas jurisdiction includes Loving County, said that her office, too, had begun scrutinizing Tanner, who according to public records is based in Indiana. “We are actively investigating a plethora of potential crimes into what he is doing,” she said. Tanner has not been charged with any crime.
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In their letters, Roy, Sparks and Landgraf also cited what they said were long-standing criminal and electoral problems in Loving County that extended beyond any new challenges Tanner may present to the community. Some of the county’s problems are self-made.
“The county is facing increased interstate theft operations, including oilfield thefts, human trafficking and other illicit activity” often tied to gangs, Roy wrote, adding that local law enforcement hasn’t received enough support to pursue the crimes.
Meanwhile, “multiple court rulings from recent election cycles have confirmed illegal voting, fraudulent registrations, and improper election conduct,” Sparks and Landgraf wrote. “Repeat offenders have been identified across multiple cycles, with many illegal votes in 2022 and 2024 directly tied to county officials.” Landgraf referred questions to Sparks, who did not respond to requests for an interview.
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The roiling political waters also have contributed to the defunding of local law enforcement agencies. Last year, county commissioners, whose members had been sparring with the sole constable and sheriff, cut the sheriff’s salary in half and eliminated two of his six deputy positions. They slashed the constable’s salary from $126,000 to $30,000.
Police say the cuts make crime fighting a challenge. But even when deputies arrest people, the county has struggled to prosecute cases, said Stogner, who took office in January.
At the time, she said, Loving County had dozens of cases pending, some of them years old. Many had languished because of the fraught local politics, as well as the difficulty of convening juries in a jurisdiction of a few dozen residents.
“It has been a struggle getting a grand jury seated in Loving County,” she said. “And I don’t think they’ve had a criminal jury trial there in the past 30 years.”
See here for the background. First of all, Chip Roy, Loving County has plenty of money, as this story also noted. It’s drowning in money, which is the single biggest reason why its local politics are so effed up. They did indeed defund their police, which despite being illegal in Texas is a subject that no one in state leadership seems to want to address, for some odd reason. So unless you’re about to propose deploying the Texas National Guard, where they might actually be of use in dealing with a crime wave and a dysfunctional local government, please spare me any talk about their local law enforcement not getting enough support to pursue their crimes.
But all of this is just a sideshow. The real question is why does Loving County need to exist as its own political entity? Loving County used to be part of Reeves County, its neighbor to the southwest, which has a much more normal population of around 12,000. Why not just disband it as a county and merge it back into Reeves? Seems to me that would solve a whole lot of these problems. Who’s with me on this?