Conservative Civil War Brews In Key Texas Oil Town As Election Approaches

The local Republican establishment in a major Texas oil town has turned against the city’s conservative mayor over his focus on social issues and alleged neglect of bread-and-butter municipal problems.

Javier Joven, the owner of a construction business in Odessa, Texas, was elected as the city’s mayor in 2020 and since then has taken a hardline stance on issues like transgenderism and abortion, according to local media reports. Joven’s critics, backed by the local media and Republican Party, charge that prioritizing issues like those is both unprecedented in city politics and diverting focus away from the city’s infrastructure and commercial needs. Supporters of Joven, however, have defended his record on kitchen-table issues and argued that his more conservative approach to governance is in line with the beliefs of his constituents.

Joven and his allies face reelection challenges in November, with their opponents having secured the support of local Republican leadership. Odessa is located in the Permian Basin of Texas, which produces roughly 40% of the nation’s oil, giving municipal politics in the city of just over 100,000 people considerable national implications.

“We have an incredibly conservative base here, I always tell people there are more churches than there are trees in Odessa,” a resident familiar with the comings and goings of city politics told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Past city leaders “didn’t really share that same attribute, that’s not the way they wanted to lead, they wanted to stay out of issues that matter to conservatives” like insulating children from being introduced to liberal ideas about sexuality, the resident continued.

Council member Steven Thompson, one of Joven’s primary detractors in city government, for instance, voted against a resolution that banned abortion in Odessa except to remove an ectopic pregnancy or to otherwise save the life of a mother, Texas Monthly reported. The ordinance was largely symbolic as abortion was already heavily restricted in Texas at the time.

Beyond complaints about infrastructure and the economy, there is also an ideological dimension to the backlash against Joven.

Craig Stoker, the executive director of the city’s Meals on Wheels chapter, is running to replace a pro-Joven city councilor. Stoker voted in a Democratic primary as recent as 2010, records show, and has made social media posts defending both President Joe Biden and a gay pride display in the city.

Cal Hendrick, who is challenging Joven for mayor, says that his family “support and attend” Connections Christian Church, a progressive congregation in Odessa with a female pastor.

“Ain’t nobody got time to judge when we’re just trying to love,” the church’s website reads. “Men and women serve equally in all capacities in our church. LGBT people too.”

Dawn Weaks, one of the pastors, has acknowledged that her church is “political and progressive,” preaching against restrictions on abortion, advocating for migrants and railing against tax cuts, the Texas Tribune reported.

Despite Stoker and Hendrick’s liberal attributes, both have managed to secure endorsements from a significant chunk of the county Republican Party’s precinct chairs. One local Republican leader was caught on camera saying “I won the Republican race by 72% but I got no problem with Democrats in my local government.”

Explicitly conservative moves like Odessa’s abortion resolution began after the city elected two additional pro-Joven city councilors in November 2022, Texas Monthly reported. Following that, Joven has utilized his five-to-two majority on the council to hire ideologically aligned city staff to help push his right-wing agenda.

Thompson, who identifies as a Republican, explained his vote against the council’s abortion ordinance to a local news outlet by asking a rhetorical question: “Why do we need to get involved?”

“Let’s go build a sports complex,” he continued. “Let’s pave roads.”

“Social issues are really critical,” Joven said at a mayoral debate earlier this year. “We’ve lost prayer in school, we’ve lost the Ten Commandments … This is the fight that’s going on, we can’t put our heads in the sand.”

Thompson’s line of critique is common among Joven’s detractors, who argue that the city government is losing sight of its primary duties under the mayor’s leadership.

“We’ve got to end the divisiveness at city hall,” Hendrick, the regional insurance director challenging Joven for mayor, said in a campaign video. “It just gets in the way of solving our problems and you and I both know we have plenty of problems to solve. From trash that’s not being picked up to understaffed fire and police departments, missed audits that impact our bond rating, dangerous and poorly maintained streets and even something as simple as providing clean and reliable drinking water to our citizens.”

An Odessa resident who supports Joven told the DCNF that attacks like the one levied by Hendrick are opportunistic as many of the problems they highlight pre-date the mayor’s time in office.

Social media posts dating back years before Joven’s tenure record residents complaining about the smell and taste of Odessa’s water, the city grappled with contaminated groundwater prior to Joven and has experienced drought.

Proponents of Joven point to Odessa’s move in July to approve a $25 million investment intended to improve the city’s water infrastructure by replacing water lines and valves. In addition to repairs to water lines, Odessa has also been working on constructing a new water treatment plant under Joven. Odessans, however, faced widespread water outages under Joven in 2022, according to local media.

“We have an aging water infrastructure in Odessa that we’ve neglected for decades,” Joven said in a press release. “Not taking action simply isn’t an option.”

Opponents of Joven charge that the mayor hasn’t acted quickly enough to address the problem.

“The mayor continues to blame past administrations for infrastructure problems, despite being mayor for nearly four years and having previously served on city council for another four years,” Hendrick’s campaign website reads. “The city budgeted millions of dollars to repair and replace some of our 500 miles of water lines and valves. Yet only a small percentage of it has actually been spent during Javier Joven’s time in office.”

While the city under Joven has ordered new garbage trucks and police vehicles, his critics argue that it isn’t enough to solve the city’s issues with waste collection or public safety.

The pro-Joven resident suggested that the push to oust Joven could be motivated by a desire to control the city’s financial resources on part of the Republican establishment for the purposes of self-dealing. An insurance brokerage formerly owned by Thompson, the anti-Joven councilor and now run by his son, for instance, secured a decades-long city contract, according to Texas Monthly. Though Thompson denies any ethical lapses, documents obtained by a local news website show that he failed to file a conflict of interest disclosure before voting for the contract to be awarded to his son’s company.

Joven has criticized his opponents for pushing crony capitalism and questionable no-bid contracts. Despite that, Joven in early 2023 directed a six-figure no-bid contract to a consulting firm that his opponents alleged would assist him in replacing city staff with loyalists, according to Texas Monthly. Joven’s aggressive leadership led to a considerable exodus of staff, including the assistant city manager and the fire chief. With his allies on the city council, he also fired a city manager.

Despite the strong coalition opposing Joven, some of his supporters are confident that he will survive reelection, arguing that many people supporting him may be reluctant to publicly support him for fear of social or professional backlash.

Joven, Hendrick, Thompson and Stoker did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.