A Republican congressional candidate is coming under fire over his new public appearance as a cowboy.
“Fake Texan makes fake video of fake bull ride,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) tweeted in response to Dan Rodimer’s video.
Rodimer, a former professional wrestler, is campaigning for a House of Representatives seat in Texas.
Gaetz continued, “We already have enough phonies in congress. Texans, please send this Nevada man back to his true home state (where he lost two prior elections). Texas shouldn’t import its congressmen. Big Dan is all hat, no cattle.”
Rodimer ran for Congress in Nevada last year, when he said he was a “small businessman, a family man, living in the suburbs.” He lost the race in Nevada in November 2020.
Now, Rodimer is pitching himself as a former professional wrestler, politician, and bull rider.
“Send BIG DAN to Congress to put an END to Nancy Pelosi’s BULL!” Rodimer wrote in a tweet along with a campaign video.
Fake Texan makes fake video of fake bull ride.
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) March 26, 2021
We already have enough phonies in congress.
Texans, please send this Nevada man back to his true home state (where he lost two prior elections).
Texas shouldn’t import its congressmen.
Big Dan is all hat, no cattle. https://t.co/CcGZsUG4kv
Rodimer is pushing back against criticism, including of his body double during the bull ride in his recent campaign video.
“You know, we have an old saying here in Texas — ‘I may not have been born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could.’ And that’s why we came back,” he told CNN.
Touching on the apparent differences in his voice between last year’s and this year’s video, Rodimer said, “In regards to my voice, well, as you can hear right now, it’s gone. It’s been gone for the past three weeks. And between the two videos that they put back-to-back, you know if you look at them, they were selectively edited. If you watch the whole thing, you’re going to hear my voice it’s just like it is right now.”
"Fake Texan makes fake video of fake bull ride."
— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) March 30, 2021
GOP candidate called out for new cowboy persona in his campaign for Congress. pic.twitter.com/0BojvOAAmE
Rodimer is running in the May special election to fill the seat left by Rep. Ron Wright (R-Texas), who died after being hospitalized with COVID-19. He also was battling lung cancer. The former lawmaker’s widow, Susan Wright, is also among the many seeking to fill the seat.
