GRAPEVINE, TX – On a cold spring morning in this tony Dallas suburb, dozens of activists had heard the call. They had read the posts; they understood the stakes: America was in crisis, facing a threat from within. It was time for action, and time to take a 5 a.m. bus to the state capital to protest Sharia law. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the group that organized the trip, the True Texas Project, part of the “antidemocratic hard right.” Its leaders have expressed fears of white genocide; the woman who funded the trip runs a right-wing-themed cell phone company called Patriot Mobile.

This handful of activists, composed of a range of people — from retirees to Texans in their 30s — is part of a statewide campaign against Islam. In primaries and now the runoffs for the midterms, the Texas GOP placed a bet on using rhetoric about the supposed threat posed by Islam as a means to scare and motivate voters. It’s paid off. Almost 95 percent voted in favor of a proposition on the Texas GOP primary ballot telling the state to “ban Sharia law.” The prospect of being weak on Islam has become the subject of intra-Republican Party attacks, and, increasingly, inspired repression by state officials. Now, some argue that the party can take that strategy to the national level, making it a theme for the midterm elections in the fall.

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