The career politician attacked a pledge he tried to sign, touted endorsers who back the movement, and lied about every single claim in his TV ad. All of them.
With just two weeks until the March 3 Republican primary for Texas Senate District 3, Trent Ashby’s campaign has gone to television with an attack ad targeting his opponent, Rhonda Ward — and it is built on lies from start to finish.
The ad, now airing across the SD-3 television market, claims that Ward signed “a radical pledge to have Texas leave the United States, seceding from Trump’s America.” It claims the Texas First Pledge “rejects the US Constitution, and Social Security benefits, and dishonors veterans.” It claims Ward’s major donor runs a company “headquartered in China.” The ad wraps itself in Donald Trump and American flags while delivering these claims in the kind of ominous narrator voice usually reserved for movie trailers about serial killers.
There’s just one problem: every major claim in the ad is provably, demonstrably, embarrassingly false. And the context behind the ad — which Ashby is desperately hoping you never learn — is even more damaging than the lies themselves.
Trent Ashby wants to be a State Senator so badly that he’s willing to lie to your face on television to get there. Does he think the voters of Senate District 3 are stupid? Because that’s the only explanation for an ad this dishonest.
Let’s rip it apart.
Lie #1: “Ward signed a radical pledge to have Texas leave the United States”
The Texas First Pledge does not commit anyone to support Texas leaving the United States. Period. Full stop. This is either a lie or proof that Ashby can’t read.
The pledge commits candidates to letting Texans vote on the question. A referendum. A democratic process. Some pledge signers have publicly said they would personally vote “no” on independence if it were on the ballot. They signed the pledge because they believe the people of Texas — not career politicians like Trent Ashby — should make that decision.
This commitment to a referendum is backed by two planks of the Republican Party of Texas platform — which explicitly call for legislation to give Texans a vote on independence. Not vague language. Not an implication. The RPT platform calls for the Texas Legislature to pass a bill letting the people of Texas vote on whether to become an independent nation. That is the platform Ashby claims to run on. So either Ashby is calling his own party’s official platform “radical,” or he’s hoping you don’t know what’s in it.
Which is it, Trent?
Lie #2: “Ward’s pledge rejects the US Constitution”
The United States Constitution is not mentioned — not once, not anywhere — in the Texas First Pledge. This isn’t a matter of interpretation. It’s a matter of literacy. The words are not there.
The pledge references Article 1, Section 2 of the Texas Constitution, which guarantees the right of the people “to alter, reform or abolish their government.” That’s the Texas Constitution. The one Trent Ashby placed his hand on a Bible and swore a sacred oath to uphold when he took office as a State Representative.
So let’s be clear about what happened here: Ashby swore to uphold the Texas Constitution, then ran an ad attacking someone else for referencing the exact same document. He either lied in his oath of office or he’s lying now. Pick one.
Lie #3: “Rejects Social Security benefits”
This one isn’t spin. It isn’t an exaggeration. It’s a fabrication pulled from thin air.
Social Security is not mentioned in the Texas First Pledge. The pledge is two paragraphs long. A child could read it in thirty seconds. The words “Social Security” do not appear. Ashby’s ad team invented this claim out of nothing and put it on television to frighten senior citizens into voting for their guy.
That’s not politics. That’s predatory.
Lie #4: “Dishonors veterans”
Let’s talk about who is lecturing whom on veterans.
Trent Ashby — a career banker and politician who has never served a single day in uniform — has the audacity to claim that the Texas First Pledge “dishonors veterans.” Meanwhile, the men who actually wore the uniform, went to war, and bled for this country have signed it.
Lt. Col. Allen West (Ret.), U.S. Army — decorated combat veteran and former Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas — is a pledge signer. Lt. Col. Pete “Doc” Chambers (Ret.), a U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret with 39 years of service, a Purple Heart recipient, a Bronze Star recipient, a combat-wounded warrior who earned his nickname saving soldiers on the battlefield, is a pledge signer and a candidate for Governor of Texas. Retired Army combat veteran David Lowe, a non-commissioned officer who served his country before serving his community, is a pledge signer. U.S. Air Force veteran Eric Riddle is a pledge signer.
These are men who put their lives on the line defending the very principles of self-determination and self-governance that the Texas First Pledge upholds. They didn’t just tolerate this pledge. They sought it out and put their names on it because it reflects the values they swore an oath to defend.
And Trent Ashby — who never took that oath, never wore that uniform, never put himself in harm’s way for this country — thinks he’s qualified to tell a Purple Heart recipient what “dishonors” veterans?
You know what actually dishonors veterans? A man who never served using their sacrifice as a political prop in a television ad full of lies. Wrapping himself in their courage to sell a fabrication. Invoking their blood to cover for his own dishonesty. That’s what Trent Ashby did. Every veteran in SD-3 should see this ad for exactly what it is: a career politician who never served exploiting the service of those who did because he has nothing true to say.
Lie #5: “Company is headquartered in China”
The ad claims Rhonda Ward’s major donor runs a company “headquartered in China.” This is, like everything else in this ad, a lie.
Monolithic Power Systems is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington. It is an American company. It trades on the NASDAQ. It was founded in the United States in 1997. This is not hidden information. It’s on the company’s website, their SEC filings, their LinkedIn page, and Wikipedia.
Ashby’s campaign couldn’t be bothered to spend ten seconds on Google before putting this claim on television. Or they did check and ran it anyway, betting that voters wouldn’t. Either way, it tells you everything you need to know about how much respect Trent Ashby has for the intelligence of SD-3 voters.
Now for the Part That Ends Ashby’s Credibility
The lies are damning enough. But the context behind them is what turns this from a bad ad into a career-defining act of political fraud.
Ashby tried to sign this pledge.
When Trent Ashby was sitting in the Texas House, he was in direct conversation with TNM leadership in his district about signing the Texas First Pledge. Not casual contact. Direct discussions about putting his name on the same document he’s now calling radical, anti-Constitutional, and anti-veteran on television.
He didn’t sign it. But here’s the part that should end this conversation: he never raised a single one of these objections. Not one. He didn’t say it rejected the Constitution. He didn’t say it dishonored veterans. He didn’t say it was radical. He had every opportunity to voice these concerns to the people asking him to sign, and he said nothing — because these objections didn’t exist until his campaign consultants invented them for a TV spot.
This isn’t a man with a principled disagreement. This is a man who was open to signing the pledge when it was politically convenient, and now smears it because a different calculation requires a different lie.
That’s not leadership. That’s cowardice with a media budget.
His own endorsers back the movement he’s attacking.
This is where it gets humiliating.
Ashby touts endorsements from Alicia Davis and Rusty Kuciemba. Davis is a Texas First Pledge signer. Kuciemba is a registered supporter of the Texas Nationalist Movement and previously served as a County Coordinator for the organization.
Let that sink in. Ashby is running ads calling the Texas First Pledge radical, anti-American, and anti-veteran — while parading the endorsements of people who signed the pledge or actively worked for the movement behind it.
Did he not vet his own endorsers? Did he know and not care? Or did he assume nobody would notice? None of these answers make him look like anything but a fraud.
Abbott and Trump endorse pledge signers.
Texas First Pledge signers have received endorsements from Governor Greg Abbott and President Donald Trump. If this pledge “rejects the Constitution” and “dishonors veterans,” then by Ashby’s own logic, the Governor and the President are endorsing anti-American candidates.
Go ahead, Trent. Stand behind that claim. We’ll wait.
Casino money is propping Ashby up.
While Ashby’s ad breathlessly asks who Rhonda Ward “answers to,” the candidate has a far more uncomfortable question to dodge.
A pro-casino PAC funded by Las Vegas Sands billionaire Miriam Adelson sent mailers supporting Ashby’s Senate campaign. This is the same casino empire that poured millions of dollars into backing former House Speaker Dade Phelan and his allies — the same Phelan that Ashby was closely aligned with when he threw his hat in for the Speaker’s race before backing out.
Ashby issued a statement “distancing” himself from the casino mailers. How noble. The mailers still went out. The money was still spent. The voters still got pro-Ashby propaganda funded by a Las Vegas gambling billionaire landing in their mailboxes.
So when Trent Ashby asks who a candidate “answers to,” maybe the voters of SD-3 should start asking him the same question.
The Bottom Line
Trent Ashby’s ad contains five major claims. Every single one is false. Not misleading. Not exaggerated. Not taken out of context. False.
He attacked a pledge he explored signing himself. He attacked a movement his own endorsers support. He attacked a commitment that is the official position of the Republican Party of Texas — whose platform explicitly calls for legislation giving Texans a vote on independence. He attacked a provision of the Texas Constitution that he swore a sacred oath to uphold. And he did all of this while a casino-funded PAC was spending money to put him in office — in an ad that couldn’t even get the headquarters location of a publicly traded American company right.
This isn’t a Senate campaign. It’s an insult to every voter in Senate District 3.
The Republican primary is on March 3. Read the pledge yourself at taketexasback.com/pledge. It’s two paragraphs. Then decide who’s been telling you the truth — and who’s been counting on you not to check.
The full text of the Texas First Pledge is publicly available at taketexasback.com/pledge. It is two paragraphs long.
