Kimberley Yancy has a message for America. The feared policies of Project 20225 are already wreaking havoc in LaMarque, TX where Yancy serves as a city council member.
“They’re already in effect in Galveston County (home to LaMarque). Come here. We are Project 2025,” states Yancy, who asserts she and other elected officials have suffered harassment, including being followed, slandered in LaMarque media outlets and much more.
LaMarque sits between Houston and Galveston. According to U.S. Census data, its 20,000 residents are diverse: Black (29%), Hispanic (29%), white (35%), and Other (6%).
LaMarque brags about being Galveston County’s second-fastest growing city. But Yancy insists harassment is also growing there.
MAGA harassment
“A few of our elected democratic leaders, Black and white, are being targeted by this very dangerous group (MAGA Republicans),” said Yancy, the educational state chair for the NAACP and member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
She says the harassment includes false accusations of stealing city funds, threatening emails to city officials and their children, a bevy of frivolous lawsuits that the city has had to fight, and more.
“My dog was poisoned back in January of 2022. That’s when we knew we had to take this seriously. My pool man caught a man going through my trash on the side of my house one early morning. I was ‘SWATed’ on the night Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination [Being SWATed involves someone making a false claim of dangerous illegal activity at their target’s home and calling for SWAT officers to investigate].
Additionally, the person Yancy and other area elected officials identify as the “ringleader” of the harassment efforts, fellow city council member Joseph Lowry, according to her, has raised the stakes in his “assault.”
“This young man, basically, put out a cash reward on me, which I amount to a bounty… seeking any information that will lead to my arrest to send me to prison. It went from a $2,500 award all the way up to $25,000. And that was two years ago. He routinely puts out these bounties, basically, to have people send him information that will send me to prison.”
And Yancy is far from alone in charging Lowry with harassment.
Area homebuilder Carl “CJ” Beard posted a message on social media about Lowry.
“This Radical Racist Republican must be stopped. He’s a threat to every minority man, woman and child in Galveston County. He’s been given the green light by the Galveston County Republican Party to disrupt, threaten and slander every prominent Black politician in the county!!”
The day after Lowry won his seat on city council Beard received a mailed package he says looked like a pipe bomb. And though Beard has no verifiable proof that the object was sent to him by Lowry, he said, “I know in my heart it was him.”
She also said a local Hispanic activist, Madeline Salazar, had been harassed by Lowry.
At press time, Lowry had yet to respond to Defender requests for a statement.
Coming to a city near you
“The average American needs to be aware of this far-right extremism that is happening in our local governments, especially in the state of Texas,” added Yancy, who believes similar efforts will happen nationwide.
“Though Jan. 6 for these extremists was unsuccessful, their strategy now is to attack local governments. [They do this] by sending in excessive public information requests, defamation, harassing families. It is an outright Gestapo-like type of regime.”
Toll taken
Yancy insists a small group is perpetrating the harassment. But their efforts have taken their toll.
Yancy has alerted the Texas Rangers, FBI, and the U.S. Department of Justice regarding this issue. As a precaution, the city installed security cameras around her home.
“[Recently], I felt like I just need to resign, because I can’t lose myself behind this. I’m a mother, I’m a grandmother. I’ve shed many tears. It makes you angry… I think what happens with people, especially Black women. People don’t see our humanity, and they expect us to take so much… they don’t understand our humanity, and that we hurt and bleed. So, sometimes I have to shed tears to let people know this is serious.”
