Matthew Daniel Rinaldi (born April 11, 1975) is an American attorney and politician serving as the chairman of the
Republican Party of Texas
The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in the state of Texas. It is currently chaired by Matt Rinaldi, succeeding Allen West who resigned prior to the expiration of his term to run for governo ...
. Rinaldi was a member of the
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abou ...
for district 115 in
Dallas County from 2015 to 2019 when he was defeated by Democrat Julie Johnson.
Early life and education
Rinaldi was born in
Bridgeport, Connecticut. He graduated from
James Madison University
James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...
in
Harrisonburg, Virginia
Harrisonburg is an independent city in the Shenandoah Valley region of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is also the county seat of the surrounding Rockingham County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. At the 2 ...
, at which he drew national attention for his successful effort to have the
Pledge of Allegiance
The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is a patriotic recited verse that promises allegiance to the flag of the United States and the republic of the United States of America. The first version, with a text different from the one used ...
recited prior to meetings of the student government association.
He graduated in 2001 with a
Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...
degree from
Boston University School of Law
Boston University School of Law (Boston Law or BU Law) is the law school of Boston University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top law schools in the United States and considered an el ...
.
Career
After law school, Rinaldi became a litigation associate with the
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
office of
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1890, the firm includes approximately 1,400 attorneys and 1,000 staff located in 20 offices around the world, including North ...
.
Texas House of Representative
In 2012, Rinaldi placed third in the Republican
primary election
Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...
for the 115th district of the
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abou ...
. On March 4, 2014 the one-term incumbent,
Bennett Ratliff, narrowly lost re-nomination to Rinaldi, who received 4,167 votes (50.6 percent) to Ratliff's 4,075 votes (49.4 percent). Rinaldi's 2014 campaign received support from the
Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009. Members of the movement called for lower taxes and for a reduction of the national debt and federal budget defic ...
,
Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, Texas
Eagle Forum
Eagle Forum is a conservative interest group in the United States founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972 and is the parent organization that also includes the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund and the Eagle Forum PAC. The Eagle Forum h ...
and Texas Right to Life, among others.
In the Republican primary held on March 1, 2016, incumbent Rinaldi held off the challenge from Ratliff who tried unsuccessfully to regain his seat. The voters favored Rinaldi, 8,804 to 7,668 (53.45 to 46.55 percent). Rinaldi narrowly held on to his House seat in the general election held on November 8, 2016. He polled 29,987 votes (50.9 percent) to 28,939 (49.1 percent) for the
Democrat Dorotha M. Ocker.
84th legislative session
During the 84th legislative session, Rinaldi served on the Agriculture & Livestock committee and the Business & Industry committee. He joint- and co-authored successful pieces of legislation that were signed into law, including: HB 11 (authorizing additional troopers for border security and strengthening smuggling laws), and HB 283 (increasing government transparency by requiring certain governmental bodies to make audio and video recordings of open meetings available online).
Rinaldi fought to eliminate or minimize the effects of the
Robin Hood plan
The Robin Hood plan was a media nickname given to legislation enacted by the U.S. state of Texas in 1993 to provide court-mandated equitable school financing for all school districts in the state, in response to the Texas Supreme Court's ruling ...
on Texas public school districts with HB 945 and HB 1411.
Rinaldi co-authored legislation that would repeal in-state tuition and end welfare benefits for undocumented immigrants as well as penalize businesses that knowingly hire undocumented immigrants.
Rinaldi was rated the number one conservative in the Texas House by a
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universit ...
study that drew on the 1,138 non-lopsided roll call votes taken during the 2015 regular session.
85th legislative session
During the 85th legislative session, Rinaldi served on the Agriculture & Livestock committee and the Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence committee.
Rinaldi was, according to the ''
Dallas Morning News
''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the '' Galvest ...
'', "instrumental in strengthening the punishments in the
sanctuary cities ban," and authored and passed into law measures that: remove from office public officials who adopt sanctuary city policies, require government contractors and subcontractors to use e-verify, revoke pensions of teachers convicted of committing sex crimes against students, allow churches to utilize volunteers to provide security services without risking heavy fines, and prohibit any taxpayer money from going to Planned Parenthood. He also re-introduced legislation he had previously proposed to end the Robin Hood school finance system.
In May 2017, Rinaldi called
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration th ...
officers on protesters inside the Capitol building. Rinaldi claimed that he called ICE after seeing individuals holding protest signs indicating they were illegal immigrants.
An altercation ensued; according to multiple Hispanic Democratic lawmakers, Rinaldi got into their faces during the dispute and cursed at them. Video shot from the House floor showed both Republicans and Democrats pushing each other. Rinaldi claimed that Representative
Poncho Nevárez threatened his life during the incident, which Nevárez denied. Democratic lawmaker
Justin Rodriguez claimed that Rinaldi threatened to "put a bullet in one of my colleagues’ heads"; Rinaldi did not deny making the statement, but claimed it was made in self defense.
Rinaldi's actions were widely seen as having a racial motivation. After the incident, state representative
Ramon Romero Jr.
Ramon Romero Jr. (born November 13, 1973) is a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives. He has represented District 90 since 2015. In the 2014 primary election, Romero defeated long-time Democratic representative Lon Burnam. Romer ...
said Rinaldi had "racially profiled every single person that was in the gallery today."
During Rinaldi's second term, he remained ranked as the most conservative legislator (tied with
Briscoe Cain and
Jonathan Stickland) in Austin according to a
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universit ...
's study roll-call vote analysis drawing on 1,460 non-lopsided roll-call votes taken during the 2017 regular session. He was also named one of the Top 10 Legislators by the Conservative advocacy group
Empower Texans, as well as one of the Top 10 Worst Legislators by ''
Texas Monthly
''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. ''Texas Monthly'' was founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy and has been published by Emmis Publishing, L.P. since 1998 and i ...
''. His voting record earned a 100 score from conservative advocacy group
Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.
86th legislative session campaign
Rinaldi lost his state House seat in 2018. Rinaldi was unseated by Democrat
Julie Johnson, whose campaign included volunteers that Rinaldi had called ICE on in May 2017 at the Texas Capitol. Receiving 24,512 votes (43.21 percent) versus Johnson's 32,214 votes (56.79 percent), Rinaldi received the lowest vote percentage of any House incumbent in Dallas County.
Republican Party of Texas
Rinaldi was elected Chairman of the
Republican Party of Texas
The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in the state of Texas. It is currently chaired by Matt Rinaldi, succeeding Allen West who resigned prior to the expiration of his term to run for governo ...
on July 11, 2021, to replace out-going chair, former Congressman
Allen West. In his first weeks as Chairman, Rinaldi had established a reputation of being more collegial than West had been.
Personal life
He and his wife Corley, married since 2010, attend St. Ann Catholic Parish
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in
Coppell.
Election history
;2018
;2016
;2014
References
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rinaldi, Matt
1975 births
21st-century American politicians
Activists from Texas
American politicians of Italian descent
Boston University School of Law alumni
Catholics from Texas
James Madison University alumni
Living people
Members of the Texas House of Representatives
People associated with Gibson Dunn
People from Irving, Texas
Tea Party movement activists
Texas lawyers
Texas Republican state chairmen
American lawyers and judges of Italian descent