The city of Mesquite has become an unlikely battleground in the fight over how much longer and how deeply the United States can commit to aiding Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
This is because of a giant new arms manufacturing plant planned for downtown Mesquite, which was approved by the city council in May. The General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems factory is expected to provide at least 125 local jobs and produce thousands of 155-millimeter shells of ammo, which Ukraine desperately needs for its howitzers, as reported by The New York Times.
Despite the factory’s promise of jobs, “America First” Republican lawmakers are not convinced that shoveling more money into the Ukraine crucible is worth it.
The faction of Republicans stands against GOP colleagues in the state like Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who is among the most strident advocates for backing Ukraine with whatever it needs to defeat Russia. McCaul is reportedly scheduled to meet with Ukraine President Zelenskyy during his visit to the UN General Assembly currently taking place in New York City.
That group includes Rep. Lance Gooden, in whose district the munitions factory is being planned. Gooden and a group of dozens of his GOP colleagues have opposed more funding for Ukraine, voting to hold back $300 million in military aid for Kyiv from the 2024 defense budget, as well as prohibiting future allocations.
The war-weary Republicans are blocking a request by President Biden for an additional $24 billion for the war effort in Ukraine, per the NYT.
Lawmakers like Gooden have even persuaded Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to reverse his earlier support for funding Ukraine. McCarthy is now pushing a $16 billion aid package for disaster-struck states along with funds for domestic border security, the NYT reported.
The faction’s insistence on prioritizing local issues over spending funds in faraway wars — or what detractors often call isolationism — is not limited to the immediate war in Ukraine. Gooden and 10 other Texas Republicans also voted against a nonbinding resolution to reaffirm “unequivocal support” for NATO in the early months of Russia’s 2022 invasion over language they said might compromise U.S. sovereignty, as reported by The Texas Tribune at the time.
At the local level, some Mesquite city officials and business community leaders have expressed frustration with their Congressman’s stance, even as some acknowledge Gooden has valid reasons to want to end U.S. involvement in the war.
“We don’t want to say we’re profiting off of a conflict like that — we’re not feeling any of the effects of war,” said Mesquite City Manager Cliff Keheley told the NYT. “But at the same time, it’s a global scale of the economy, and that generates a need.”
The president of the Mesquite Chamber of Commerce, Alexander Helgar, was less charitable towards lawmakers who would back policies that would forfeit potential jobs for their constituents.
“I would love for them to talk about, ‘Hey, this will create manufacturing jobs in the U.S., this will create advanced manufacturing jobs in the U.S.,’” Helgar told the NYT.
Referring to Gooden’s stance, Helgar said the representative was “voting against your constituents, at that point” and “literally saying no to the people you’re representing.”
The split amongst Texas Republicans appears to reflect that of the general population on support for Ukraine, which after initially registering strong support has steadily waned and is now nearly evenly divided, as reported by The Dallas Express.
