Of all the reasons for any Texas Tea Party popularity, your “reason” must have been a well kept secret or maybe I’ve been living in some other parallel “Texas” universe.
Texas Tea Party, like all the others was a grassroots ground swell by many previously Silent Majority voters, with many reasons to fight Gubmit waste and wrong-direction. As soon as the “self proclaimed leaders, with their tangent causes” emerged, participation in anything “official Tea Party” dwindled to almost non-existent.
The grassroots spirit is still alive, well and strong, helped giving us Ted Cruz and dumping the GOPe dudes in Austin.
Texans pay $3.5 billion into the fund annually through the gas tax and various vehicle licensing fees that apply only to drivers. Of this amount, nearly $1.5 billion is spent on items more properly funded with general revenue, including $725 million on public education and $765 million on social welfare programs including tourism and medical care.