Harrison Presses Hegar and A&M Regents
on Victoria Finalist after Taking Out Welsh
Capitol Inside
September 24, 2025
A far-right state lawmaker who led the charge for the ouster of the Texas A&M University president accused the system's board of regents on Wednesday of perpetuating "transgender indoctrination" in the curriculum and personnel practices with the sole finalist for the top job at a sister campus.
GOP State Rep. Brian Harrison of Midlothian ramped up a five-alarm attempt to block the enlistment Christian Hardigree as the new president at Texas A&M University-Victoria in a letter to the system regents and Chancellor Glenn Hegar. Harrison contended on Tuesday that Hardigree had gloated in the past on hiring migrants who are transgender over U.S. citizens.
The Texas A&M System board announced late last week that Hardigree was the lone remaining candidate for the post in Victoria - a status that suggests that her formal hiring will be little more than a formality. Hardigree has served for the past three years as the regional chancellor at the University of South Florida's campus in St. Petersburg.
Harrison claimed that Hardigree championed DEI based on a line in her curriculum vitae how she led hired and led a faculty and staff with 39 positions that she filled with "female, immigrant, international, African-American, Latino/a/x, LGBTQIA and/or disabled applicants, including representation from the Philippines, South Africa, India, China, Iceland, Ghana, Thailand, Jamaica and Germany."
Harrison, an A&M graduate, played a critical role in the departure of Mark Welsh late last week from his post as the president of the flagship campus in College Station. Welsh, a retired four-star general who served as the U.S Air Force's chief of staff and as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, left the job abruptly under pressure from top statewide leaders including Governor Greg Abbott and the regents who he appointed and controls.
But Harrison ignited the controversy that culminated in Welsh's exodus in Aggieland when he exposed a video that featured an encounter with an instructor and student who confronted her during a lecture that ventured into gender ideology and identity. Harrison also came up with an audio with a conversation that the student who blew the whistle on the teacher had with Welsh himself about the incident. Welsh said LGBTQ studies were important for some professions like educators and mental health professionals.
Harrison pounced on the episode when the video went viral - calling on Abbott to have his regents terminate Welsh and the professor who broached the subject in a children's literature class.
Harrison - a former Department of Health and Human Services chief of staff during President Donald Trump's initial term - submitted a complaint to the Department of Education amid the claim that the incident at A&M violated Trump's executive order on DEI and gender separation. When Hegar vowed to take disciplinary action against the professor at the furor's center, Harrison said that Welsh had to go and the school must put an end to teachings related to LGBTQ and DEI immediately. Welsh was gone 10 days later.
Harrison sought to shift the spotlight to Hegar, who served as the Texas comptroller for nearly a dozen years before his appointment from the governor this spring to his current post.
"For example, you have courses on “Transgender Cinemas,” Transgender Literatures,” and, in WGST 205, Introduction to LGBTQ Studies, the university is teaching “the social construction of sexuality and gender,” “institutional ways in which homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia are systematically deployed,” and “advocacy by and on behalf of [transgender] individuals,” Harrison said in the communique today.
Harrison cited his position as a House Appropriations Committee member when he posed a half-dozen questions to the regents and the chancellor.
"1) Were you aware that Ms. Hardigree listed as an accomplishment the prioritization of transgender and immigrants over non-transgender citizens in hiring practices?
2) Do you believe it is constitutional to make hiring decisions on the criteria Ms. Hardigree brags about her in CV including: gender, ethnicity, immigration status, “Latino/a/x,” and “LGBTQIA?”
3) What message does hiring a president who supports discriminatory hiring practices send to students?
4) What is the position of the Texas A&M System Board of Regents, and your individual position, on whether the hiring of transgender and immigrants should be prioritized over non-transgender citizens?
5) Do you believe there are more than two genders? If so, how many, and can people change genders?
6) Why are you forcing taxpayers to fund transgender indoctrination?"
"Leftists like Dr. Welsh never should’ve been hired, and liberal indoctrination should never have been allowed to proliferate," Harrison added. "While I appreciate that last week Dr. Welsh was finally forced to leave after I spent most of this year exposing him, I am horrified that you appear to be in the process of hiring another committed leftist to be President of Texas A&M University - Victoria."
more to come ...
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