Matt Rinaldi

Background

Rinaldi graduated from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, at which he drew national attention for his successful effort to have the Pledge of Allegiance recited prior to meetings of the student government association. He graduated in 2001 with a Juris Doctor degree from Boston University School of Law.

Upon receiving his law degree, Rinaldi became a litigation associate with the Dallas office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He and his wife Corley, married since 2010, attend St. Ann Catholic Parish Roman Catholic Church in Coppell.

Political career

In 2012, Rinaldi placed third in the Republican primary election for the House District 115 seat. 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, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, Texas Eagle Forum 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.

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 strengthing 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 on Texas public school districts with HB 945 and HB 1411. Neither bill received a hearing in the 84th legislative session due to constitutional problems with the bills and decades of court rulings addressing the issues in the legislation.

Rinaldi co-authored legislation that would repeal instate 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 study that drew on the 1,138 non-lopsided roll call votes taken during the 2015 regular session. He received a 100 percent rating which tied him in the number one spot on the Texans for Fiscal Responsibility index with seven other conservative members. He was also the top rated Representative by the Texas Eagle Forum with a 98% rating. Rinaldi also received an "A+" rating from the transportation and property rights organization, TURF (Texans Uniting for Reform & Freedom), which is a group that aims to end wasteful spending and increase transparency of tax dollars on transportation projects.

Rinaldi had a 100 percent pro-life voting record on the Texas Right to Life scorecard and was designated by the organization as one of 14 "Pro-life Heroes" in the legislature for his work in passing pro-life legislation.

In May 2017, Rinaldi claimed to have called Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers on protesters who were chanting that they were illegal and here to stay. He claims that Representative Poncho Nevárez threatened his life during the incident; Nevárez claims that Rinaldi threatened his life during the incident. In a video of the incident, representative Rinaldi can be seen being physically pushed by a Democratic representative, who was then restrained by other Democrats. After the incident, Poncho Nevarez said in front of a crowd of supporters, "For that that guy to say what he did, and think that there's no reckoning, or no reprocussion, or nothing coming, he's wrong, and today he just picked the wrong people to say that to. And he's lucky that there were more people around, because while pushing and shoving, and anything beyond that isn't acceptable, and it shouldn't be happening out there, and I'm sorry it happened, the fact is he's asking for it." A statement was issued contrary to Nevarez's later claim that Rinaldi had been physical aggressor in this incident.[3]