By R.J. Morales | tx3dnews
MCKINNEY — “This recall was never about the mosque.”
Ashley Marie posted that Sept. 27, two days after organizers turned in petitions to recall Mayor Bill Cox and three council members.
When TX3DNews asked her about it, the answer changed. The mosque vote, she said, was “the spark.”
Asked whether she would have called for the recall when she did without that vote, she drew a line: “I’m not playing the ‘what if that vote never happened’ game.”
Officially, the recall is about growth and accountability. But for two months, much of the energy behind it ran on the mosque, Islam and Sharia law.
The paperwork
The campaign’s affidavit cites “a loss of public confidence.” It does not mention the mosque. On Aug. 14, organizers said, “It is not a religious grievance, and this campaign will accept no religious hostility.”
The grievances supporters cite are real. Marie points to the airport expansion, the amphitheater and the surf park, and voters rejected airport bond funding in 2023.
But paperwork is not how a recall gathers thousands of signatures. Its most visible supporters are.
The fuel
The recall was born Aug. 4, the night the council voted 7-0 to approve the McKinney Islamic Association’s site plan. Marie called for a recall at that meeting.
The next evening she posted: “McKinney this fight is far from over — that recall? Incoming, I’m working on it.”
U.S. Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, had urged the council to reject the mosque plan. He announced Aug. 16 that he had signed the petition. The next day, he posted that “the Islamization of Texas is real.”
At the Sept. 1 council meeting, resident Kyle Sims said, “When I was first approached about this recall, it was about the mosque.”
Marie did not invent her anti-Islam message for the recall. Her daily posts demanding that Gov. Greg Abbott and Congress stop the “Islamic invasion” began in June. But during the petition drive, she tied the two together herself.
“I’ve been slacking but I’m back. Busy with this recall,” she wrote Sept. 15, marking “day 61 of my demand to Congress to stop the Islamic invasion of our nation.”
On Sept. 24, three days before “never about the mosque,” she told Abbott he was “lucky I’ve been slammed with this recall.” She added: “Consider this as my day 77 demand, for you to stop the Islamic invasion of our state.”
Recall supporter Louis Maldonado promoted a video about Eddie Isa on Aug. 25 with #Nosharia and #recall side by side. Marie shared it.
Isa, who calls himself a “Sharia survivor from Iran,” told the council Sept. 1, “If you guys keep letting this grow, we’re going to bring the DOJ after every single one of you.” He says his views come from experience: “We don’t have Islamophobia — we have Islamic trauma.”
And the connection continued after the petitions were submitted.
Two days after Marie said the recall was “never about the mosque,” McKinney Transparency asked whether Beller and Evan Hunt “support wife beating,” citing their support for MIA and allegations about an invited imam. The post defended Self’s warnings about the “Islamization of Texas” and ended: “Support the recall effort.” If the recall is about growth and accountability, the post again put Islam and MIA at the center of the argument for removing Beller.
Which is it?
Marie’s full answer: “The site-plan vote was the spark after years of built-up frustration. Unchecked growth, ignored no-votes, traffic, & public safety are the fire.”
But the “fire” does not map neatly onto the four people targeted.
Council member Justin Beller voted against the amphitheater site plan in November 2024 and the airport terminal contracts in May 2025, city records show. Cox and council member Ernest Lynch were not on the council for either vote. Of the four, only council member Geré Feltus voted for both.
All four voted to approve the mosque site plan.
And a spark that also served as fuel for two months is hard to wave away. The official campaign kept religion out of its filings. Its loudest public voices did not keep it out of the campaign.
McKinney voters are being asked to accept both at once: a recall that was never about the mosque, promoted in part by people who spent the petition drive talking about Islam.
What a recall can deliver
If the city secretary certifies the petitions, the four officials will face a recall vote. Beller has said it would be held May 1, 2027, the date of the city’s regular election, when the council’s other three seats are already on the ballot.
If it goes forward, every council seat will be on the ballot that day. What the recall adds is a chance to end four terms two years early.
It cannot reverse what supporters say drove it. Avelo Airlines is scheduled to begin flights from McKinney National Airport on Nov. 11. The $300 million Sunset Amphitheater is projected for completion in September 2027. And removing the officials who approved the mosque site plan would not undo that vote.
The unanswered question
If the recall is about growth, they are asking voters to remove four officials over projects already underway, including one council member who voted against those projects.
If it is about the mosque, that is the one vote all four cast together. It is also the one issue the campaign says the recall is not about.
Marie says the mosque vote was only the spark. But for two months, the mosque, Islam and Sharia law were much of what the recall’s loudest backers talked about.
If the recall reaches the ballot, McKinney voters will decide which version they believe.
Editor’s note: TX3DNews contacted the McKinney Recall campaign and John Aselton, the petitioners’ committee designee, for comment. Neither responded by publication time.