Philip Hayes, candidate for Texas House District 5

1. House District 5 candidate Philip Hayes says he has two degrees, documents say otherwise
2. 3 candidates announce run for Hughes’ seat
3. Texas House candidates tout their records and answer questions at Republican club forum
4. Five candidates run to represent Texas House District 5
5. Our endorsements in the GOP primary
6. Philip Hayes suspends campaign for House District 5, following report of fake degrees

When Texas House District 5 candidate Philip Hayes walked into the room for a meeting with the Tyler Morning Telegraph’s editorial board, he seemed confident, well-informed and measured in his responses to questions. He’s clearly a bright young man, and despite his youth – he’s only 25 – he won our editorial board’s endorsement.

It is with deep regret, and a profound but disappointed wish to be proven wrong, that the editorial board must now retract that endorsement.

Questions arose about Hayes following the publication of the endorsement last Sunday. In seeking answers to some of those questions, the Tyler Paper requested the official documents from Southern Methodist University to confirm Hayes had graduated from there with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree – something he has claimed, repeatedly.

But SMU’s clearinghouse service confirmed no such thing. The official document says Hayes attended SMU from the fall of 2009 to December 2011.

We called Hayes at 3:30 p.m. Thursday with the information. Hayes was, at the time, holding up a sign at the early voting location in Lindale. We impressed upon him the seriousness of the matter. Hayes assured us it was just a clerical error and that he would call SMU to get it straightened out – and get us some documentation.

He didn’t.

After two hours with no contact, we reached him again at about 5:30 p.m. He was still at the polling locating. He said he hadn’t called SMU, but he was sure he could find his transcripts, or at least his diploma – something. He promised to get something to us quickly, within the hour.

Nothing.

At 8 p.m., members of our editorial board called Hayes again. He said he would call his parents to see if they had anything – even photos of him in a cap and gown. He promised to call back immediately, and he promised to remain accessible.

And that’s when he stopped taking our calls and responding to our messages.

We go into detail about the process because we want to demonstrate how willing we were to be wrong. No one wants to see such a promising young man’s political hopes end.

But Hayes left us no choice. We were unwilling to sit on the information, when we had official documentation of his lying, while early voting continues. That would be a disservice to our readers.

For this reason, we must retract our endorsement of Philip Hayes.