Wow, what a week!
An election, a runoff, a scandal, a special interim Chair election, Precinct Conventions, and a bunch of questions!
First things first: THANK YOU to the nearly 32,000 people who voted for me in this election! And thank you to my team who worked so hard on Election Day at polling locations across the county–I’m so grateful for your hard work and support! Unfortunately, despite having 50 percent more votes than the second-place candidate, we fell just 216 votes shy of winning the entire election outright on Tuesday. This means we’re heading into a runoff election on May 28th, just two of us. So to quote Ricky Bobby’s old man: If ya ain’t first, you’re last!
I never got to my final Facebook Live on Election Day because Facebook and Instagram suffered massive failure. When it came back up, I was locked out and didn’t regain access to my account until the next day. C’est la vie. Pardon my French.
But no time to rest, because coming up last Friday was an important vote. Former Chairman John Myers resigned at the tail end of February. Please keep him in your prayers. This resignation necessitated a special election by the Collin County Republican Party Executive Committee to elect an interim chair. I’d said since John resigned, that if the election were to go to a runoff (which it did; see previous paragraph), none of the candidates in the election should be interim Chair as it would be destructive and divisive to the Executive Committee.
My opponent and I went through a day or so of horse trading over whom we might mutually support for interim Chair without coming to an agreement. Then on Friday, high drama unfolded as a group of Precinct Chairs were caught out in a leaked text thread, detailed in this article by Current Revolt. I’m very disappointed that a few people sought to capture the role of interim Chair under false pretenses in order to misappropriate party resources and communications for the runoff. While it’s unquestionably an embarrassment to the Republican Party, such things shouldn’t be swept under the rug.
This is the dynamic into which we went into Friday’s special Executive Committee meeting and election presided over by former Collin County Republican Party Chair Kathy Ward who did an outstanding job! Ultimately, my opponent and I were both nominated and declined, and the third candidate in our race, Howard Powers, as well as Karl Voightsberger were nominated and ran, with Karl being elected as interim Chair. Congratulations, Karl!
BUT! No time to rest again as the next day, Saturday, were the Collin County Republican Party Precinct Conventions. This is the grassiest of grassroots activity that informs the party, where people from every precinct come together to propose resolutions to vie for the Republican Party of Texas Platform.
At the Precinct Conventions, I got to speak with several folks who had some questions based on the grapevine during the past couple of months. Some questions kept resurfacing so I thought I’d share my answers more publicly here.
Question 1 – Endorsing in Local Elections
It’s been said that I’m opposed to endorsing in local elections. I can tell you this is unequivocally false. I’m a local elected official after all! I believe that we as the Republican Party must be involved in local elections, which includes endorsements where merited, but because local elections in Texas don’t have a Primary Election process for the Republicans to duke it out (like we just had), we have to be smart and approach things differently. I was endorsed by the Collin County Republican Party when I first won my election for Plano City Council in 2019 in the party’s first real foray into endorsing in local elections. I benefitted from that (though not nearly as much as I benefitted from Governor Abbott’s endorsement–thank you, Governor Abbott!), but I watched the damage wrought to the party unfold in real time when one Republican (me) was endorsed over another. I watched over the next several years as the Collin County GOP got deeper and deeper into vetting and endorsing in local elections, alienating more and more Republicans as it did so, and I came to change my view.
You see, if you and I are friends and we back different candidates, maybe you’ll feel betrayed by me for backing someone you didn’t. That’s regrettable, but if you feel betrayed by the party itself, that has much deeper, longer-ranging consequences. I believe now that where two or more Republicans are involved in a single local race, the party should make common resources available, and provide an iVoterGuide style info-sheet on the Republicans and promote them equally. Moreover, many of the endorsement decisions have been based on who can say the most conservative stuff, with insufficient thought given to electability or the ability to advance conservative positions if elected.
Question 2 – Time
I have a career, a family, and I serve on Plano City Council, and I’m active in the state legislature, so how can I have the time to also be GOP Chair? It’s sweet of them to be so concerned, and while they may be worried about my time, I’m not. I spoke to my wife and family about taking on this role when I first considered it, and I have their full support. Moreover, I’ve been as busy as I am for five years now (busier even), and I’ve achieved numerous accomplishments, which you can read along with my 315-day plan here (which is now, unfortunately, no longer a 315-day plan since we’re in a runoff). I don’t measure my success in hours spent, but in things achieved. Simply “being busy” is of no value if you’re not moving the needle, and I can move the needle.
On top of that, there are distinct advantages to the Collin County GOP Chair being a sitting councilman in Collin County’s largest city. My interaction with folks around the community while I’m simultaneously Republican Party Chair will give the party weight and gravitas it very much needs.
Question 3 – Leadership Roles
In my 315-Day Plan I specify that I want to expand our leadership roles in the county party. Some have construed that to mean I want to hire outside consultants to run our party for us, or even just hand leadership roles to strangers. First, I don’t necessarily think we need to hire consultants as we have fantastic experience and expertise right here among our volunteer base–we just need to effectively organize. Likewise, strangers may raise their hand to volunteer, and we should have a place for them, but leadership roles shouldn’t go to anyone who walks in off the street.
Second, some feel that only Precinct Chairs should have leadership roles in the party. While I understand that philosophy, Precinct Chairs are elected positions with voting rights, and go by Highlander Rules–there can be only one per precinct. We have precincts with multiple phenomenal people dedicated to the success of the party, and I think we should make the best use of the talents that dedicated people want to offer us.
Once again, I want to thank ALL of the people who voted for me, and ALL of my incredible volunteers who worked so hard this election. We’ve got the next 2-and-a-half months! Early voting runs May 20-24, and Runoff Election Day is Tuesday, May 28th. Then we join together to forge a stronger, more vibrant Republican Party in Collin County than we’ve ever seen!
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