Obviously, we were all disappointed in the outcome of the Presidential race from last Tuesday's election. However, here in Texas the preliminary reports indicate that Texas Republicans actually increased our overall number of elected officials – so we have much to be thankful for.

Texas certainly did its part in the Presidential election – in the Lone Star State, Governor Mitt Romney defeated President Obama by nearly 16 percent (57.20% to 41.36%). This is an even wider margin than what Texas gave to John McCain in 2008, when he carried the state with 55.45% of the vote. In addition, every single statewide Republican nominee won their election, including Senator-Elect Ted Cruz, who became the state's first U.S. Senator of Hispanic descent. Ted Cruz joins Judge Elsa Alcala as the newest statewide elected Republican official of Hispanic descent, continuing the RPT's trend of electing more statewide officials of Hispanic descent than the Democratic Party has in their entire history. The Party also won all of our races for the Texas Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals, and we won the vast majority of our races for the Court of Appeals.

In the Texas House, we elected the second-highest number of Republicans ever with 95 State Representatives. The previous record of 99 was set in 2010. In light of the national results, the fact that it was a Presidential election year, and the far-reaching effects of redistricting – that number of 95 is an extremely strong showing and in line with what RPT predicted in its pre-election report. Prior to 2010, the previous record for Republican state legislators was 88 and four years ago in the 2008 Presidential election, Republicans only elected 76 state legislators. Republicans were also able to hold on to our strong majority in the State Senate, maintaining 19 Republican State Senators. The RPT increased its Congressional delegation from 23 to 24, the only downside was the loss of Francisco Canseco in a Democrat-leaning district, however the Party should be well-positioned to retake that seat in 2014 when it will be an off Presidential year.

State Representative Mark Shelton came within a whisker of upsetting incumbent Democrat State Senator Wendy Davis and if she draws an off-Presidential year term, we should be in a position to take that seat in 2014 as well. Initial canvassing of counties indicate that we have had a net gain of county offices, including in Harris County where we had a net gain of 8 county-wide seats. The State Party put an extra special effort into Harris County since it is the State's largest county, and in 2008 the Democrats won the county by approximately 2% and swept out all of our county-wide judges but four. This time around, the top of the Texas ticket (Ted Cruz) won Harris County and the top of the national ticket (Mitt Romney) basically tied with only 589 votes separating Governor Romney from President Obama out of approximately 1.185 million (49.38% to 49.33%). Every incumbent Republican civil district judge won as well as every female Republican judicial nominee. Also, all of our Court of Appeals Justices carried Harris County except for one and that one still defeated his opponent district wide. We won all of our Court of Criminal Appeals Justice races except for one and that one still won statewide. In Harris County, the super-liberal group Annie's List made Republican Representative Sarah Davis their #1 target, and with help from RPT and Victory – she crushed her opponent by approximately 7,500 votes.

Due to the generosity of our grassroots contributors and major donors, the RPT through its Victory Committee chaired by Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, as well as through its regular operations, was able to provide substantial assistance to Republican candidates as well as engage in a significant Get Out The Vote (GOTV) effort.

The Victory Committee under statewide Victory Chair Ed Emmett, expended 1.8 million dollars toward GOTV efforts and candidate assistance. These efforts included operating and funding five Victory Centers around the state and providing logistical support to independent Victory Centers. All told, the Victory Centers made approximately 875,000 calls. Two of the Victory Centers were in Harris County which assisted in both supporting Harris County legislative nominees, as well as providing general GOTV support. Special thanks goes to SuZanne Feather and Kim Jessup for helping to gather volunteers and oversee this location. Another Victory Center in Arlington, headed up by SREC member Leslie Recine, made GOTV calls as well as provided substantial assistance to Dr. Mark Shelton. Our San Patricio center, headed up by County Chair Beverly Moore, made GOTV calls and a special effort to help J.M. Lozano and Connie Scott. J.M. Lozano was able to win a toss-up race and is one of the Republican Party's new bright stars from South Texas! In Bexar County, the Victory Center led the nation in overall calls and sent many hundreds of volunteers out in the field.

In addition, Victory and the State Party paid for another 1.6 million calls from paid professional phone banks. All told, the Party and Victory were responsible for approximately 2.5 million calls to support the Republican ticket and individual nominees. This compares to 977,000 calls made in 2010. In addition to the Victory Centers, RPT paid for staff in Dallas and Harris Counties to assist those county parties. Moreover, the Victory Committee and the RPT mailed over 3 million pieces of mail to Republicans for GOTV, Early Vote efforts and candidate assistance. This compares to 2.1 million pieces of mail in 2010. The Early Vote By Mail program alone accounted for 650,000 pieces of mail sent out by Victory to over 65 voters. Victory then paid for phone follow-up to make sure that those applications were returned.

In addition to the Victory efforts, RPT dispersed hundreds of thousands of dollars from its general operating account and CRC accounts to individual candidates. The RPT also separately from Victory, paid for mail pieces on behalf of the Republican slate as well as individual candidates. For example, the RPT paid for 3 mailings to assist Randy Weber in his Congressional campaign which he won, as well as put out separate pieces for our judicial candidates. The RPT made a specific and special effort to assist our candidates in the 1st and 14th Court of Appeals districts as well as the 3rd Court of Appeals district, where our Republican incumbents were under attack as a result of Democrat donors investing in those races. We were successful in retaining every one of the Justices under attack in these districts and in light of the relatively close margin, we believe that the RPT and Victory made a significant difference in these races.

In addition, the RPT paid for paid phone banks for most of the fourteen toss-up legislative races in Texas. RPT was active in each and every competitive State Representative race. In addition to the aforementioned help, every Republican nominee received a cash contribution if they were in one of the fourteen targeted races. All told, 95 candidates received cash contributions from either the RPT or the CRC. $119,000 was raised and distributed by the Candidate Resource Committee of the SREC, chaired by Jane Cansino. Individual SREC members delivered these checks to all of the candidates in these targeted races.

The several hundred thousand dollars contributed to candidates by the RPT is the first time in recent memory that the RPT has distributed large sums of money separate from the Victory operation. Another change from the recent past is that the Victory operations were overseen by RPT staff and the Victory operation was housed in the RPT headquarters. RPT wishes to thank Harris County Judge Ed Emmett for serving as the statewide Victory chair!

The RPT also tried an experimental program in Harris County where in conjunction with the Harris County GOP, we funded a tele-townhall emceed by Paul Bettencourt wherein every Republican household in Harris County that hadn't voted the weekend prior to Election Day was invited to participate. We believe this experiment paid off in conjunction with our Victory efforts and what local Harris County GOP leadership undertook as a record 403,000 Harris County residents voted straight party ticket. This represents a 60,000 increase in Harris County straight party ticket voting compared to our results in 2008. The RPT wishes to thank Harris County GOP Chairman Jared Woodfill for not only participating in the teleconference, but also for allowing Victory the use of the Harris County headquarters for one of its Victory Centers. 

Chairman Munisteri, commenting on the election results, stated: "Texas remains the most Republican state in the union and arguably the most important, being the largest Republican state and having 38 electoral college votes. In order for the national party to enjoy continued success, they should take its lead from the Texas GOP which has been emphasizing outreach, candidate recruitment and grassroots involvement. It would also serve the state party well if Texas would take a greater prominence in the selection of our Presidential nominees."

"As I reflect upon this election, first and foremost, I would like to thank the many thousands of volunteers and grassroots activists who knocked on doors, stuffed envelopes and made phone calls on behalf of our ticket. I would also like to thank all those that have contributed money to the Party over the last two years, which allowed us to provide substantial assistance to individual candidates and our ticket overall. One of my goals when I ran for State Party Chairman was to increase the role of the State Party in the outcome of elections and specifically, to reintegrate the Victory operations within the overall operations of the RPT. I believe this was accomplished and proved to be a winning strategy. The Democrats have made no secret of the fact that they have their sights on Texas in the next election cycle. We must all commit ourselves to ensuring that the Republican Party of Texas continues to enjoy success in the future. I truly believe that as goes Texas, so goes the rest of America. It is up to us!"