Republican Party of Texas

It might be the summer of an off year, but that doesn’t mean we’ve slowed down here at the Republican Party of Texas. The RPT staff has spent the last several weeks hosting trainings across the state to help our county and precinct chairs organize now so they are prepared well in advance of next year’s elections.

Organization Director, Cassie Daniel, has been leading the effort by creating the agenda, recruiting speakers, sponsors and attendees and hosting these events. Already she has trained over 100 people from 26 counties at the Northeast Texas Regional Training in Tyler and over 50 people from 13 counties at the Panhandle Plains Training in Amarillo. This weekend she’s off to Abilene to work with a crowd of 70 anxious volunteers in the Central Plains region. We’ll be conducting regional trainings over the next 6 weeks in the following areas:

Permian Basin Regional Training in Midland, TX on August 17th.

Concho Valley Regional Training in Leaky, TX on September 14th.

South Texas Regional Training in Corpus Christi, TX on September 21st.

Please email Cassie at Cdaniel@texasgop.org if you would like to attend.

The meeting agenda includes a recipe for building a successful county party: primary administration, what makes an effective precinct chairman, organizing the county party and voter ID and registration.

“A very helpful training, this was much more than just a how to manual. It was also beneficial to meet other experienced rural county chairs in the area. My precinct chairs that attended also gained a better understanding of the impact they can make within the Party.” Janie Walenta, Wood County Chair

We’d especially like to thank our meeting sponsors, presenters, County Chairs, Precinct Chairs and political activists who attended and made these training events possible.

Thank you to our Northeast Texas Regional Training sponsors Senator Kevin Eltife, Representatives Bryan Hughes & Matt Schaefer, and District Attorney Matt Bingham for providing breakfast and lunch for the attendees. Tim McCormick, Smith County Chair, led the prayer with Rex Law, Camp County Chair; Marty Rhymes, Gregg County Vice Chair leading the pledges and Carl Dyer, Trinity County Chair blessed the meal.

Trainers at the Northeast training included Cassie Daniel, RPT Organization Director; Eric Opiela, RPT Asst. General Counsel, SREC SD 21, and Karnes County Chair; Donnie Wisenbaker, Hopkins County Chair; Larry Millson, Grayson County Chair; Sean Hanson, San Jacinto County Chair; Jim Wiggins, SREC SD 3; Michelle Smith, Rockwall County Political Activist; Frank Steed, SREC SD 22 & Navarro County Chair and event volunteer coordinator Jim Sperian from Smith County. Several elected officials also stopped by to speak including: Congressman Louie Gohmert, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, Representatives Bryan Hughes and David Simpson.

Attendees came from the following counties: Anderson, Angelina, Bosque, Bowie, Camp, Cass, Franklin, Grayson, Gregg, Henderson, Hill, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, McLennan, Navarro, Presidio, Red River, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Smith, Titus, Trinity, Upshur, and Wood.

“As a new group, the information at the training was invaluable. I’m confident what I learned will help us build a stronger and more effective chapter!” – Jonathan Gaspard, NE Tarrant County Young Republicans President

Thank you to our Panhandle Plains Regional Training sponsors Senator Kel Seliger, State Representative Four Price, John Tyson, Randall County Chair, and Victor Leal, owner of Leal’s Mexican Restaurant for breakfast and lunch. Tom Roller, SREC SD 31, led the prayer with J. Dale Smith, Hall County Chair, Diana Hoover, Lipscomb County Chair leading the pledges and Conrad Masterson, Cottle County Chair blessed the meal.

Trainers included Cassie Daniel, RPT Organization Director; Tonya Detten, Potter County Chair; Tom Roller, SREC SD 31; Michele Samuelson, Texas Federation of Republican Women District Director SD 14; Rhonda Lacy, SREC SD 31; Tom Mechler, RPT Treasurer;Eric Opiela, RPT Asst. General Counsel, SREC SD 21, and Karnes County Chair; and event volunteers from the High Plains Republican Women, Dianne Hefley and Gayla Maloney. Several elected officials also stopped by to speak including, Senator Kel Seliger, Representative Four Price and State Board of Education District 15 Member Marty Rowley.

Attendees came from the following counties: Armstrong, Childress, Cochran, Cottle, Hall, Hutchinson, Lipscomb, Lubbock, Moore, Parmer, Potter, Randall, Swisher, and Wheeler.

In addition to our regional trainings, Rachel Wilson, our Youth Outreach Director, has not let our College and Young Republicans take any breaks either this summer. The Republican Party of Texas recently hosted regional trainings in Houston and Dallas where representatives from 13 College Republican chapters, five High School Republican chapters and six Young Republican chapters from around the state were in attendance. These trainings covered precinct, county and state party functions, a volunteer deputy voter registrar training, get out the vote techniques, campaign organizing and chapter recruitment and development. There are more trainings planned as well as exciting plans for the year ahead. These are some of the most active and passionate groups that we have seen in a while and are excited to work with them to ensure that Texas remains a state where they have ample opportunities to succeed.

“The tips and advice that the speakers gave us were really great. It was also great to meet other chapter presidents and hear how and where they schedule their meetings so that we can help our chapters be more successful. I’ve never known the State party to organize an event like this, but this was organized and planned very well.” – Amanda Adamez, South Texas Young Republicans

A special thank you to our hosts and presenters Tina Gibson, Leslie Recine, SuZanne Feather, Ronda Moreland, and Chris Homan for taking a special interest to cultivate our youth participation.