June 23rd, 2020

I want to share some very exciting news with you! You know, we have had a lot of ‘firsts’ together over the last couple of years. We have had the first massive candidate recruitment effort because of work in 2019 before the filing deadline, we have already won about 1300 races – because while we were able to fill 2,118 races, the Democrats only filled 837 – and we have the smallest number of unchallenged Democrat incumbents in Texas history. One of those exciting races where we’re challenging them features the Republican candidate who voters can elect to end the judicial career of the Dallas judge that jailed Shelley Luther. 

We have brought on a Victory Chair earlier than we have before and we have more than 2.4 million dollars dedicated to the Victory accounts for our field team and important get out the vote efforts for this November election!

We have initiated an expanded and more detailed voter defense program for the November election, building upon the trainings we had in 2018 that we led by none other than the current Chairman of the Federal Elections Commission and former RPT Assistant General Counsel Trey Trainor. On that note, if you want to be an election judge or alternate election judge, please text ELECTION to 72000 and we’ll get you signed up! 

This leads me to the exciting news I wanted to share with you! As you know, we began planning for victory in November of 2020, since the very night of the 2018 elections. We have been laser-focused on voter registration. A big piece of the puzzle that was missing in our DNA in the Republican Party was voter registration. We had to crack that nut. We could not cede any more ground to the Democrats on this front. We also wanted to recruit more volunteers than we had in decades. 

I was inspired by Ernie Angelo who told me that when the iconic Reagan Campaign of 1980 came to a close, he sent out over 20,000 thank you cards to the volunteer army across the state who helped President Reagan win in Texas that pivotal year. I was wholly invested in evangelizing the rebirth of voter registration in the Republican Party and in rebuilding the volunteer army at the Republican Party of Texas. I found people who agreed with me and wanted to not just invest energy and human resources, but the necessary capital, too. That began the partnership with Steve Munisteri and Karl Rove who helped build the red Texas we have today and who were there in those early days of the Republican Party of Texas. Karl as a leader in the College Republicans and Steve as the founder of the Young Conservatives of Texas. 

Together, we collaborated to form a first-of-its-kind program for the Republican Party of Texas, our Republican Party of Texas Volunteer Engagement Project, a program completely dedicated to only two things: recruit 10,000 volunteers for the November 2020 election and register 100,000 new likely Republican voters through our 10k for 10R program by October of 2020. The RPT VEP project hired its first staff last July. 

Since then we have recruited over 4,000 volunteers for our November election efforts who have been helping register voters all across Texas. The pandemic did not slow down our voter registration efforts. We were able to stay with it, shifting the way in which we communicated with potential registrants as did all political activities that had to come out of the field in-person. The RPT VEP project let nothing stand in its way. I am excited to announce that the Republican Party of Texas’ Volunteer Engagement Project has just reported today that we have crossed the threshold of registering 100,000 new likely Republican voters – over three months ahead of schedule! We are elated and we are motivated!! We will set a new bar now and keep reaching for success! Our team is well-oiled and the Republican Party of Texas is on the right track and running on all cylinders for victory in November. Please join our 10k for 10R program and be a part of making history with RPT this year! To sign up text 10k to 72000. That’s 10k to 72000.

This coming weekend is our last weekend of our local conventions.  All Senate District and County Conventions that were not able to be held on the original date of March 21 and needed to be rescheduled had to be completed by this Saturday, June 27 in order to submit delegate lists and address other Party business in time for State Convention. 

It has been incredible to experience the Senate District and County Conventions in this manner. Congratulations to all the amazing planning and execution from the County Chairs and the Senate District Convention Chairs. This has not been an easy process, but the dedication to see through our convention process precisely from the very start of the most micro level of grassroots activism at the precinct conventions, through the county and senate district conventions to nominate delegates and alternates to the State Convention, where we will elect our national delegates and alternates and our electors from each Congressional District which sets us up for the National Convention. All of this with the final objective to secure our 38 electoral college votes for President Trump’s reelection this November. 

We have an obligation to execute our convention process precisely and our precinct convention chairs, our county chairs and senate district convention chairs have been amazing partners to make sure it has happened so smoothly. It could have easily come off the rails at any time but together, we wouldn’t let it happen and together we will celebrate delivering our massive 38 electoral votes for President Trump this November!

Our State Convention is well on track for July 16-18 in Houston at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Committees will begin on Monday, July 13.  

Registrations are flowing in as weekends of conventions wrap up.  We are excited the plans are coming together.  

I want to address an update on the planning regarding CDC guidelines and local orders. There will be an abundance of hand sanitizer throughout the Convention Center.  Rooms will be cleaned thoroughly after each meeting.  

We are aware of the local county judges current order requiring businesses who have goods and services to require masks. That order expires June 30.  We will have another convention town hall after the 4th of July and will have more clarity what her intentions are after June 30. We have said all along that people are welcome to wear masks if they wish or welcome not to wear a mask. 

We encourage everyone to take the precautions they feel they need to when it comes to masks, just like you do with hand sanitizer and social distancing guidelines. We do not find the current order as it stands to affect our convention business and we do not intend to mandate mask wearing at the Convention.  We will revisit this at our next convention town hall after the 4th of July. We will keep you informed and up-to-date as we have this entire time, as we make the final preparations for our State Convention. 

Thank you to our Executive Director, Kyle Whatley, the RPT staff, our Arrangements Committee led by Deon Starnes. They have all been working tirelessly.. Everything’s coming together so smoothly. Thank you so much for your remarkable work to make sure this Convention comes to full fruition.

Remember our RPT birthday is the fourth of July so light a sparkler for our RPT along with celebrating our country. We will talk with you again after the fourth of July!

Watch the June 23rd State Convention Update Tele Town Hall