Stay tuned for the next election. At this time, I'm not sure when/where any city or other local type elections will happen in early May-there are none within Precinct 19, for sure! I know the Primary Runoffs will happen toward the end of May and we will have a few positions on that ballot.

Precinct and County Conventions were held on March 28. I was the only Precinct 19 voter to attend the conventions, and I will be the only Precinct 19 voter attending the RPT State Convention. The temporary state convention committees will begin their work sometime in May, I assume, and I will be doing my best to see that the resolutions I passed through the county convention are implemented in the best ways. In person committee work will be begin on June 8 at the convention center in Houston, and I will be there, if not serving on a committee, then at least to testify to them and work with them to develop a stronger Republican platform, rules, and legislative priorities.

One resolution I submitted and passed was more specific language for RPT Rule 44, the censure rule. This was a hot topic for many in the past year. Since we have open primaries, people who don't align with the RPT Principles are allowed to vote in our primary election and "water down" our Republican nominees to the general election in November. Therefore, we must implement some form of accountability to call out those "less-than-Republican" people that got elected through our party's primary election. My R44 language lays out a VERY specific definition of what actions are censurable (violations), the penalties that can be assessed according to the violations, and it gives a specific timeline for county parties to follow to give proper notice to the office holder so they can defend themselves before a censure vote is actually taken. I think this rule is VERY important to keeping the Republican party firmly attached to our stated principles.

So on that note, I need to say that I think the party is very divided because too many believe "I am not a Democrat, so I MUST be Republican, right??" Can I say that you don't have to be either. That's called being an independent and it's ok to be independent! In my opinion the biggest issue we fight over ends up being Socialism--how much tax money should be spent paying for things that really should be paid out of your own pocket?? Perhaps you enjoy taxpayer funded services more than others. That does not mean you're a full-on democrat. I think you'll find the Republican platform calls for more personal responsibility and less dependence on public services.

One other thing to watch for is a new Bowie County Republican Party website. You may have seen me comment about this once or thrice over the past couple years. I started a draft website but for several reasons decided to let it lie for a bit. Now that the primary is over and the Bowie County Executive Committee is set, I expect to get the go-ahead in the next few months to finish building the site. I look forward to sharing info from the Party on more than just Facebook. If you haven't noticed, Facebook is a fading trend among younger folks, and we need to adjust accordingly.

These are just some ideas that have been weighing on my mind lately. I'm open to conversation, and you can find my contact info at the bottom of this page. Hit me up!