Grassroots Power—Texas Style

Remember this foundational principle from our Declaration of Independence?

Governments are instituted among men,

deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That is literally true in our constitutional republic—if we can keep it. Tuesday is Primary Election Day here in Texas, after two weeks already of early voting. It’s the midterm year, not the presidential election year, so there’s lower turnout. That means those who participate have more say in who our candidates will be—for Congress, for Governor, Lt. Governor, judges, and all the rest.

We have the longest ballot in the country here in Harris County. It took three posts a week or so ago to cover all the contested races.

But having a voice, as the governed, is more than electing leaders—and holding them accountable. It is also about expressing our ideas, to let the elected officials know how we want our state and country to be governed. There’s a process for letting them know, and we’re about to go through that today.

 

The Two-Year Cycle

Let’s start with the two-year cycle. A lot of people think of the four-year presidential election cycle. But, at least here in Texas, we go through a whole process every two years.

from a presentation developed by Bill Ely
for the HCRP Training and Development Committee,
which I used and adapted for the Cypress Texas Tea Party on February 19

In odd-numbered years we have our legislative session: mid-January through the end of May. There may be special sessions called (three in a row this past year, and still there was business left undone). But mainly we just have that 4 ½ months every other year. Which is good, since our freedoms are at risk whenever the legislature is in session. It takes constant vigilance to keep government in check, at every level.

When the session is over, we begin the primary season. Candidates begin their campaigns, which get fully underway by late fall filing deadlines. Here in Texas our usual Primary Election Day is the first Tuesday of March—this year that’s March 1. This ends the primary season—except for those races that had multiple candidates in which no one got over 50%; then there’s a runoff, this year set for May 26. And I expect there will be more runoff races than usual this year.

As soon as the Primary Election is over (excepting runoffs), the convention season is underway. There are multiple levels of conventions. The most local is the Precinct Convention, sometimes called a precinct caucus, or just precinct meeting. A few weeks later, the next level is the Senatorial District or County Convention. In areas like Harris County, there are multiple state senatorial districts in the county, so we don’t do it by county level. In less populous areas of the state, this level may be done by county. Then comes the State Republican Convention—this year held in Houston, in June. In presidential election years, there’s a national convention, but we’re not having one this year, so the state is this year’s top level.

Overlapping the convention season is the general election season, getting ready for that vote in November. Then, in January after that November election, the newly elected legislature is back in session.

 

Conventions—General Purpose

So what happens at a convention? The basic agenda is the same regardless of level:

·         We choose delegates to the next level up.

·         We put forth resolutions for the platform.        

There may be speeches and celebrations, and other necessary party business. But those are the two basic agenda items for every convention.

So, let’s look at each of the levels where grassroots people will be attending this year.

 

Precinct Convention

In past years, in this county, we’ve held our precinct convention on Primary Election Day, after the polls close, at the precinct polling location. A few years ago the county went to countywide voting. This is a great convenience for voters, but it hinders local politics. We don’t necessarily get to see our precinct voters at the polling location in our precinct—if there even is one within the precinct. And besides, many voted during the two weeks of early voting—which can be any of the polling locations in the county. So how do we let people know about the meetings?

Plus, since precinct chairs were often the election officials, how do we get the polls closed down, the materials delivered to the counting locations—and hold a meeting at the same time? Last year we got new voting equipment. The process kinks are still being ironed out. We got a practice run at the low-turnout election in November (ours was just school board races). We learned that closing down the polling location is more time-consuming than it had been before. And delivering materials to counting was an hours-long nightmare. (This time they have returned to multiple dropoff locations, so that may help shorten that part of the process.)

Anyway, doing the precinct meeting at the polling location on election night has become nigh unto impossible. So we’re doing our precinct conventions another day: this Saturday, March 5, if you’re local and interested in participating. Instead of at the polling location, the Harris County Republican Party has set up multiple locations according to state House districts. All the precincts belonging to that House district will meet at a location together and then break out into their separate precincts. (If you’re here in Harris County and want to know your location, the list is here.)

It used to be that the precinct chair would receive the packet of precinct convention materials when they picked up their voting materials. This year the packet will be handed to them at these House district locations. All of these meetings are open for registration at 8:00 AM, and meetings start at 9:00 AM—expect them to last about an hour.

Once the precincts get together, they follow a script that is in the packet. You identify all participants and make sure they are qualified to participate. To qualify you must have voted in the Republican Primary that just took place (and, of course, not voted this year in any other party’s primary); or, if you didn’t vote, you can take an oath of affiliation. In other words, only Republicans get to participate in Republican conventions.

Someone has to lead the meeting. So the setup is for someone, usually the Precinct Chair when available, to get things underway. This is the Temporary Precinct Convention Chair. She appoints a Temporary Secretary and any other needed officers (such as a sergeant-at-arms). Then the first order of business is to elect permanent officers. These are often the people who were temporary officers, who just continue on in official capacity, but they do not have to be. And these permanent positions are only for the business of this meeting. (The elected Precinct Chair—not to be confused with this Precinct Convention Chair—continues on with his/her duties beyond this meeting.) Elections—with brief campaign speeches, when necessary—can put in place any officers the precinct convention participants choose.

This is all done by Roberts Rules of Order. While it sounds official and somewhat intimidating, in practice it can be very simple and somewhat casual—as long as rules are followed. If two people show up, one ends up being the chair and the other the secretary, and they move forward with business. Most of the precinct conventions I’ve attended have had from 5-10 participants. Some less. One I attended had a couple dozen, but that was a rarity.

 

Electing Delegates to the District Convention

First order of business, then, is to elect delegates to the District Convention. It is my experience that the number attending is far less than the number of delegates the precinct is allowed. This is determined by a formula based on the number of Republican votes for governor in the past election. It’s done according to state party rules, and the packet shows the number, so you don’t have to do the math. For example, if you’re allowed 20 delegates, and you have 5 people at your precinct convention, all of you can go as delegates. If by some oddity, you have more people at the convention than delegates allowed, you can send alternates as well. If you’re allowed 20 delegates, you’d also be allowed 20 alternates—which means 40 attendees at your Precinct Convention would be allowed to go to the District Convention. Alternates might not have voting power at that convention—unless a delegate doesn’t show up. Then they would be seated as a regular delegate. But they could participate, regardless, in any activities not requiring voting, such as platform discussions.

Can you be a delegate at the District Convention, if you didn’t attend the Precinct Convention? Good question. You must be elected as a delegate at that Precinct Convention. However, if you know ahead of time that you cannot attend the Precinct Convention, but you know you want to attend the District Convention, you can contact your Precinct Chair, or another person planning to attend your Precinct Convention, and let them know you would like to be a delegate, and they can nominate you. If there is opportunity and the attendees are agreeable, you can be elected in absentia. You’d need to make sure they had your ID information to turn in with their report.

 

Platform Resolutions

So, about those platform resolutions. Once you’ve settled your delegates, that’s the next order of business. Did anyone bring any resolutions they’d like to put forward? If yes, then they present what they have, and the convention participants vote on whether to approve each resolution or reject it. Records are kept of both accepted and rejected resolutions. In my experience, 3-5 resolutions is a typical number. Some people bring a stack of resolutions passed on to them from friends or activists in other precincts, but they had better be able to present and defend anything they bring or it’s a waste of time. Having an idea come from multiple places is intended to show that the idea has much grassroots support. But a good idea from one single person can strike a chord and work its way up to the state platform.

At a meet-and-greet with Mark Ramsey, whom I’m supporting in the new Congressional District 38 race, he talked about seeing an idea from his precinct work its way all the way up to the national platform.

It’s suggested that you bring three copies of your resolution: one for yourself to read from, one for the Precinct Convention Chair, and one for the Secretary. Resolutions can be amended by the participants, somewhat casually, as long as rules are followed. You can even come up with a new resolution on the spot—just write it on a piece of notebook paper.

That said, there is a format, which helps lay out ideas:

Whereas: This is one reason behind our idea;

Whereas: This is another reason behind our idea;

Be It Resolved: We want this to happen.

The essential part is the “be it resolved” part—even if you just say it straight out without any formality. That is the part that would be put in the platform if accepted at the higher levels. The “whereas” clauses are giving background reasoning. When you’re in your precinct, presenting a resolution, you can say why you think it’s important, or why it should be said in a particular way. But once it is passed up the chain, people working on the platform may want to know your reasoning. If it’s there in your original document, that’s helpful to their decision-making process. But, again, if you have an idea, just spit it out and get it in some written form your precinct convention agrees to. That’s all that’s necessary.

The election of delegates and approving of resolutions should take about an hour. Maybe less, maybe a bit more, depending on size and agreeableness of your group. Once adjourned, the Precinct Convention Chair and Secretary get all paperwork copied and turned in to the County party officials as instructed. And they may want to coordinate communications about the upcoming District Convention to those who were elected as delegates.

 

Senatorial District or County Conventions

The agenda at this convention will be the same: elect delegates to the next level convention, in this case to the state convention; and work on resolutions for the platform.

At this level on up, the temporary officers do a lot more work up front. There are people handling credentials, and setting up the bigger logistics of a larger convention. In some past years we’ve held our Senatorial District Conventions at separate locations. This year we’re going back to a central location at which we will meet in separate rooms for just our districts. This helps save money on location rentals, and facilitates candidates who want to address the multiple conventions—going room to room, instead of traveling all over the county. This year ours will be held on March 26 at the Norris Center, near Town & Country (scroll down to info here).

 

Electing Delegates to State

If you want to be a delegate to the State Convention, there’s a good chance you can make that happen, but there may be competition. Usually each precinct gets to send just 2-3 delegates and 2-3 alternates. If there are more who want to go, they can try to be appointed as at-large delegates. Once you get to the State Convention, most—maybe all—of the alternates will be seated as regular delegates. If they’re not, they can be paired with a delegate and, whenever that delegate cannot be on the floor (needs lunch, or needs to be doing business elsewhere), that alternate can be seated and vote in their place. So don’t feel like an alternate isn’t important; you’ll probably act function as a regular delegate, likely for the whole State Convention.

 

Platform/Resolutions Committee—Temporary and Permanent

Those resolutions you turned in at your Precinct Convention—there’s a temporary committee, appointed by the Senatorial District Chair (or County Chair in those more rural places), who gather them, categorize them into the part of the existing platform they would pertain to, and go through each one. They try to make sure each new idea is addressed and considered. There could be hundreds, maybe even thousands of resolutions. Many will be exact duplicates, or will be similar ideas. The Temporary Resolutions (or Platform) Committee will meet to do all this gathering and sorting, along with thinking and rewording.

In large districts like the one I’m in, the Temporary Resolutions Committee will do a complete version of the platform, showing changes to existing planks and the new planks added. Many other districts or counties will just put forth a number of resolutions, in the same way as at a Precinct Convention, rather than a full platform. Either way, all this work is done in the few weeks between Precinct Convention and District Convention.

At the actual District Convention, the body elects permanent officers, which will include permanent committee members, such as these platform people. People who didn’t work on the temporary committee may still be added by the convention delegates, or replace temporary members.

That's me, working on the Permanent Resolutions Committee
at our District Convention in 2020
photo from Pauline Ramsey's Facebook page

During this all-day convention, committees meet for their duties. Rules Committee, for example, might be doing similar early and convention-day work. My experience is with the platform. We meet in a separate room from the body of the convention—while they hear speeches and do other business. (We try to get our votes in as needed—including getting ourselves elected as delegates to the State Convention. It can be hectic.) We’ll have a set amount of time to hear testimony from people who want to support a proposed resolution already being considered, or who want to present a brand new resolution they’ve thought of since the Precinct Convention. The Permanent Resolutions (Platform) Committee hears testimony and then finalizes a version of the platform—which is their Permanent Committee Report. They bring that to the body, which looks at it, discusses it—sometimes at length, sometimes almost not at all—and then votes to accept the committee’s report, which then gets sent up to the state party.

 

State Convention

The same agenda applies—except that this year we won’t have a national convention, so there won’t be election of delegates. There is election of party leadership.

This is a six-day convention. Temporary committees—whose members again are appointed by the Senatorial District Chair (one committee representative per district for each committee)—meet and do the work on Rules, Platform, Legislative Priorities, etc., on Monday through Wednesday. They take testimony and try to come up with their final work product, called the Temporary Committee Report, which will be the starting point on Thursday, when most of the delegates arrive.

During those temporary committee hearings, people can come and testify on issues, to get ideas included that they want, or to get wording the way they want. You don’t have to be a delegate to testify. People can even, again, present an entirely new idea. They have opportunity to testify in separate subcommittee hearings as well as in the committee as a whole.

On Thursday, when most of the delegates arrive, permanent committee members will be chosen. Again, these are usually the ones who did the work on the Temporary Platform Report, but not always. There were some significant changeouts last time, when delegates decided their committee members didn’t hold the prevailing views of that Senatorial District.

The Permanent Committees will have only Thursday afternoon/evening to hear more testimony and finalize any changes to the Permanent Committee Report.

These reports are presented before the entire body of delegates, and are open to floor debate, which can be either very exciting or very boring, depending on issues that come up, and how much the rules of order are used to slow the process.

With Legislative Priorities, the final report comes up with something like 15-16 priorities, which they have narrowed down from around 40 earlier in the week. And then the body votes on their priorities, which narrows it down to a top eight. So that is very grassroots. And we think the innovation of providing legislative priorities is more apt to persuade legislators to do at least these few things.

Platform is usually the last thing to be discussed on the floor. That may be by design. People are tired and ready to go home, so they’re less likely to want an extended floor debate. But another innovation from a few years ago is to have an up-or-down vote on each platform plank. Any plank that doesn’t receive 50% support gets eliminated from the platform.

Other fun things go on at the State Convention. There’s a big exhibit hall, with booths and temporary stores set up. There’s entertainment. Speeches and more speeches, of course. And outside events, like breakfasts and banquets. And lots of new people to meet—just about all working toward greater freedom in our state and country, in other words good people you’d like to have as friends.

In 2018, our kids were also delegates, so we had our
grandkids with us at the State Convention.

Did I mention that the Texas State Convention is the biggest political convention in the country? Possibly in the world. We have up to 9,000 delegates, plus visitors. It’s a big and memorable fiesta—in addition to getting the voice of the grassroots to the people who need to hear us.

It starts at the Precinct Convention. So put that on your calendar, and get your voice heard at least for that hour. 

Whatever state you’re from, there’s some version of this process. Find out what it is, and get your voice heard.