Primary Ballot Picks

The Texas Primary is March 5, with early voting starting this coming Tuesday, February 20. I’m finding this primary season less contentious, or maybe simply with fewer contested races, than in past primary seasons. So there are fewer races to focus on.

I’m going to go through my Republican sample ballot below, and share my views, in hopes of helping to inform other voters, starting at the top of the ballot, the US and statewide races, on down to local, and finally the propositions.

I look back on this blog, started in 2011, and feel pretty solid about what I’ve said. The few places I look back and feel like maybe I was wrong had to do with candidates. I have always been cautious about supporting candidates. It’s easy to trust God; it’s not so easy to trust people. But you do have to decide who is the best candidate at the time, based on the information available to you, added to your own feelings. Maybe even in the times I look back with disappointment on past candidate choices, those might have been the best at the time. Maybe they were worth trusting—until they made trust-losing decisions. This is to say, add my comments to what you already know, and make the best, most informed decisions you can.

I use a standard in trying to decide on candidates. I write this in more detail here. I don’t always get a chance to go through these questions with a candidate—in fact, I rarely do. But I try to discern what their answers might be from whatever else I can learn about them, from their campaign literature, sometimes candidate forums, sometimes from friends and other sources I trust. In the past, I’ve even had grids showing at a glance what various sources choose. I won’t this time, simply because there aren’t as many controversial decisions. Where I can, I’ll share the endorsements of other sources.

I suggest iVoter Guide. Put in your address and get the races on your ballot. If you click on “View Candidate Profile,” you’ll get more info, including the candidate’s responses to a questionnaire related to conservative issues.

Also, True Texas Project offers their choices for about 40 counties, here, and a one-page sheet for statewide races, here. My choices align pretty closely with theirs.

For the most part, I won’t be covering races with no primary challenger, but I will be voting for those candidates. The races I’m paying the most attention to are Harris County Sheriff, House District 138, and Harris County Republican Party Chair. Plus, it turns out there’s some info worth discussing related to three Criminal Court of Appeals races.

This piece is long, so use it as a resource and scroll to the races you’re trying to learn about. I’ve highlighted my choices. And my sample ballot is available on my precinct chair campaign website; scroll down to see it.

 

US RACES

PRESIDENT

This is often the most contented and important race on the primary ballot. Those tend to be open years, when the other party has many candidates. We have many candidates on the ballot this year too, but it’s more like a second-term presidency year. Donald Trump is far and away the favored candidate. As far as I can tell, every other candidate except Nikki Haley has dropped out, so a vote for those candidates will be wasted. There are two on this list—Ryan L. Binkley and David Stuckenberg—are totally unfamiliar to me. I didn’t watch the debates, although I paid attention to some follow-ups to them. But Trump wasn’t there, so what was the point? I did watch his interview with Tucker Carlson, which coincided with a debate and received a much higher viewership.

from Donald Trump campaign website

Some of these people I have liked, in the past or even still. I liked Nikki Haley as ambassador to the UN. But what I really wanted was for us to withdraw from the UN. Since then, she seems to me to be a RINO who never finds a war she doesn’t want to fund—at our expense. In other words, even if Trump were not in the picture, I would not consider her.

I think Ron DeSantis has been a good governor in Florida. He didn’t run a good presidential campaign. I think we are all better served with him continuing as governor. He seemed to grasp that too, after the Iowa Primary, which left him in a distant second place to Trump.

To make this short: I’m voting for Donald Trump for President. And the more the Democrat machine attacks him with lawfare, the more determined I am to support him.

US SENATOR from TEXAS

I was surprised to see Ted Cruz has two challengers, Holland “Redd” Gibson and R E (Rufus) Lopez. I haven’t heard of either of them. I’m a precinct chair, so my contact info is easily available to any candidate, and I wasn’t even aware of them. Nor do I recognize their names, at all, from the decades I have participated in Republican politics in Texas.

Ted Cruz has remained strong and rational. I enjoy his podcast, Verdict, which often offers useful inside information. No need for more discussion here. I’m voting for Ted Cruz for Senator.

US REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 38

Wesley Hunt has no challenger this year. This is the end of his first term—the first term in the existence of CD 38, which was created after the 2020 census. I had supported a close friend and strong conservative in the primary two years ago. Wesley Hunt was always a no-show at any of the several forums where I expected to hear from him. I had met him years before, running for a different position, and I didn’t think he was the best choice then either. He won the primary but lost that election. He has also been closely aligned with Dan Crenshaw—both military guys. I supported Dan Crenshaw in 2016, but he has been one of my candidate disappointments. All that said, Hunt hasn’t been a disappointment. His votes are typically conservative. He has spoken up on a few key issues and appears to represent us well. My expectations were low, but he has surprised me and some friends with how well he’s doing. There’s no choice here, but I’m glad to vote for Wesley Hunt.

US REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 7, and Other Congressional Districts

This is a nearby district, challenging a Democrat incumbent, Lizzie Fletcher. Other than a candidate forum this past Tuesday (I didn’t attend; I was out block walking), I haven’t really noticed the race. But Ballotpedia offers links to the four Republican candidates:

Tina Blum Cohen 

Carolyn B. Bryant 

Caroline Kane 

Kenneth Omoruyi 

You can get more information, and better detail, from iVoterGuide. True Texas Project has endorsed Caroline Kane.

 

TEXAS STATEWIDE RACES

RAILROAD COMMISSIONER

This is a strangely named position in Texas. It has mainly to do with Oil & Gas. There are three RR Commissioners, who come up on the ballot in different years. The incumbent on this year’s ballot is Christi Craddick. I’m pleased with her work. iVoter Guide rates her as next to highest level conservative. The one challenger who provided information, James Matlock, is less conservative. True Texas Project has unanimously endorsed Christi Craddick. I’m voting for Christi Craddick.

JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT, PLACE 4

John Devine and Brian Walker are the two candidates. True Texas Project has unanimously endorsed John Devine. Texas Home School Coalition also endorses him. He was first elected to this position in 2012 and continues to be a solid member of the court. His campaign site is here. I am voting for John Devine.

PRESIDING JUDGE, COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS

The two candidates are David J. Schenck and Sharon Keller. Keller is the incumbent of 21 years. Keller will reach age 75 during the upcoming term and would be replaced at that time by a governor appointee. I voted for her in the past. However, this year there is strong support among my conservative friends for David Schenck.

It appears the deciding factor was the Texas v. Stephens case, in which there was election fraud, the county DA declined to prosecute, and Attorney General Paxton prosecuted in an adjacent county. The Court of Criminal Appeals voted 8-1 that he couldn’t do that, based on Article II of the Texas Constitution, which says no member of the state’s executive, legislative, or judicial branches of government “shall exercise any power properly attached to either of the others, except in the instances herein expressly permitted.” Paxton disagrees with the ruling, saying it gives power over election fraud cases to Soros-funded DAs, and it will be devastating for Texas elections in the future. [You can read the entire case decision here; Judge Yeary’s dissent begins on p. 22.] 

I tend to agree with Paxton on this one—and with Yeary’s dissent (as far as a lay reader can understand it). It seems to me, Paxton, while technically an elected official under the executive branch, is akin to the DOJ in the federal government. It would be like saying the DOJ has no power to prosecute, because that’s a judicial function, even though prosecuting crimes against federal law is the express purpose of the position. AG Paxton is called on to represent Texas in the law, including to prosecute cases against Texas law, but these judges are saying, “You can’t do it without the permission of the local officials complicit in the crime.” Texas Scorecard points out, “The ruling upended more than seven decades of precedent and has been criticized as activism disguised as originalism.” This affects Harris County, where we have a DA that refuses to prosecute election fraud, or illegal immigration, and sometimes violent crime. Democrats think Kim Ogg isn’t extreme enough for them, so she’s being challenged in the Democrat primary by someone even much worse.

The three incumbent Criminal Court of Appeals judges targeted for replacement
in the Republican Primary, from left, Presiding Judge Sharon Keller,
Judge Michelle Slaughter, and Judge Barbara Hervey, image from here.

Some are calling it political, but Paxton has targeted specifically Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, Judge Michelle Slaughter, and Judge Barbara Hervey, who are the three Criminal Court of Appeals justices thwarting him who are up for re-election this year. Read more here.

True Texas Project is unanimously supporting Schenck. iVoter Guide doesn’t include judicial races. For information about any of the statewide or appeals district races, Texas Judges provides basic information here. Schenck’s campaign website is here. I am voting for David Schenck.

JUDGE, COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS, PLACE 7

The two candidates are Gina Parker and Barbara Parker Hervey. Hervey is the incumbent. For the same reasons as above, conservatives are supporting the challenger. Hervey also will reach age 75 during the upcoming term and would be replaced by a governor appointee. Gina Parker has the unanimous endorsement of True Texas Project. Her campaign website is here. I am voting for Gina Parker.

JUDGE, COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS, PLACE 8

The two candidates are incumbent Michelle Slaughter and Lee Finley. This is the same issue as those two criminal court races above, but there is some disagreement on this one, I’m not sure why. When True Texas Project first came out with their recommendations, they had selected Slaughter. Their list was used by those handling my campaign (for precinct chair) website; at that point I hadn’t yet done my deep study, and I couldn’t see anything to disagree with, so I went with their picks. However, TTP has since changed to endorse Lee Finley, and I have become aware of the issues with these judges. My friend who did the sample ballot on my website has already changed his sample ballot to choose Finley. For consistency with the other two criminal appeals races, that makes sense. However, my SREC (State Republican Executive Committee) representative is still going with Slaughter. So is Texas Right to Life (they endorse challengers Schenck and Parker, however, in the other two races).

Slaughter has held the office since 2018, so this completes her first term. Lee Finley is a lawyer in Collin County (Ken Paxton’s home county), and a former Marine (1990-1994). The link to Finley’s campaign here. His Facebook page is also active.  He gives a good brief explanation of the ramifications of the bad ruling in Texas v. Stephens, which go far beyond election fraud, in this short video from an event. 

While I would have liked meeting any/all of the three challenger candidates for Criminal Court of Appeals, I’m willing to go with what I’ve seen. I’m voting for Lee Finley in this race.

From left, David Schenck, Gina Parker, and Lee Finley,
candidates for Criminal Court of Appeals,
photo from Finley's Facebook

 

STATE DISTRICT RACES

STATE SENATOR, DISTRICT 7

Paul Bettencourt is the incumbent. He has no primary challenger, which is as it should be in his case. We continue to rely on him to help us in our cause for good limited government. I’m happy to vote for Paul Bettencourt.

 

STATE REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT 138

Lacey Hull is the two-term incumbent. Jared Woodfill is the challenger. I have good friends championing both. I supported Lacey Hull in her first election. I didn’t in her primary two years ago. She had moral issues in her personal life that conflicted with who she represented herself to be. She sides with Dade Phelan way too often. And yet, she is part of the Freedom Caucus and can generally be counted on for a conservative vote. She doesn’t tend to sign on to anything as a co-author, to help move important bills along. This has brought her an F rating from Texas Right to Life and a D rating from Texas Values Action PAC, noting that she supports casino gambling, which typically leads to $2 spent on social costs for every $1 of revenue brought to the state. (Sands Casino donated $27,000 to her campaign.)

That said, even after I didn’t endorse her two years ago, she has been friendly to me and willing to meet with me. The most troubling thing this past session was her vote to impeach AG Paxton, on 48 hours notice, with no direct testimony or evidence presented, and no chance for defense. The ensuing Senate impeachment hearing, in which Paxton was acquitted and we all saw that the evidence was innuendo and hearsay, was a waste of time and taxpayer money that could have been avoided by more House members doing their due diligence.

This is to say, I was willing to look at a primary challenger. Jared Woodfill was the Harris County Republican Chair when I was signing up to be a precinct chair. He lost his election as Chair at the same primary where I was elected precinct chair. I didn’t see any particular problems with him then. I tend to be amazed that there are people who would take on what is essentially a full-time unpaid volunteer position. Since then, I continue to see his name involved in lawsuits, particularly related to moral cases. He has close ties with Dr. Steve Hotze. I get Hotze’s newsletter. He often has good, conservative messaging. However, he puts out his slate of electors—as I do, although his has much greater reach—and his choices are often at odds with mine, particularly when I’m looking for a strong grassroots constitutional conservative, and he goes with the long-time party insider or known Rino. People say his slate is pay-to-play. In other words, the candidate makes a donation or buys an ad, or whatever the requirement, and then they can get an endorsement. I don’t know if that’s true; I just notice the difference of opinion.

Jared Woodfill presents himself as a solid Christian conservative. He probably has a record long enough to verify that, although not as a legislator. He is saying he wants to replace Dade Phelan as House Leader. We all want to replace Phelan—but we don’t all mean we want to be the replacement, especially immediately upon being elected. That gives me pause.

I have been undecided far longer than I ought to be in this important race. I have had opportunities to be campaigned to up close and personal, as a precinct chair, but I didn’t go to the events, which would have pushed me to commit and endorse. What I wanted was an open forum, with questions from the audience. I had looked forward to a candidate forum at the Cypress Texas Tea Party last month, but a late change in date because of a scheduling problem with the venue led to both of them declining.

My SREC committeeman supports Lacey Hull. I have gone with him to her office. She has been accommodating, as I said. One of my block walking friends in my precinct strongly supports her. She shared with me a negative piece of mail she got from Coalition for Good Government about Woodfill. They mention a child sex abuse case involving a Southern Baptist leader and Woodfill law partner, with stories dating April 2018 (Houston Chronicle), March 2023 (Texas Tribune), and January 2024 (Click2Houston). The negative add implies Woodfill knew and failed to report, and that he has had shady business dealings and is surrounded by fake conservatives.

I simply don’t know how to tell what is true. I suspect we will get some conservative work from either of them, along with some disappointments. While I am not endorsing in this campaign, at this point I am leaning toward Lacey Hull, where I kind of know what to expect.

 

JUSTICE, 14^TH COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT, PLACE 3

The candidates are Steve Rogers and Tonya McLaughlin. I heard Rogers speak at our Cypress Texas Tea Party meeting in January. (Recording is here.) 

There’s a chart of basic information on candidates in this race done by Texas Judges here. 

I'm voting for Steve Rogers in this race.

 

HARRIS COUNTY RACES

HARRIS COUNTY SHERIFF

The four candidates, as listed on the ballot, are Mike Knox, Joe Danna, Paul Day, and Glenn Cowan. I’ve been aware of Mike Knox, former City Councilman, and Joe Danna, who has been running essentially since the end of the last campaign, for a long time. I’m less familiar with Paul Day. Glenn Cowan got on my radar a few months ago. He spoke briefly at our Cypress Texas Tea Party. And I’ve heard him and run into him a time or two since. He’s hard to miss; he’s 6’10” tall. My husband is 6’6”, so it takes something well beyond that to make me think, “Wow! That guy is tall!” Such is the case with Cowan. I understand he is also the father of triplets. That could make for some fun family basketball.

Glenn Cowan, candidate for Harris County Sheriff,
screenshot from here

I don’t have anything against any of the candidates, but I had been leaning toward Cowan for a while. He seems very competent in the particular skills needed for the job. And he’s a strong constitutional conservative. But I wanted to know more, so I was pleased that Cypress Texas Tea Party had a candidate forum for all four this past Wednesday. Each candidate got around 15 minutes, to introduce themselves and to take some Q&A. I was able to record the meeting. You might find these useful, in the order that they spoke:

·        Glenn Cowan 

·        Paul Day 

·        Mike Knox 

·        Joe Danna 

I thought Cowan did well, although he doesn’t appear as impressive here as I’ve seen before. Still, it was a good showing. Mike Knox probably looks the part of a Texas sheriff, with a cowboy hat, handlebar mustache, and just enough Texas accent. His most recent experience has been in city government, and it has been a while since he was in law enforcement. He also lacks the hostage negotiator experience that Cowan has. But with name recognition, he’s a formidable opponent.

Paul Day is older and has hostage negotiator experience similar to Cowan. He started out life as a Democrat and now calls himself a constitutional conservative. I asked for his conversion story in that context; he misunderstood and answered about his conversion for regular Lutheran in a household that didn’t give him all the background he needed to realizing abortion was wrong and some other things, and he became born again. That was not the conversion story I had asked for. It’s easy to misunderstand things when you’re in front of a crowd, but he didn’t win any points from me. Joe Danna was OK.

I would be willing to support any of these candidates in a general election. They would all be better than the Democrat incumbent, who is allowing rampant crime. (Houston is now the number 1 hub for human sex trafficking in the nation, not a distinction this conservative Christian state and community deserves.) My guess is the top vote getters will be Cowan and Knox. All the conservative sources seem to be aligning behind Cowan, probably for the reasons I am. We think he has the right stuff. I am voting for Glenn Cowan.

 

JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, PRECINCT 5, PLACE 1

The two candidates are James Lombardino and Arlene Hecht. This JP district is the area south of Hwy 290 and west of the 610 Loop. Lombardino is an experienced judge (8 years as a district court judge), one of those good Republicans swept out in the 2018 election, which we’ve been struggling to recover from ever since. He spoke at our Tea Party meeting in January, not on the agenda but invited up to say something briefly. He has occasionally attended over the years, not just when campaigning. Video here.

Hecht is a defense attorney. She ran for a district judge position in 2020 but didn’t win. While she also claims she is running for the JP position to clear the backlog, she doesn’t have the track record as a judge running a docket and lowering the backlog, which Lombardino has. There’s a Houston Chronicle story here. JP Precinct 5 has a large number of eviction cases, exacerbated by the incumbent’s mishandling of 2020 COVID funds and rules. And it also has a high number of debt default cases. While I have nothing against Hecht, she is less experienced, so I’m going with a known quantity. I’m voting for James Lombardino in this race.

 

HARRIS COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIR

The two candidates are incumbent Cindy Siegel and challenger Bobby Orr. Many of us are wondering why a disrupter would come in, in a presidential election year, to tear down and build up. Many of us wondered that the last time it happened, when Paul Simpson was ousted. People started talking about changing the rules so that such elections would happen in the HCRP Executive Committee meetings where precinct chairs are comprise the committee, who are the people working with the Chair, rather than tossing it out there to the primary voters, who have much less contact with the chair. It caused a mess last time, and a resignation, with lack of funds and organization just weeks before the November election. People don’t want that to happen again. What’s more, people are satisfied with the way Cindy runs things.

HCRP Chair Cindy Siegel (on the right) gives her report at the
HCRP Executive Committee Meeting, January 29, 2024.

Bobby Orr came to our Tea Party in January. My phone gave up during his talk; I got most of it, but in two parts, but it didn’t seem worth posting. My impression was that what he was proposing to do was exactly what we already did to flip our school board: block walk and campaign like crazy to known Republican voters. Orr said that was the model he wanted to use for all of Harris County. What he fails to see is that we did this with Cindy Siegel as chair. We didn’t need new leadership to do it. And we didn’t need Bobby Orr either.

He pretty much torpedoed his campaign by being caught on a recording saying that he hated the grassroots and didn’t want to work with an of us crazy people. So that means, when he says he’s going to inspire the whole county to do what we did in CFISD (Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District), he’s lying to our faces.

The final nail was at the January 29 HCRP Executive Committee meeting. There was a resolution gaining signatures ahead of the meeting in an attempt to censure Cindy Siegel. There was a list of 8 or so items they were accusing her of—all of which seemed to me either lies or spin. Siegel started the meeting by going through that list, item-by-item, with charts and receipts, defending her actions, simply as part of her Chair's report. It was very satisfying when, after other business, someone called for the meeting to adjourn before that resolution could even be brought forward. From my viewpoint, that was effective leadership on Cindy Siegel’s part.

Some of the accusations relate to a disagreement between Siegel and Orr about fighting voter fraud. There are multiple cases (which I’ve written about). You can’t get good candidates, if they know they can’t win, because their best efforts will be stolen from them and the party turns a blind eye. But the accusation that funds were used that could have gone to campaigning is also false. Funding to cover the lawsuits was a grant/donation earmarked for that purpose, so the campaign funds were not touched.

Let’s hope the voting public goes with the incumbent. We need her to stay, especially this year. I am glad to be voting for Cindy Siegel.

 

PRECINCT CHAIR 622

I’m the last race on the ballot. I think I’ve been a hardworking, effective precinct chair. Being a precinct chair means taking time to build relationships, both in the precinct and with the rest of the grassroots and elected officials. I’ve been doing that for 10 years. You can learn more at my campaign website. Those of you in my precinct, I hope providing information like this is useful to you. Vote for Linda Nuttall.

Linda Nuttall. That's me, from my
precinct chair campaign bio

 

BALLOT PROPOSITIONS

photo of page in the Link Letter,
January 2024, Volume 32, #1

Ballot propositions on a primary ballot are different from those on a November ballot following a legislative session. The November ones come out of the legislature, bringing possible state constitutional amendments before the people. The starting assumption on those is to vote NO unless you’re convinced it would be an improvement to have that written into our state constitution as law.

A primary ballot proposition is non-binding. It is a way for the grassroots of the party to tell the legislature what is important to us. This is in addition to the State Platform and the Legislative Priorities, both of which come out of committees at the State Convention. The list is approved by the SREC (State Republican Party Executive Committee), the two representatives from each senatorial district in the state. That does not mean these are approved unanimously. While the assumption is a YES vote unless you’re convinced it would be wrong, the SREC can have individually diverse opinions. My SREC committeeman, Tom Nobis, suggests voting no on Proposition 1 and Proposition 7. I didn’t get his reasoning from him.

Brandon Waltens of Texas Scorecard discusses the 13 proposition here. 

Proposition 1 would eliminate all property taxes without increasing Texans’ overall tax burden. That was in the 2022 State Platform; plank 90 calls for eliminating property tax, and 91 offers an incremental way to reach that goal. People making the argument point out many elderly people who have had to sell their homes, which were paid for, because they couldn’t afford the property tax. This isn’t hypothetical; it happens to people in our neighborhoods. This denies actual property ownership and looks more like paying rent to the government, which will evict you if you don’t pay up. There may be some concern about the word “all.” But this is just to get the attention of the legislature, not to write the law itself. If there needs to be some nuance, that could be debated on any specific bill.

Proposition 7 is about access to gold and silver for use as legal tender. Plank 46, Resistance to the Great Reset, has a bullet point related to this. So, again, there’s widespread approval among conservatives for this concept. So I don’t know the arguments against it.

I haven’t done a deep dive on the Propositions yet. My plan is to vote YES on all propositions, unless I learn something between now and voting day.

It’s important to vote. It’s even more important to be an informed voter. I hope this has been helpful.

Primaries and Conventions in Texas

The political world goes in cycles here in Texas. Our legislature meets every other year, in odd years. So that half year (plus special sessions) is a busy time. And just as you’re catching your breath, primary season is upon us. If you think the primary election is just a day, you’d be missing all that gets put into motion after that—the convention season. And that’s somewhat more involved during a presidential election year, which this one is. The information below is mostly local, down to my county and precinct. But the conference information may be informative for others as well. Different states have different specific procedures, but most will have levels similar to ours.

My Campaign Adventure

I’ve been a precinct chair since 2014. I never had to campaign; no one else sought the job. I signed up to do it when my previous precinct chair moved and have always been unopposed on the ballot. But this year someone decided to challenge me. She doesn’t seem to have any complaints about the job I’ve done; she just wants to do it instead of me.

Block walking my precinct last week,
just before rain and nightfall shut us down,

Anyway, this means, because I’m on the ballot, I can’t be an election worker for the primary. Neither can my husband, who is usually our presiding judge. Instead, I’m campaigning.

There are a number of us precinct chairs with challengers. I don’t know how frequently active and effective precinct chairs get challengers, but it seems to be more than usual this year. (For some, it may have to do with our successful efforts to flip the school board, although I don’t think my challenger has that motive, that I’m aware of.) Anyway, we’ve worked together. I’ve got a campaign website, business cards, and flyers—all because of skills my other precinct chair friends have. And we’ve block walked my entire precinct—every known Republican voter. Talked with many, left info for those who weren’t home. We’ll get back to those with phonecalls or another visit. I’ve helped block walk some of the other precincts too. We’re not leaving any voter’s door unknocked on.

It has been a lot of work to do an unpaid, volunteer, grassroots-level position. But so far it has been a good experience.

This may not be interesting beyond my precinct, but here’s my campaign website. There’s a lot of other information for voters there as well. My goal is always to give voters the information you need to be an informed voter—and to get ideas from you, the grassroots, to influence our government.

 

CANDIDATE FORUM

I’ve mostly made up my decisions about other campaigns. I plan to write about my reasons soon. But I’m interested in a candidate forum of the four Republican candidates for Sheriff, sponsored by Cypress Texas Tea Party, next Thursday. The four candidates are Glenn Cowan, Joe Danna, Paul Day and Mike Knox. (Personally, I am leaning toward Glenn Cowan. I have heard him speak in person a couple of times. But I’m open to hearing from all these candidates.)

When: Thursday, February 15th, 7PM.

Where: Spring Creek BBQ

Address: 25831 Northwest Fwy, Cypress, TX 77429

 

VOTING

Our Sample Ballot is now available.

Early Voting: February 20-March 1, 7:00 AM-7:00 PM (every day except Sunday, February 25, with hours Noon-7:00 PM)

Election Day: Tuesday, March 5, 7:00 AM-7:00 PM

You can vote at any voting location for both Early Voting and Election Day. You can find locations here; toggle between Early Voting and Election Day locations. Our usual location at Truitt Middle School will be available. My husband and I won’t be running the polling place, because I am on the ballot. But you might see me outside, beyond the 100-foot line, campaigning. Come by to say hi.

The Democrats will be sharing our voting location. Because of interpretations of law, we must share the election, which we have never done. That means that you declare your party at the sign-in table, and you will be assigned only the ballot you have requested, which will be available on any machine, the way it works during Early Voting. We may set up the room to be physically separate, but if one side has a long line, the voters can use the other side’s line.

 

CONVENTIONS

The way we get ideas from the grassroots up to the lawmakers is through conventions. In a convention, we elect delegates to the next level convention, and we put forth resolutions for the platform at the next level. If you want to participate in a next-level convention, you will need to have been chosen as a delegate at the previous level convention.

Precinct Convention

The basic level is the Precinct Convention. We used to hold these at the polling place after the polls closed. Because of the change to countywide voting, and the change in machines and the time it takes to close the polls, we have needed to change the meeting to another day. Starting in the last biennium, we now meet the Saturday following voting day. In Harris County, precincts will share locations with the other precincts in our Texas House District (we are in HD 138).

Date: Saturday, March 9

Time: Registration begins 8:00 AM; Convention begins 9:00 AM

Our Location: Trini Mendenhall Community Center, 1414 Wirt Rd, Houston, TX 77055

Here is the full list House District locations:

·        HD 126 - Glorious Way Church, 11611 Champion Forest Dr, Houston, TX 77066

·        HD 127 - Kingwood Middle School, 2407 Pine Terrace Dr., Kingwood Area, TX 77339

·        HD 130 - Spillane Middle School, 13403 Woods-Spillane Blvd, Cypress, TX 77429

·        HD 132 - Autumn Creek Baptist Church, 6735 Barker Cypress Rd, Houston, TX, 77084

·        HD 133 - Hilton Garden Inn Energy Corridor, 12245 Katy Fwy, Houston, TX 77079

·        HD 135 - Autumn Creek Baptist Church, 6735 Barker Cypress Rd, Houston, TX, 77084

·        HD 138 - Trini Mendenhall Community Center, 1414 Wirt Rd, Houston, TX 77055

·        HD 148 - Glorious Way Church, 11611 Champion Forest Dr, Houston, TX 77066

·        HD 149 - Hilton Garden Inn Energy Corridor, 12245 Katy Fwy, Houston, TX 77079

·        HD 150 - Spring First Church, 1851 Spring Cypress Rd, Spring, TX 77388

The convention should be over easily by noon, or as soon as business is completed. Plan on attending this meeting. Bring written resolutions with you, or come and simply give input on the resolutions others have brought. We will vote on our resolutions (this includes the ability to amend them).

And we will elect delegates for the Senatorial District Convention. We are given a generous number of delegate slots; according to party rule, each precinct is allowed to have 1 delegate for each 25 votes cast in the Precinct for Governor Abbot in the 2022 November election. If you want to be a delegate at that convention, most of the time that simply entails saying you want to be one. (If you want to be a delegate but simply can’t make the Precinct Convention, there is a procedure to try to make that happen. Please contact your precinct chair.)

 

Senatorial District Convention

Senatorial District Conventions will be held Saturday, March 23. The SDs will meet at locations in or close to their district. We are in SD 7.

Date: Saturday, March 23

Time: (probably) 8:00 AM registration; 9:00 AM Convention begins

Location for SD7: Glorious Way Church, 11611 Champion Forest Dr, Houston, TX 77066

Here is the full list of SD convention locations for Harris County:

·        SD 4:   Kingwood Community Center, 4102 Rustic Woods Dr, Kingwood, TX, 77345

·        SD 6:  Gulf Meadows Church, 8012 Fuqua St, Houston, TX, 77075

·        SD 7:  Glorious Way Church, 11611 Champion Forest Dr, Houston, TX, 77066

·        SD 11:  Gulf Meadows church, 8012 Fuqua St, Houston, TX, 77075

·        SD 13:  Norris Conference Center, 816 Town & Country Blvd., Houston, TX, 77024

·        SD 15:  Norris Conference Center, 816 Town & Country Blvd., Houston, TX, 77024

·        SD 17:  St. Basil the Great Orthodox Church, 1100 Eldridge Pkwy, Houston, TX 77077

·        SD 18:  Glorious Way Church, 11611 Champion Forest Dr, Houston, TX 77066

Many parts of Texas do these conventions by county, or sometimes multiple counties together. It depends on number of voters. We do it by SD in Harris County, because we’re such a large county. So, if you don’t know when yours is, contact your county Republican Party Chair.

There will be a Temporary Committee (a committee invited by our SD Chair) that works on the resolutions between the Precinct Convention and the SD Convention. I have worked on this committee every biennium since 2014. Many hours go into preparing our SD 7 Platform. We, as well as a few other SDs in the state, do an entire platform. It’s based on the previous biennium’s platform, but we address every plank, whether to keep, delete, or amend, and then add planks based on the hundreds of resolutions that come in from the precinct conventions. Most SD or County Conventions simply go through the resolutions that have come up to that level, combine similar ideas for the best wording, and then submit those resolutions for the State level convention. Any way it’s done, this is the path up for ideas from the grassroots.

There are also a lot of speeches at a convention. Allen West spoke
at our SD 7 Convention in 2020.

At the SD Convention, we elect Permanent Committee members—this will be for Platform, Rules, Legislative Priorities, Credentials, and maybe other committees I’m not thinking of. In Platform Committee we work on additional resolutions that are brought in that day. Then we bring to the floor our Committee Report—our version of the SD 7 Platform. That’s the version we bring to the floor for amendments and final vote. And then that final platform will be submitted to the State’s platform committee.

We will also elect delegates to attend the State Convention (the RPT Convention). Usually we are allowed to elect 2 delegates and 2 alternates (in my experience, there is always room for alternates to be seated as delegates at the state convention; however, that isn’t a guarantee). If you want to be a delegate at the State Convention, you must be chosen as a delegate (or alternate) at the SD Convention. Sometimes there are at-large positions available, which you can apply for. Most people who want to be delegates to State can do so. You can, of course, attend the State Convention as a guest, but you cannot vote on anything.

Attendance is at the delegate’s own expense. This is usually a moderate attendance fee (toward facilities, etc.), plus hotel, meals, etc. You may also want to plan on bringing spending money; there are booths, pop-up stores, swag sales, and such convention things. Note that the Republican Party of Texas Convention is the largest political gathering in the nation, larger than the National Republican Convention. More about the RPT Convention below.

 

The State RPT Convention

The 2024 Texas State Republican Convention will be held in late May, earlier in presidential election years than in midterm election years, because it will be followed by a national convention.

Date: May 23 – 25

Time: begins 9:00 AM Thursday, May 23

Location: Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center, 900 E Market St, San Antonio, TX 78205.

A Temporary Committee will handle Platform and other committee work between the SD conventions and the State Convention. These committees are comprised of a single appointed representative from each SD. The higher the level, the more formal the process. Plan to see Roberts Rules of Order in all meetings, with committee members addressing the Chair rather than each other. At precinct and SD/County levels, these conversations are likely to be much more informal.

Platform Committee taking testimony, June 2022, view from the table;
I was managing the file, sitting next to the Chair.

These committees do a lot of work before the convention, and will take testimony in the three days prior to the State Convention, to prepare their Temporary Committee Report (their version of the State Platform). Then, when the convention gets underway, Permanent Committee members are elected in their SD Caucus; these are often the same representatives as in the Temporary Committee, but not always. The Permanent Committee has one day to take testimony and prepare the document for print. Their final report (their version of the platform) is presented for the body to amend and vote on, which happens some part of Friday or Saturday, usually near the end of business at the State Convention.

In presidential election years, at the State Convention we also elect delegates to the National Convention. This usually requires some brief campaigning and speech making to convince people. I think this vote takes place in your Congressional District Caucus at the convention. (We are in CD 38.) Travel, etc., is done at the delegate’s own expense, and is likely to be over $1000, so you need to really want to do it.

This year’s National Republican Convention is scheduled to be held July 15 to 18, 2024, at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The national party platform is developed in a similar way to the lower levels, taking input from the various states. The national platform may be considered the official party platform. But at the state level, we keep our full platform and use it to advise the legislature here in the state, as well as guidance for our Senators and Congressmen.

The big purpose of the national convention is to decide on the party’s presidential candidate. Sometimes, by the time of the convention, this is something of a formality, because the choice is already known, following the various state primaries. It looks like that will be the case this year, with Donald Trump eclipsing any other candidate. I’ve seen my sample ballot, but I didn’t even notice the names of the several other presidential candidates.

Once this decision is finalized, there’s a lot of celebrating. Sometimes the candidate will announce a running mate. I don’t have any idea who that will be this year, so that’s news to anticipate.

After this convention, then the campaign season is fully on, from mid-July until the first Tuesday of November.

 

So that’s the summary of this year’s Primary/Convention season. The more you know about the process, the more effective you’ll be at getting your grassroots ideas up through the ranks to the elected officials.

Border Lines

Here in Texas the southern border is always important to us. But maybe more than usual lately, since the Supreme Court said, “Sure, if your way of securing the border is to cut through and remove barriers, you can do that,” and sort of failed to point out, “If you’re actually securing the border, that is.” Anyway, here we are in the state with the biggest border—and big in every way—and our president is kind of threatening war against us citizens of Texas.

meme found on Facebook

There’s a demonstration of sorts going on this week. Truckers are gathering. I think as of Thursday they're already in Texas and will be splitting up into three convoys, one going down to Eagle Pass, the furthest going to San Ysidro, on the border in California, and a third to Yuma, Arizona.

Glenn Beck talked with Donica Hudson, the media liaison for the Take Our Border Back Convoy on his Wednesday radio show. After the setup that was J6, people are wary of a trap. But she assured him they’re being careful. This is a call for prayer down near the border. And they’re stopping 20 miles or so from the actual border, so they can’t even accidentally get in the way of the work of border agents and national guard troops. They are threatening to sue for defamation anyone who accuses them of violence or criminal intent. And they are making sure everyone understands the peaceful purpose and excludes anyone even talking about violent actions.

Jason Buttrill shared footage of the convoy from Tuesday night.
It seemed to be mostly family vehicles, rather than tractor trailers
at that point. People were cheering with flags from the roadside.
Screenshot from here.

Will that be enough to protect them? I hope so. We should see within a few days whether it’s possible for patriots to still do a peaceful demonstration in this country.

But there’s reason for concern.

On Monday’s weekly Onward podcast, Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, of 2000 Mules fame, were talking about their recent visit to the border. Engelbrecht is a native Texan (she started True the Vote here in Houston, but lives somewhere rural now). So after all that was going on, they decided to go see for themselves what the border looked like. They started the story with this:

Gregg Phillips: We met people that were down there that are deeply involved in the protection of the border. And, uh— But they were also very candid. And, um, there was this definite feeling that there was a deal that had been made—

Catherine Engelbrecht: We were told, unequivocally, we were told that was the term that was used: “There has been a deal made.”

Phillips went on to call it a “military deception. It was an intel op.” He said they created a stage, or circumstances, to look a certain way when they brought in celebrities, which included Lt. Governor Dan Patrick in this case. (Catherine laughed at the idea she was considered a celebrity.) What they didn’t see on this visit was a lot of border crossing traffic, and it made them wonder what was going on. As you might expect, this was not normal.

He said that, later, they learned a lot of things. First he talked about the wall. There are pieces of it, 20 feet high, that didn’t fully keep out determined invaders. Those were built around 2008, when George W. Bush felt pressure to do a little something about the border before the end of his presidency. The top was such that it didn’t deter climbing, so those are no longer made. Trump walls were 30 feet tall, with barriers atop them, and fewer gates (gates are used by landowners to get from one side of their land to the other, when the wall is built a mile or so inland from the border or river). But the interesting part was about the “deal.” Here’s Gregg Phillips’ telling of the story:

Gregg Phillips and Catherine Engelbrecht talk about their
trip to the Texas border. Screenshot from here.

GP: What happened was, a deal had been made between the Biden administration, potentially the state of Texas, and the Mexican government to keep the migrants back for a while, to create this photo op, to tamp down the situation where— It was military deception, is what it was. And they’re not supposed to do that in the United States, but they were.

He said that the soldiers and border patrol were already working together; there isn’t a big standoff happening. And, during this visit, there wasn’t even the usual daily expected crossings.

GP: Well, guess what. There were 15,000 of them at the southern border of Mexico that were released last Saturday, to come north. So, what they’re setting up there, in our opinion—in my opinion; maybe Catherine will want to speak for herself—what I believe they’re setting up here is, this truckers’ convoy that arrives at the border sometime this weekend, and I think there’s some movement in the other states as well, but let’s just talk about Texas for a minute. Many many many trucks, and many many people and patriots are going to go to the border, a little bit like we did, just to see— You know, stand up for, not just Texas, but for the United States.

So, think about what’s happening here. While all these photo ops are going on, there’s nothing. So, the Biden administration kind of gets a win with that. Maybe even the Tex— I don’t know who wins, but this was basically a fake win-win scenario. The fact that no one was there, coming through that open gate, or swimming through the river, or anywhere else that we could find. The reason was, the Mexican government held 15,000 of them up at the southern border.

Now they’re coming this way. So you can imagine how we feel, at the confluence of events, knowing that many of our friends, people we know, people we admire, people we support, are getting ready to pack up, get in their trucks, and head on down to the border. And, with this idea that, well, it’s softening a little bit; everything’s OK. They’re going to get down there and all of a sudden 15,000.

Not just 15,000 suddenly showing up, but 10,000 Chinese. Reporter Michael Yon is their source on this:

Up to 10,000 Chinese came through the Darien Gap in Panama in the ten days prior to us getting down there. So, from last Friday [January 26], the ten days prior, 10,000 fighting-age Chinese came through the Darien Gap, and up through Columbia, up through Panama, up through the Gap—it’s a jungle area, one of the most dangerous places in the world.

Chinese emerging from the Darien Gap, December 30, 2023,
footage filmed by Michael Yon, screenshot from here

Michael Yon, Catherine adds, has been “putting up maps of what he’s seen, and explaining the movement in Panama, which will give more context to what Gregg is saying.” They’re building camps to house them in before they come across. Phillips goes on:

GP: You’ve got 10,000 potential Chinese. You’ve got a total of 15,000 people that were released at the southern Mexico border to come north, toward the United States. They’re all going to collide at the same time in some of these points of entry, particularly Eagle Pass. And both north and south of there. And it just feels like, it feels like chaos at this juncture, and that they’re trying to sow chaos. And our concern for all of our friends heading down there is, it feels a little J6-ish to us. It feels like, you know, Biden needed a win; Abbott needed a win; the Mexican government needed a win; and the Chinese need to get their people up here. It just seems like a bit of a perfect storm.

They’re concerned for national guard troops, for the border patrol agents—both sides in the supposed conflict, but regardless of orders are both about protecting the border.

Gregg Phillips takes what seems like a tangent to talk about Secretary of DHS Mayorkas, which is actually related.

GP:  Mayorkas, before he—we’re going to pass more information on this—but before he became Secretary of DHS, he was on the board of an NGO. That NGO has an office building at the Darien Gap, literally 50 yards from what’s called euphemistically “China Camp,” where all the Chinese are coming up through the Gap and being facilitated by this NGO. Mayorkas has been seen down there on drone footage, arriving at the camp, going to the NGO, and then back again.

Just speculation here, but it looks as though the US head of the Department of Homeland Security is facilitating the movement of fighting-age male Chinese to come to the US border and enter our country. That’s what it looks like. Phillips calls him “a complete bad guy” and deserving of impeachment, if anyone ever was. He also believes Mayorkas is the one who “concocted this whole scheme to get the win for Biden, the win for Abbott, the win for Mexico, and create this environment where there’s going to be a potential conflict at Eagle Pass sometime next week, or later this week, when all the truckers and all the patriot types get down there.”

People have been asking Gregg and Catherine what patriots can do, so they asked their contact down at the border. His answer was one they agree with:

GP: The only thing that’s going to stop this— It’s not going to be razor wire on top of unused containers—although that’s pretty— I’ve walked around that for a bit; that’s pretty effective. But the only thing that’s going to stop this is some president—President Trump—actually deporting these people. As soon as they start deporting the people that are somehow making their way across, sending them back wherever they came from, back to China, back to Nicaragua, back to wherever they’re going—Venezuela, Cuba, wherever they’re coming from—only deportation is going to stop this. Mark my words. Nothing else will stop this.

They want a war. They want an internal war over this. But even that isn’t going to stop what’s happening. The only thing that’s going to stop it is putting these people back on a plane, and instead of flying them to Chicago, fly them to Caracas.

You have to wonder why a thinking person would want invaders to flood in across our borders, and would hope something might spark a kinetic war. But, then, we don’t have a thinking person in the White House. We have a power monger there, surrounded by power mongering minions.

Anyone going to the border, be careful. Be on the lookout for traps. Be nonviolent. Putting pressure on government bad guys could be a good thing. It brought needed attention in Canada and The Netherlands. But neither of those places ended well for the truckers or farmers, because of the tyrants in power. We live in what is supposed to be a constitutional republic, with the rule of law. But we have tyrant leaders right now as well. So, if you’re bravely joining others to make your voice heard, again, just be aware and be safe. We want to see you safely back home afterward.

On a side note, the Harris County sample ballot is finally available. There are 13 propositions at the end of the Republican ballot. Numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 12 all relate to illegal immigration and border security. The people of Texas are trying to get this message across—peacefully.

Additional Resource:

·        “How China and the UN are Fueling the Invasion of America” Tucker Carlson interviews Bret Weinstein, February 1, 2024.