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.