Primary Picks, Part II: Congress and County Races

In part I we covered the statewide races. Today we’ll go over the nearby congressional and Harris County races. In part III later this week, we’ll go over the contested judicial races and the ballot propositions. Have I mentioned that we have the longest ballot in the nation? Feel free to scroll down to races you’re interested in.

Congressional Races

Congressional District 38

I’ve spent the most time on this race—the newly created district here in northwest Harris County. I’ve written about it here, here, and here.

It’s a tree-shaped district; the top branches cover Jersey Village, Cypress areas, and Tomball, reaching almost to Montgomery County. I’m in the stem, or trunk, area, which is a pretty narrow connector to the southern section, the tree roots, which includes the Energy Corridor along I-10 and parts of Memorial. There is no incumbent, since it’s brand new.

There are 10 candidates. What you need to know is that this is a David and Goliath-type contest. The Washington, DC, establishment has put their money and push behind their candidate, and they’re assuming the money will buy them what they want. Their candidate is Wesley Hunt. He ran two years ago in CD 7, losing against Democrat Lizzie Fletcher. This was not my district, but looking at that race, here’s what I wrote about this DC candidate at that time: 

Wesley Hunt looks good on paper. He’s an African-American military veteran, the kind of person you want to be pleased about voting for. However, his voting record shows never having voted in a Republican primary. Maybe we have to forgive him for 2008 (although I’d rather not), but all other primaries? It’s hard to convince me of your dedication to the Constitution without even that minimal record.

Since then he has voted in the Republican Primary—the one in which he was on the ballot. 

I was willing to give him an honest chance, but he failed to show up at two candidate forums in December, and then failed to show up as scheduled at the Cypress Texas Tea Party, despite confirming the night before. The only forums I know of where he has shown up have been fundraising dinners, usually with other Washington, DC, picks, Dan Crenshaw (CD 2) and Morgan Luttrell (CD 8). I get emails from Hunt, but rather than talking about issues, it’s all about fundraising.

There was this one that caught my eye a week ago (Wednesday, February 9, 2:12 PM). The subject line said, “every $5 = 1 new voter”:

What exactly is his Voter Registration Fund? Is it separate from his campaign fund? Because, I’m a deputy voter registrar. There are rules. You can’t distinguish between parties you’re willing to register. You can go to events where there are a lot of people of one party, but you can’t do anything partisan while registering voters—that includes campaigning for a candidate. And, like I said, he’s not going to events where there are Republicans. Also—I don’t get paid for that; it’s volunteer work. So what is this money he’s collecting going to? And why is he equating contributions to this fund to a certain number of new voters? He thinks he can buy votes? If somebody wants to pursue this with election law people, feel free. I’m putting my energy elsewhere, but this seems both offensive and pretty fishy.

So, enough about him. What about the other nine candidates? Most—all but one—lack experience. I’m behind the experienced candidate, Mark Ramsey.

There’s another candidate (Lopez) who has been trying to paint Ramsey’s long years of grassroots volunteer service as “being part of the establishment” “part of the problem.” Really? So, I’m asking, personally, when does a grassroots volunteer suddenly cross over into the establishment? I made this comment on such a post:

Being involved in politics for me has meant being a convention delegate, a citizen lobbyist to my representatives in Austin and their local offices, making calls and emails to my representatives, being a poll watcher, a poll worker, eventually stepping up as precinct chair when mine was moving, volunteering to help on the platform committee. At what point of volunteering my time as a citizen do I step over some line and become "100% part of the problem"? If you're talking about Mark Ramsey, you're saying his experience and success as a volunteer citizen makes him some part of the establishment that he's been fighting for decades. Exactly where does a person cross the line from good citizenship to problem—and would you think of such citizens as problems from Washington?

When you look at voting records—publicly available information—only Mark Ramsey has consistently voted in Republican primaries. Hunt failed to vote even in a general election between 2008 and 2018. His military service was 2004 to 2012, so it wasn’t all the inconvenience of deployment.

Mark Ramsey has these endorsements:

·         Texas Right to Life

·         Texas Home School Coalition

·         Texas Values Action

·         Grassroots America, We the People

·         Americans for Parental Equality

·         Kingwood Tea Party

·         The Conservative Republicans of Texas

·         Texas Conservative Review

·         The Link Letter

·         Conservative Coalition of Harris County

Those are the groups. These include the three "slates,” which people sometimes call pay-to-play. But Mark tells us that was not his experience. They interviewed him, gave the endorsement, before any talk of buying ads. No ads were required for the endorsement. He was told the more ads they sell, the greater their reach. But there was no pressure. I don’t know if that is always the case, but that was his experience.

Then there are the individuals, a long list, including:

·         Sid Miller, Texas Agricultural Commissioner

·         Wayne Christian, Chairman, Texas Railroad Commissioner

·         Mayes Middleton, Representative Texas House District 11, Chair of Texas Freedom Caucus

·         Steve Toth, Representative Texas House District 15, Texas Freedom Caucus

·         Briscoe Cain, Representative Texas House District 128 Texas Freedom Caucus

·         Kyle Biederman, Representative Texas House District 73 Texas Freedom Caucus

·         Rick Miller, Former Representative Texas House District 26, Navy Aviator

·         Derek Townsend, Tomball City Councilmember

·         Gail Lowe, Former Chair Texas State Board of Education

·         Ken Mercer, Former Texas State Board of Education

·         David Bradley, Former Texas State Board of Education

·         Charlie Garza, Decorated Navy Submariner, Former School Board of Education Member, SREC

Add in a lot of members of the SREC members (representatives from each state senatorial district who work on state Republican committees), precinct chairs (76% of those who have committed), grassroots activists, and regular citizens. And me.

He’s strong on all things constitutional—and knows what he’s talking about. And he’s especially strong on energy, being an oil & gas engineer, having run his own consulting business for the last couple of decades.

He has been a mentor to me. I’ve worked with him several times on the district resolutions (platform) committee, and he pulled me along to edit the state platform when he chaired that committee. Here’s a detail you might not see elsewhere: we pray at every campaign meeting, and even at meet and greet events. We have a sense that we need to take back our country—and that God will support such efforts. I guess I just can’t say enough good about him as a candidate. I’m so glad we can choose him, instead of the one Washington thinks they are choosing for us. Here’s the campaign website: RamseyForTexas.com.

Candidate Forums:

The video of the December 1^st HCRP CD 38 Candidate Forum is available on YouTube. The video of the December 15^th forum is available here. Below are links to the videos of the candidates who spoke at our Tea Party in December and November:

·         Mark Ramsey 

·         Jerry Ford 

·         Richard Welch 

·         Roland Lopez 

·         Damien Mockus 

·         Brett Guillory 

 

Congressional District 8

I’ll have less to say about these other districts, since they aren’t mine. But I’ve heard from some of the candidates. After redistricting, many of my friends and neighbors got moved into CD 8, which is west and south of much of CD 38. It should be a strong Republican district, so, again, the decision is essentially being made in the Primary.

There are quite a few candidates. The main three are Christian Collins, Jonathan Hullihan, and Morgan Luttrell. Collins and Hullihan both spoke at our Tea Party. Morgan Luttrell has been campaigning alongside Crenshaw and Hunt. He’s also a former Seal, as is Crenshaw—and his rather famous brother Marcus Luttrell, who wrote Lone Survivor. Morgan Luttrell is colorful. The first I’d heard from him was a forum this past week—linked below—with just these three candidates. On many issues he seems conservative. But there were some points where he just didn’t know enough to be convincing. Both of the other two know conservatism thoroughly.

Hullihan also has a military background, having served as a JAG lawyer. In that position he has actually written legislation. Collins is young, and I expect he’ll have a future. He’s the Christian conservative and pro-life choice of many, although I believe Hullihan could fit that description as well.

People in this district can do what you like, but if I were voting in this race, I’d be leaning toward Hullihan.

Candidate Forums:

These three candidates participated in this candidate forum. These two spoke at our Tea Party in November:

·         Christian Collins 

·         Jonathan Hullihan 

 

Congressional District 2

CD 2 is no longer my district, although I guess Dan Crenshaw is still nominally my representative the rest of this year, because we won’t swear in a representative for CD 38 until next January. Crenshaw has some challengers. I know next to nothing about any of them. I’m aware there is some displeasure with Crenshaw over some votes (related to climate and red flag issues) and some statements that made it sound like he disdains anyone who believes there was significant election fraud. (That would include me.) There have also been some attacks on his faith, and I think that’s out of line. I’ve read his book. I know what he’s been through. God helped him through that. And I pray for him. Heritage Foundation still gives him a 98% rating on votes. If I were in that district, being me, I’d have a hard time pushing him out. But those in that district can make their own decisions on that.

 

Congressional District 7

CD 7 is held by Democrat Lizzie Fletcher, who by all reports, from friends who have needed her help, has been utterly useless. Redistricting changed CD 7 from a close district (that Hunt should have been able to win in 2020, if he’d been such a great candidate) to a D+24 district—which means the Democrat (even non-incumbent random Democrat) is expected to win by 24 percentage points. There are nonetheless a number of candidates willing to go up against the odds. I don’t know much about any of them, unfortunately. So you’re on your own. The candidates are Tim Stroud (campaign info here; article here), Rudy A. Atencio (campaign info here), Tina Blum Cohen (campaign info here), Benson Gitau (campaign info here), Laique Rehman (campaign info here), and Lance Stewart (campaign info here).

 

Harris County Judge

Possibly the most important race in Harris County is to unseat Democrat Lina Hidalgo as Harris County Judge. This is an administrative position, working with the county commissioners to handle logistics and infrastructure. Hidalgo has managed to use it—under the direction of a commissioner who controls her—to take elections away from the County Clerk and put it in the hands of an unelected election bureaucrat that she appoints. She has managed to turn Houston into the crime capital of the nation—wresting that dubious title from Chicago—by insisting on releasing violent criminals without bail. She is far more concerned about implementing woke rules than solutions to flooding after Harvey. If there is something that obviously needs to be done to solve problems in the county, she is likely to do exactly opposite.

So I’ll take anyone who can beat her. But I’d really prefer someone who can do the job as well as recognize the importance of conservative principles—which work every time they’re tried. I think Alexandra del Moral Mealer, Martina Lemond Dixon, or Vidal Martinez could do the job. Mealer seems to be the actual true conservative.

In the forum at our Tea Party, Vidal Martinez spoke first. His resume looks like he’s especially made for the job. He has the right experience and track record. Then, during the Q&A someone asked him about donations he’d made to Lina Hidalgo—after her first year. Really? He says he was trying to be hopeful and supportive, hoping she would improve in the job. I think it’s more likely that, as a corporate lawyer, you use donations like that—sizable to us regular folks—just to smooth the road, so to speak. But I’ve been trying to decide since then if it was a deal breaker.

Martina Lemond Dixon is a black female, relatively new to conservatism. She has handled some challenging school board issues and looks like she might be effective. But her voting record concerns me a lot. She was also asked about Democrat donations. She admitted them (there are nine such donations) but claims they were made by her husband using her credit card. Hmm.

Alexandra del Moral Mealer is former military, where she has leadership experience that actually translates into County Judge duties. She led a bomb squad, and handled logistics, managing personnel in high-stress circumstances. She’s a bit unpolished, but she has improved as the campaign has gone along. She’s getting my vote.

Here is campaign info for all the candidates in this race: Martina Lemond Dixon (campaign info here), Vidal Martinez (campaign info here), Alex Mealer (campaign info here), Randy Kubosh (campaign info here), Oscar Gonzales (campaign info here), Robert Dorris (campaign info here), H. Q. Bolanos, George Harry Zoes (campaign Facebook page here) and Warren Howell (campaign info here).

Candidate Forums:

The Cy-Fair Republican Women are hosting a candidate forum for County Judge candidates on February 26, 1:00-3:00 PM, at Steve Radack Community Center.

There was a candidate forum for Harris County Judge on Sunday, February 6, for two of the candidates: Martina Lemond Dixon and Alexandra del Moral Mealer. Video here or here.

Five candidates spoke at our December Tea Party meeting:

·         Vidal Martinez 

·         Martina LemondDixon 

·         Randy Kubosh 

·         Alex Mealer 

·         Warren Howell 

 

County Treasurer

The only other contested county race this year is for County Treasurer. The two candidates are Kyle Scott (campaign info here) and Eric Dick (campaign email ericbdick@gmail.com).

Kyle Scott was our Lonestar College Trustee from 2013 until term-limited out. He made some good conservative inroads—mainly by standing his ground on budget issues—during that time. We met him at the Tea Party even back then. I’m glad to see him back in the battle. He wrote a recent article on why the county treasurer position is important, here. 

His opponent, Eric Dick, filed later in the process. We never heard from him at the Tea Party. I got one mailer, not particularly informative. He has no campaign website, only a Facebook page. The only endorsement I’ve seen for him is the Houston Chronicle, which he seems proud of (the Chronicle, of course, leans Democrat, even when they offer their choices in the Republican Primary). He is a Harris County Department of Education trustee; we’re trying to get rid of that money funnel. I don’t know what his position is even about that. He works as an insurance lawyer.

So it’s a clear choice. I’m voting for Kyle Scott. You might enjoy his talk at our November Tea Party meeting, here.  

 

House Districts

Most House district in this area (north and west Harris County) are uncontested, so I won’t mention them. The contested ones are 132, 138, and 150. Mine is 138, so that’s where I have the most to say. Then I’ll cover the others just briefly.

HD 138

This has been a painful year of disappointment in elected officials: Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Patrick, to some extent my US Rep. Dan Crenshaw. Add to that my State Rep. Lacey Hull. This was her first term in the legislature; two years ago I was trying to decide whether she had my vote. I decided late in the Primary process, but I did vote for her. I like her personally. She’s sweet and appears to be the kind of person I’d like to go to lunch with. We could talk homeschooling, and conservative politics, and, I thought, Christianity. But, some months ahead of the 2021 legislative session, I was in a meeting where I said I thought she was going to be good. And someone blurted out that she was now divorced—her fault. Pretty ugly. I didn’t know if it was true; I didn’t want it to be. It was later corroborated by enough sources that I believe it. No need to share sordid details here. I have been praying for her. I believe in repentance; I also believe that takes time.

During the legislative session, her notable accomplishment had to do with connecting with a national database to find John Does, the unidentified dead, to give their families closure. It was a nice piece of legislation. Very non-partisan. She supported school choice—but did not sign on as a co-author. There are things she supported that related to maintaining a lack of transparency—or what looks that way to us out here. The question is, did she fall into the swamp in Austin and get caught up there? I don’t know.

While I’ve gotten campaign literature from the Hull campaign, I’ve also gotten anti-Hull literature. Abolish Abortion Texas points to her broken signed pledge to support and co-author legislation to abolish abortion. I don’t know what her votes were on the heartbeat bill, which passed; but she did not get the endorsement of Texas Right to Life either. A group called Defend Texas Liberty PAC pointed out that she voted to allow Democrats to have some committee chairmanships. That’s a tactical thing. The very conservative Rep. Oliverson told me and a friend, near the beginning of the session, that it’s to keep them from putting all their energy into obstructing Republicans. Personally, I don’t think that strategy is working, but Hull may have taken advice from someone who thought it would be the right thing to do.

She has two challengers. Both are people of remarkable integrity and ability. Christine Kalmbach worked on the district platform committee two years ago, which is where we became acquainted. Josh Flynn ran for this seat two years ago but just didn’t make it on my radar. But then he worked with the RPT during the convention two summers ago—that messy online one. There would have been no way to finish our online caucuses without his technical help and innovation. He’s now serving as secretary in the Harris County Republican Party.

We heard from both of them at our January Tea Party; Lacey Hull was invited but didn’t come. Don’t hold that against her; our reminder to get a final commitment came late and she was committed elsewhere. Here are the two videos:

·         Christine Kalmbach

·         Josh Flynn    

Josh was less comfortable speaking than I expected. Still, he’s very capable. Christine, I thought, got better as she talked more. She was fully conversant on issues of the legislature, and had done her homework on important House votes. I’ve talked with her a couple of times (I initiated the conversations with her) to talk about why she was running. What, legislatively, was bad enough to challenge a Republican incumbent? I took serious notes. She knew what she was talking about. They were things I hadn’t been aware of, as much as I try to pay attention during the legislative session. The transparency issues—she had specific legislation, specific votes even on amendments.

Still, I’ve hesitated. I think it’s an uphill battle to go against an incumbent, so, regardless of what I do, chances are I’m likely going to be in the position of supporting Hull against a Democrat in a district that has been very close the past couple of elections (I’m not sure, after redistricting, how that has changed, only that my slightly R precinct is still there). I don’t want to burn bridges. But I finally decided, a few days ago, to support Christine Kalmbach in the Primary. I’m hoping they’ll be bringing a yard sign by any day. This is another race that could be decided in a runoff.

 

HD 132

Rep. Mike Schofield is one of our Tea Party favorites. He comes often. All you have to do is ask a question and let him talk for an hour. He knows the ins and outs of the legislature better than most. And he’s been an effective conservative there. He’s challenged by Erik Le, whom I do not know, and who doesn’t have a campaign website, only an email. The Primary should be a slam dunk for Mike Schofield.

 

HD 150

I’m not sure what’s going on in this race. Rep. Valoree Swanson is a member of the Freedom Caucus, and is congratulated this past session for successfully getting a bill passed to require high school sports to be according to biological sex. She has the endorsement of Texas Right to Life and Texas Home School Coalition. She was our SD 7 SREC committeewoman before running for the House. She kept in touch with me well during those years.

She’s being challenged by Valerie McGilvery (campaign into here), Bryan Le, and Debbie Riddle (campaign email debbie@rafirm.com). The only one I’m familiar with is Debbie Riddle, who held the seat for a number of years prior to losing it to Swanson. I’ve always liked Riddle, but she supported a House Speaker who was intolerably non-conservative. That struck too many people as going establishment. I’m not sure why all the challengers this year. Maybe it’s a personality thing. Maybe it’s some level of politics that I just don’t follow. I’ll let you figure it out, if that’s your district.

 

State Board of Education

District 6

Our incumbent SBOE is Will Hickman. I like him. I voted for him. The SBOE voted in November on health sciences curriculum. Those who are keeping watch to guard against woke agendas looked at the proposals seriously and recommended voting against all four. Hickman voted against three of them, and only the one passed. There seemed to be some need for a compromise just to have a curriculum to use. I didn’t follow the details closely enough to know if that fourth one should be a deal breaker. For me it isn’t. His challenger, Mike Wolfe, does not seem as capable. So Hickman will get my vote again.

 

District 7

This area is further south, but in case anyone is reading, I’ll just say I support Julie Pickren. She has the right experience, having worked and accomplished what’s needed on a school board. She helped us out up here last spring when we were beginning our fight to oust the pro-CRT board members on our school board. She showed up at a neighborhood event on September 11, where I talked with her—and she pulled me aside and prayed with me; it was a memory moment I treasure. I wish her well. She got a 100% endorsement from the Conservative Coalition of Harris County, and the endorsement of Texas Right to Life.

 

Bonus: For those of you who have actually read this far, here are some of the resources I’ve used.

Voter’s Guides, Endorsements, and Recommendations

·         TTP’s statewide and Harris County recommendations they’ve made so far for the Primary are here.

·         Texas Right to Life pro-life voter guide here.

·         Texas Home School Coalition voter guide here.

·         Conservative Coalition of Harris County voter guide here. Click on federal, state, or county for questionnaire answers from candidates.

·         iVoterGuide here. Click on “more” for each candidate to get questionnaire answers and other details.

·         Conservative Republicans of Texas PAC (Hotze/Woodfill) endorsements here.

·         Texas Conservative Review (Gary Polland) voter guide here.

·         LINKLetter (Terry Lowry) voter guide here.

·         Take Texas Back has a list of 85 candidates who have signed the Texas First Pledge. See that list here.

Grassroots vs. the Establishment

The primary season is underway. We started a bit late this year, because of redistricting, which didn’t get settled until November. And Primary Election Day is March 1^st. So, despite attention rightly turning toward holidays the past few weeks, campaigns are starting to heat up. I’m involved in one particular campaign that I feel strongly about, so I’m writing about that today. Much of this is intended as an article elsewhere, but here I can add details of interest to me, and maybe interest to readers here. So here goes.

The necessary redistricting following the 2020 census has given Texas two new US congressional districts. One was placed around Austin. The other, the newly created Texas Congressional District 38, was plopped down in northwest Houston. That’s the one I’m in, after a decade in CD 2 where I pretty joyfully endorsed Rep. Dan Crenshaw in 2016. Anyway, the new CD 38 made changes mainly to the previous lines for CD 2, CD 7, and CD 8.

Redistricting map from FiveThirtyEight

If you live in this area and don’t know what district you’re now in, I suggest the interactive tool in the middle of this article. You type in your address, and it gives you your jurisdictions for US Congress and your Texas House and Senate districts. If you want to know which Harris County Commissioner Precinct you’re now in, go here and look up your precinct number. All these new districts will be shown on your voter registration card, which will be sent out to you sometime between now and early voting, so probably within a month.

Word is that CD 7 (which I was in the first decade of the century) is mostly being given up to Democrats while CD 2, CD 8, and CD 38 will lean even more Republican. (For the whole country, you can check out the redistricting maps and their expected leanings at FiveThirtyEight.) 

·         CD 7 will be D+24

·         CD 2 will be R+30

·         CD 8 will be R+26

·         CD 38 will be R+27

This means that these races will essentially be decided during the March 1^st Primary Election—or at least settled by any needed runoff on May 24^th.

For the brand new CD 38, this will be an opportunity for conservatives to get the representation they want and deserve.

There are ten candidates in the race. There’s one big name, supported by big money and being run from a distance—and the candidate, while Republican, doesn’t “speak conservative" fluently enough to convince close watchers that he’s a true “native” conservative. So the grassroots have been taking a look at the rest of the field.

Republican precinct chairs and other grassroots activists have held two forums, trying to get a feel for who these candidates are. (You can watch the videos of the first one here and the second one here.) At the end of each, they held a straw poll. Both showed Mark Ramsey as the clear winner.

In case you can’t enlarge it enough, every one of the long lines is Mark Ramsey.

Establishment pick Wesley Hunt didn’t show. The first event was because of a scheduling conflict; that’s forgivable. The second no-show was simply declining the invitation. At this point, people were starting to grumble about being snubbed. He was expected at a third event, the Cypress Texas Tea Party (I’m on the board), on December 18^th, and confirmed the night before. But he sent a representative, with word his daughter woke up with a fever. He didn’t, however, ask to reschedule for the next meeting. He’s been doing a few paid-donation dinners and an occasional meet-and-greet, plus some national media. But nothing that qualifies as reaching out to the grassroots. As a precinct chair, I’ve gotten phonecalls from his campaign asking for my endorsement. I say I’m still waiting to hear him in person. Then he doesn’t show at the events, and they call me again to ask for my endorsement. That does not show good listening skills.

For comparison, in 2018 I met candidate Dan Crenshaw three or more times before the primary, and multiple times afterward. He was generous with his time, and talked one-on-one and in small groups, answering questions—which he did rather well. He also ran the full length of the district (it was about 70 miles then), and helped muck out houses and do restoration in a less-affluent area near me following Hurricane Harvey, which happened just about the time he filed to run. Since becoming something of a media star, a fluke brought about by an SNL attack on him and the military, which he handled with grace and humor, he continues to reach out and do townhalls. And he does long-form discussions of issues on his podcast. He does words well; even when we disagree, I can understand his point of view. Wesley Hunt may be a friend to him, and also former military, but he’s not from that mold. He ran for CD 7 in 2020 (not my district, but I preferred two other candidates over him) and lost to the Democrat in the November election.

I gave my endorsement to Mark Ramsey before the second December forum, by the way. I’m an unpaid campaign volunteer, doing what I do (writing and editing), and I might even end up block walking with the best of them.

There have been rumors of interference in the race from faraway DC Republican leadership—what we call the establishment—who think they can choose our candidate without our say so. One candidate (who has since dropped out of the race) had hired three campaign advisors—the dream team, they were called, who had never lost a race when working together. They all quit, because of establishment pressure telling them they’d never work another congressional campaign if they did anything to oppose the NRCC Washington establishment anointed one. Other campaigns have found it nearly impossible to hire help and are struggling along on their own, or are combining with campaigns in other races to extend their reach and resources.

Meanwhile, Mark Ramsey’s campaign is picking up grassroots support. There's a snapshot of the current grassroots, measuring precinct chair commitment—which was the first step and the key to winning the three Cy-Fair ISD school board races this past November. Two of the three we ousted were long-time establishment Republicans, by the way. The same people who cared enough to block walk to tens of thousands of homes in order to get CRT and anti-family materials out of our schools are a formidable army. Anyway, in that snapshot, of the 70% of responding precinct chairs who have committed to a candidate, 75% have committed to Mark Ramsey.

In a primary election, the most dedicated voters tend to go to the polls. Precinct chairs can reach those voters in their precincts. Big money from far away might make sense for a tight general election in which the candidate needs to appeal to a broad swath of voter persuasions. But in this particular race, it might come down to who convinces the grassroots that they hold their values.

It is with good reason that Mark Ramsey is leading the grassroots battle right now. He is a tried-and-true conservative. He has worked in grassroots politics for decades. The state platform looks the way it does—categorized according to state Senate committees—because of his innovations. Many of the planks—the ideas and/or their wording—came from his efforts. The state Legislative Priorities, which he chaired in the last state convention, was an invention coming out of Senate District 7’s platform committee while he was chairing that committee, an idea he then carried to the State Republican Executive Committee. He served as the SREC Committeeman for SD 7 from 2012-2020, the end of his term limit. During that time he chaired multiple state committees, as well as additional local committees. This is all unpaid nitty-gritty volunteer work. A look at his endorsement list shows that his work has been well appreciated by true conservatives—although maybe not by party establishment, who often consider conservatives a thorn in their side.

That's me and our editing team—Mark Ramsey was the Platform Committee
Chair—taking last-minute edits from delegates at the 2018 RPT Convention.

Big-money guy Wesley Hunt—and most of the rest of the field—have been MIA from all this citizenship heavy lifting that needs to be done in order to get the government we want. Some of them don’t even vote in the primaries, according to their public record.

I got the graphic above from Ramsey’s website. A friend sent me the one below, one less election cycle, but all the candidates. (David Hogan, by the way, is a precinct chair and has been participating with the grassroots. He calls himself a young Mark Ramsey. I hope he sticks around and runs again for something else in a few years.)

One of the biggest thrills for Ramsey was getting to be a 2020 Presidential Elector. That year he also wrote, defended, and passed a resolution—the first in Electoral College history—condemning the Supreme Court for refusing to take the Texas election integrity case.

Ramsey had a long and distinguished career in oil & gas engineering, and is honored for his ability to pass along his knowledge and experience. He authored a peer-reviewed technical book, Practical Wellbore Hydraulics and Hold Cleaning, © 2019. He received the “Distinguished Instructor Award” as an Exxon employee, and was named a Charter Member of the Texas Tech Academy of Mechanical Engineers “for outstanding contributions to the profession.”

Mark Ramsey and wife Pauline have been married for 40 years and have three grown children and four grandchildren. His commitment to God is how he lives and breathes; they worship at WoodsEdge Community Church.

Unlike his Washington establishment opponent, Hunt, who favors the UN’s global plan on climate change, Ramsey believes in free-market solutions to climate issues, and in returning the US to that “shining city on a hill.” Hunt also dismisses CRT in schools as a non-issue; it’s not. Mark Ramsey helped craft the language in our platform instructing our legislature to get CRT out of our schools—and we got legislation done on that, HB 3979, requiring that civics teaching must include the moral, political, and educational foundations of America. Also, in the previous session, taking a leave from his O&G career, Ramsey served as a legislative staffer where he authored a bill requiring that high school graduates be able to pass the same test about America that legal immigrants are required to take.

About 2020 election integrity problems and what to do about them, he says those who committed election crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And we should increase penalties to the point the crimes are no longer worth it. Engineers, he points out, are problem solvers. He suggests having three independent counting systems: one by Democrats, one by Republicans, one by someone else; all three have to agree, or they have to figure out where the discrepancies are. It’s a built-in audit system. He has been citizen-lobbying the legislature to get better election integrity for years.

Asked what should be done when he believes SCOTUS makes the wrong call? From Congress, do everything to nullify or reverse that opinion. And, he reminds us, Congress can exclude the courts from jurisdiction over certain areas where they have no business stepping in and inventing law.

All of the grassroots candidates see themselves as running to make a difference for conservatives, to represent the people. Ramsey is the one who stands out as the proven person who understands how to solve the problems our government has caused.

For more information, see RamseyForTexas.com. And consider donating time or money if you’re from around here or interested in the success of our conservative grassroots efforts. One thing I hope we've learned by now is that we can't sit back and let people far away—even people from our own party—make decisions for us.