May 17

David Wallace Makes a Difference in Local Elections and at DCRP HQ


Summary

Outstanding volunteer David William Wallace has been such a great help at Dallas County Republican Party Headquarters!  For the past year he has been a dependable and knowledgeable purveyor of information for visitors to the DCRP office.  He also has been always ready to help with special projects as well as helping to prepare for our monthly Executive Committee meetings at the Dallas Museum of Biblical Art.  He is a constant presence at the Marsh Lane Baptist Church where he serves as Republican Alternate Judge for Early Voting and as Presiding Judge on Election Day for years. He admits his life has been an adventure – but it’s not for everyone.

As an appointee for both Bush Federal and State administrations, he found himself living in DC twice, although he still has a wanderlust and loves to travel; and the list of countries he’s been to is long.


Details

Pictured: George and Laura Bush and David Wallace.

Outstanding volunteer David William Wallace has been such a great help at Dallas County Republican Party Headquarters!  For the past year he has been a dependable and knowledgeable purveyor of information for visitors to the DCRP office.  He also has been always ready to help with special projects as well as helping to prepare for our monthly Executive Committee meetings at the Dallas Museum of Biblical Art.  He is a constant presence at the Marsh Lane Baptist Church where he serves as Republican Alternate Judge for Early Voting and as Presiding Judge on Election Day for the past few years. He admits his life has been an adventure – but it’s not for everyone.

As an appointee for both Bush Federal and State administrations, he found himself living in DC twice, although he still has a wanderlust and loves to travel; and the list of countries he’s been to is long.

Adventures

His love of travel began in college when he went to Ethiopia on a Mission trip as a volunteer through the Presbyterian Church.

As an Officer in the Air Force and US State Department, his travels included deployments to countries most would rather avoid. He had two tours in Iraq overseeing the reconstruction of the country and has served in the Far East including The Philippines, Thailand, and Korea – then transitioned to the Middle East with major assignments in Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.

Reconfirming that “All Politics are local,” David began his jaunt into politics as a youth. “When I was a kid, my great uncle was running for his 3rd or 4th term as mayor of our town and he hired me to pass out leaflets – I was only like eight or nine years old, and I got tired and didn’t pass them all out. He lost by just a few votes. From then on, I decided I’m not going to get involved in politics unless I can give it 100%.”

He helped the with the Reagan campaign, “Doing whatever was needed even providing Pepsi to the campaign office and driving older people to the polls.”

His most recent political work involved being the Republican Election Judge at Marsh Lane Baptist Church last Saturday where early voting brought over 2,200 votes and election day had 619 in-person voters.

Career

A self-proclaimed “Texafornian,” David’s family worked in Texas Oil in Gladewater and Tyler. He grew up in California where “half the people came from Texas or Oklahoma.” He attended California’s Fresno State University completing a double major in Business and Accounting. While in college, he loved working for Pepsi in California where “I got graduate level training in budget, finance, forecasting and variance analysis,” but then had to fulfill his commitment to the Air Force where he received more training and learned more about the world from his travels.

Foray into Politics

After he left the Air Force, David worked in Austin in Real Estate Development and became active in politics there. In 1987 David received an invitation to meet then-Vice President George Bush. Thinking it was a fund-raiser, he asked how much the event cost, “They said, nothing – we just want you to come meet him.”

Curious, David went. “There were about 50 or 60 other people there,” he said, but what he remembers about Bush is, “He was the nicest guy. A very gracious person. He actually listened to what you said.”

A week later he was asked to help with the presidential campaign and ended up working full time with the campaign, and then going to Washington as a Special Assistant with the Administration.

David returned to Texas after the 1988 election and was doing international work when he helped George W. Bush run for governor in 1994, and then served in the Administration.

Today

After years of military travel and political adventure David has settled a bit now living in a home he bought sight-unseen in 2018 near Coit Road, next to a second home he rented for a family that fled from Iraq.

One interesting fact about him is something that he recently realized.

When he saw the movie American Sniper, there’s a scene near the end of the movie when the hero, U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle, was cornered by the enemy in Sadr City but was saved because of a HABU, a giant dust storm. David said he was there.

“I was outside running in the palace grounds – you hear gunshots all the time in Sadr city, so I didn’t think much of it – and then I saw this BIG wall of dust coming. When it hits you it’s like sand blasting. I had to pull my shirt up over my face.”

While in Washington David attended church where the Doles and Condoleezza Rice worshipped and said, “Elizabeth Dole knew her stuff – she was an excellent Secretary of Transportation. And Condoleezza Rice is brilliant and always very gracious. She made a great Secretary of State.” He noted that both Rice and Karl Rove were children of Presbyterian ministers so knew each other prior to politics.

Although he has no children of his own, he feels he has an extended family in many of the countries he lived in. “I was ‘adopted’ by various leaders in Thailand, the Philippines and Korea,” he says.

David helped bring an extended Iraq family to America. One young member of the family “…got chased and was in danger there in Bagdad – they tried to kill him for helping the Americans,” he explained. “I first met him when he was only 15 and became good friends with his family.  He was one of those ‘adoptable’ kids I got to bring to America. He stayed with me and is now married with two kids with a third on the way.”

David prefers dogs but lives with a cat he says, “Adopted me during the super freeze we had here in Dallas.” Like David, Buxton is a free spirit who comes and goes but is usually in by midnight. Once a note was attached to Buck’s collar. “Do I have an owner?” the note asked, along with the contact info from a neighbor, now a friend. “That’s how we met,” David says with a laugh.

He also meets up with a group on Friday evenings for dinner and music. It’s a good life, but David admits he’s getting antsy. “It’s time,” he declares, “to travel again.”

 

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