SREC Reports
SREC 1st Quarter 2023 Report
As you may have seen in the local & national news, the SREC voted overwhelmingly to censure Congressman Tony Gonzales (CD-23) for repeatedly violating the Principles of the RPT Platform. Most of the County Executive Committees in his district supported this action, which was led by the SREC members that represent most of his district. The text of the censure can be found here- https://texasgop.org/gonzalesresolution/
There has already been 3 or 4 candidates step forward, including Victor Avila, who has spoken to many of the local clubs.
SREC also passed Resolutions calling for Texas to exit the ERIC system; to end vaccine mandates; and to support educational freedom.
Matt Patrick (SD-16) put forward an amendment to RPT Rule #8 to deal with a problem cropping up in other counties, where a group of precinct chairs is calling CEC meetings in accordance with their local Bylaws, and then the County Chair is calling another meeting on the same day & at the same time. This violates the spirit and intention of our Rules and frustrates the proper function of County Executive Committees. The amendment was also overwhelmingly adopted.
Legislative Priorities
The deadline for filing bills for this session is March 10th.
As of March 9th there have been over 2,200 bills filed in the Senate and 4,700 bills filed in the House. (Additionally there have been numerous Joint Resolutions on each side). A House Rep staffer has advised they are expecting as many as 1,000 additional bills to be filed on the 10th; many of those will just receive a number and heading for now, expect it to take a few days for everything to get updated on TLO.
The Legislative Priorities are: 1. Protect our elections. 2. Secure the Border & Protect Texans. 3. Ban Gender Modification. 4. Stop Sexualizing Texas Children. 5. Ban Democrat Chairs. 6. Abolish Abortion in Texas. 7. Defend our Gun Rights. 8. Parental Rights & Education Freedom.
GREAT NEWS!! Not only has Lt. Governor Patrick included many of our Priorities in his list of 30 Senate priorities, but Governor Abbott has for the first time also included several of our Priorities on his ‘to do’ list for this session. Perhaps most remarkable, both the Gov. & Lt. Gov. are fully on-board with getting a School Choice/ESA bill passed this session! The Governor is already touring the state (much like he did during his campaign) to promote this LP Priority.
There is early momentum for the following topics: School Choice/ESA; Improved Border Security; Construction of 2 new natural gas fired plants to provide stable energy (which “green” energy does not do); property tax relief (#1 priority for the Lt. Gov.). I believe we will also see something emerge relating to COVID/medical emergencies and choice. A bill on gender modification and /or sexualization of children may get done, there is some support from Democrats on this.
Legislative Priorities Committee has already approved 38 bills and will oppose 3 bills. These numbers will change as we move through the session.
Platform Advocacy Committee
Chaired by Matt Patrick, Platform Advocacy is a new Committee which tracks current legislation that promotes the Republican Party of Texas Platform but did not make the Legislative Priorities list at the 2022 State Convention. PA is currently tracking 67 bills in the Senate on a wide variety of topics. Committee members are contacting Lege members and Committee Chairs for their section of the Platform, and looking at how we can work with them on these bills.
Party Organization Committee
Chaired by Susan Fountain, the Party Organization Committee is working on updating the Precinct Chair Handbook and the County Chair Handbook at this time as well as advocating to County Chairs across Texas to communicate with their vast rural areas via website and other electronic means.
Dallas County News
The Dallas County Republican Party https://www.dallasgop.org is leading all across Dallas County to support local municipal and school board elections and actually have conservatives in 11 of 14 Dallas City Council races and across Dallas County in all suburbs. But, if you do not know the party affiliation of your candidate, please know their ideology, as there will be no Rs or Ds after their names. Please call the Dallas GOP office and they will be happy to help you navigate! (But please don't wait until Election Day May 6.) https://dallasgop.org/blog/why-we-fight We also need volunteers to help block walk for candidates all over Dallas and in your own neighborhoods! Please sign up here to volunteer: https://dallasgop.org/campaign-volunteer-application and the DallasGOP will put you in touch!
What a great time was had by the hundreds who attended the Dallas County Republican Party Annual Reagan Day Dinner with special guests Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis. Doug Deason was named as the recipient of the Fred R Meyer Lifetime Achievement Award for his many contributions, along with honoring Volunteer of the Year Wes Bowen, for his years of Chairing the Election Integrity Committee and training 543 Poll Watchers. Also honored as Volunteer of the Year was Michael Slaton, whom we all know and love as HD 2 Rep. Bryan Slaton's father, for his many hours of service as Alternate Judge at Dallas County Elections Department Central Count at every election. https://dallasgop.org/blog-widget/texas-and-florida-are-where-woke-goes-to-die It was so heartwarming to see the amazing support shown for our Republican Party and many thanks to all who contributed to the success of this event!
The Republican Party of Texas is working on a new outreach program aimed at establishing Republics in high schools across the state. Anyone wishing to work on this issue in the Dallas area please contact Matt Patrick.
