We have a new Texas GOP Chairman. Tom Mechler was elected out of the four candidates on the second round of ballots on Saturday afternoon. Let’s pray for him as he begins the challenge of leading the Party into the 2016 Elections.

Steve Munisteri was asked on Friday if he was going to cry, and he answered that he was almost giddy with excitement instead. He and I were elected on the same day at the Convention in 2010, and much has been accomplished under his leadership. The Party has sent out 10,201,811pieces of mail, made 8,622,336 phone calls, knocked on 503,342 doors, spent $5,141,723 on Victory efforts, and spent $1,263,106 on field offices. We started with more than $750,000 in debt and raised $22,839,611, paid all our bills to zero every month for the last three years. In 2010 Democrats held more elected offices in Texas than we did. Now, Republicans hold 1190 offices (67% of all elected positions in the state). We’ve made great gains in minority Engagement, and our infrastructure crushed Battleground Texas. As a former Boy Scout, Steve has indeed (as he put it) “left the campground in better shape than he found it”.

Steve was honored with gifts and appreciation this weekend. We had a nice reception at the Governor’s mansion Friday evening, and met the famous first dog of Texas “Pancake”. Senator Ted Cruz and Senator John Cornyn sent Proclamations and greetings. If you were one of the many that joined us by our very first live streamed meeting, then you saw just how many folks showed up to give Steve a nice send-off.

Speaking of Live-streaming, we had our first stab at this technology with an outstanding Candidate Forum on Friday night. I would like to congratulate all the candidates on being amazing men, willing to put their lives on hold to serve the Party as our Chair. They kept it classy, as a Republican should, and they made us proud of the quality of men that we have in leadership.

We also did a good bit of work this weekend. We had to change one rule for our Presidential Delegate allotments. We have been told that the current Rule might be in conflict with RNC rules. We just added (as a fail-safe) wording that basically says that we will adjust our allotment if RNC says we have to.

We also passed seven Resolutions. If you watched the live-streaming, you will have seen that I voted against many of them. My reason: most Resolutions are unnecessary because they are issues that should be handled in Convention by the entire Delegation either in Rules or Platform. Few things that come up before the SREC need to be handled in between those opportunities for the Grassroot Republicans to have their say. The exceptions are those that honor Republicans, or those that deal with emergency situations. The ones we passed this weekend included ones that Thanked Rick Perry, Steve Munisteri, and David Dewhurst for their leadership and service. Other Resolutions the we passed included “Preserving the Straight-ticket Party voting”, “Preserving Local Voice in Federal Projects”, “Automotive Free Market”., and “Ride Sharing Companies”.

The Party Organization Committee is working on two new manuals for Precinct Chairs. One will focus on Primaries and the other on General Elections. Another Manual for County Chairs will be available after the Legislative session so the new regulations will be included.
We had our Annual Audit presented, and we received a clean and clear Audit. Yeah!

Another exciting thing that just happened: we approved the appointment of 13 new County Chairs. This means that every single County in Texas currently has a Republican County Chairman! This is only the third time in Texas history that this has been the case. Whew.

We heard from Matt Pinnell, the RNC State Chair Director. He reported that a majority of states now have Republican Attorney Generals. This is important in fighting the over-reach of the Obama administration. He also told us that since Steve Munisteri started the “Grassroots Club” 30 other states have since copied Texas and also have low-donor programs. I’m pretty proud of that.

Finally, I wanted to let you know the Presidential Debate schedule:
1. Fox News- Ohio, August 2015.
2. CNN- California, September 2015,
3. CNBC in Colorado, October 2015,
4. Fox Business in Wisconsin, November 2015,
5. CNN- Nevada, December 2015.
6. Fox News- Iowa, January 2016,
7. ABC News- New Hampshire, February 2016.
8. CBS News in South Carolina, February 2016 and
9. NBC/Telemundo- Florida, February 2016
Pending: Fox News and CNN March 2016.

On a personal note, while I was in Austin, my mom, who is 86, suffered a major stroke and is now at the end of a life well-lived. Prayers for our family are appreciated. Happy for her to meet her Savior face-to-face, but sad for those of us who will miss her here.

Candy Noble
State Republican Executive Committee
Senate District 8