OPEN LETTER TO TEXAS GOP CHAIR ABRAHAM GEORGE AND THE STATE REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (SREC)
September 12, 2024
OPEN LETTER TO TEXAS GOP CHAIR ABRAHAM GEORGE AND THE SREC
Chairman George and Members of the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC):
Thank you for your service to our Party and to our State.
We know RPT is working hard on election integrity efforts and to prepare to make the upcoming legislative session as effective as possible to advance our platform and we appreciate those efforts.
We were relieved that after 116 days, on September 9, 2024 RPT made an excellent appointment of Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne as Victory Chair to manage the coordinated campaign and help the party raise money, which is desperately needed. For the first time in our modern history, our Victory Chair quit on May 16th and the position has been vacant since. We all wish Beth well in this important job!
We write this letter with roughly 55 days to go until the most consequential presidential election in our lifetimes.
The current reality is that Texas is too close for comfort at the presidential level (as a recent UH poll showed Trump up only 5% and Cruz up only 2%), and it is time to re-dedicate ourselves with urgency, strategy, and teamwork for the days that remain.
The financial circumstance at RPT is grave and deteriorating. The cash on hand situation has consistently worsened for several years, and the shocking recent news that our State Convention lost $382,000 must not be ignored. A $100,000 net profit was projected only weeks before State Convention. Between the last two State Conventions, RPT has lost nearly $500,000 at an event that should be one of our major fundraisers and has historically netted a significant profit.
RPT’s current cash on hand should allow it to financially survive through the Nov. 5 election, but it will not allow for much else. Fundraising has evaporated nearly entirely. The current chair appears to be either unwilling or unable to raise major funds, despite running on a promise to increase the budget significantly through fundraising.
The financial picture is radically different than several promises made by Abraham George when he was a candidate for RPT Chair. He suggested a goal of RPT needing “an $18M budget in election years” with “100+ employees” at a candidate forum in May. The current reality also is radically different from the comments he made at the August 2nd SREC meeting where he suggested opening new field offices, especially in South Texas. More than a month later, not one single new RPT-backed field office has been opened.
Meanwhile, the most recent SREC meeting barely discussed fundraising or GOTV efforts, and instead spent several hours on resolutions. There is currently no other SREC meeting scheduled before the election.
This predicament is unacceptable.
And while we realize the SREC has some new members who were just elected, this level of unpreparedness will harm our candidates and our party and we cannot sit back and let that continue.
We make the following FOUR requests in the best interest of the Texas GOP:
1. We are calling for the SREC to create a special subcommittee to probe the past convention through an independent financial audit. All contracts and payments must be examined. We are concerned that either incompetence or graft played a role, thought that must be proven. We must learn lessons from this catastrophic failure to ensure it NEVER happens again. That committee should report publicly and immediately after the Nov. 5 election.
2. We are calling for RPT Chair Abraham George to provide a comprehensive fundraising update detailing his performance from his May election to today, and to forecast what will be raised in new funds (not transfers from the RNC and other committees) between now and Nov. 5.
3. We are calling for RPT to release a detailed, thoughtful, comprehensive GOTV plan to be sent to all county parties and GOP campaigns by Sept. 15. This should have been done by Labor Day at the latest. Every day that passes is increasingly valuable and cannot be recovered.
4. We are calling on RPT to detail its Early Vote By Mail (EVBM) program to all County Chairs by September 15. Without a serious, well-funded, statewide EBVM mailer (as we do every cycle), we will get destroyed in mail ballots which will narrow Trump’s margin, threaten Cruz’s re-election, and harm all of our targeted down ballot races.
Sincerely,
1. Matt Mackowiak, Travis County GOP chair
2. James Beauchamp, Midland County GOP chair
3. Hunter Bonner, Marion County GOP chair
4. Carl Byers, Upshur County GOP chair
5. Kris Coons, Bexar County GOP chair
6. Chris DeCluitt, McLennan County GOP chair
7. Jody Deller, Kaufman County GOP chair
8. Roman Griffin, Sabine County GOP chair
9. Karen Hale, Guadalupe County GOP chair
10. Alan Haley, Loving County GOP chair
11. Linda Kinsey, Comanche County GOP chair
12. Carlette Lewis, Blanco County GOP chair
13. Carolyn Lance, Cass County GOP chair
14. Rick Lifto, Wise County GOP chair
15. Michelle Lopez, Hays County GOP chair
16. David Luther, Waller County GOP chair
17. Michael Mars, Titus County GOP chair
18. Mark Montgomery, Comal County GOP chair
19. Elizabeth Nelson, Falls County GOP chair
20. Lance Phillips, Limestone County GOP chair
21. Stephanie Michelle Rushing, Irion County GOP chair
22. Gary Singleton, Bowie County GOP chair
23. Janet Stanovich, Cherokee County GOP chair
24. Gary Stone, Motley County GOP chair
25. David Stein, Smith County GOP chair
26. Mike Wheeler, Kendall County GOP chair (and SREC member)
27. Jeri Johnson Willoughby, Schleicher County GOP chair
28. Donnie Wisenbaker, Hopkins County GOP chair
(County Chairs listed alphabetically)
