The Good And The Not So Good And The Fun At The Texas State Convention

While I have to agree that the state convention was a great success, it was not without incident. There were many winners and losers as Delegates campaigned for different positions in their Senate and Congressional Districts making for some tense situations. The position for National Committeeman was highly sought after with four candidates competing for delegate votes. Dr. Robin Armstrong a man with strong conservative values came in first without a run-off. Curt Nelson came in a distant second but with enough votes to bring another round of ballots, to his credit he chose not to challenge Armstrong.

I did have opportunities to visit with ‘old’ friends and meet new ones. It was exciting to visit with Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson who has already started his vigorous campaigning for the Lt. Gov. position in 2014. He did tell me that it was his selfish side wishing Dewhurst would win. So you see everyone has a reason ‘why.’ It is always exciting to me to meet new people, and it was my pleasure to actually meet Senator Brian Birdwell, 9/11 Pentagon attack survivor, who was burned on 60% of his body and lived to tell his amazing story. There are so many names and faces that I know only through emails, Facebook or Twitter, and this was a perfect place to connect and meet as many as possible. It was great visiting with the Ted Cruz staff and listening to their positive enthusiasm about their candidate. They shared a bottle of Rush Limbaugh tea with me from their ‘stash’ shipped in from Limbaugh himself! There were so many Conservatives in Action in attendance that it made my heart happy.

The booing during the speeches of elected officials was a new phenomenon and I attribute this to the chaotic state that America is in and the desire by each delegate expressing their need to make a difference. Also to the many Ron Paul delegates who added to the more enthauastic and passionate mood. But it was not only the RP people, but many Conservative Republicans who also joined in to protest their displeasure with Joe Straus, Speaker of the House, by walking out of the arena during his address.

The Platform and Nominations committees also yielded some tense moments. (More on the Nominations committee in my final state convention report.) Not everyone was satisfied with the platform even though it was passed late Saturday night. There are many accounts on the incidents during the Platform Committee Meeting, but what is important is the finished product that was voted on during the last general session.

I am glad to report that the Republican Party did not redefine ‘family’ to include homosexual ‘couples’ and that the definition of marriage as a God-ordained, legal and moral commitment only between a natural man and a natural woman still stands in our platform. We will continue to be the protectors of innocent human life and are asking that the State Republican Executive Committee to support financially or with in kind contributions, only those candidates who do. We also strongly encourage the executive committee to recognize the consistent voice of the grassroots and revise its by-laws to make this action binding on our Party. Please go to the link provided to review all the issues that were voted in our platform.

This lone protestor paraded his sign at the convention letting everyone know what his important topics were. Despite all the protests and discussions we came to agreement and have a good Texas Republican platform.

It seems to me, that in an effort to welcome the Ron Paul followers, we are dismissing the fact that the ‘Liberty Movement’ goes against our Christian beliefs. We should be very careful of Ron Paul’s ‘Liberty Movement’ because of the dangers of promoting secularism into our already weakened moral society. This is taken from another blog post at TexasGOPVote. The following is Ron Hinojosa’s comments, a delegate from SD25/CD21 and a believer of the ‘Liberty Movement,’ concerning same sex marriage. It is scary how God’s laws are not taking precedence over RP’s ‘Liberty Movement.’ The ‘Liberty Movement’ is not consistent with Catholic doctrine or those who value family values.

The role of government, as you're well aware, is to protect the God-given rights of individuals, Christian, or not, American, or not. If two men or women want to get into a contract we see as morally wrong, who are you or me to tell them no? They don't have to accept our definition of marriage, and we don't have to accept their definition of marriage, but neither one of us have the right to use government force to make the other accept our values. That would be Statism. Additionally, faith is a gift, and not all are blessed with it. You, nor I, have the right to claim we know that which is unknowable. We can speculate, and we can have faith, but we cannot judge others who may have different beliefs.

Kevin Yeary was part of the Bexar County delegation in CD21, and as a first time Delegate, I thought it would be refreshing to have his story included in my report. It is impossible for me to exhibit all the photographs taken at the convention but rest assured that hundreds of people were captured in time for the sake of history and future nostalgic moments.