Go Home, Harris County, You're Drunk!

That can be the only explanation for the election results we saw in Harris County for the 2016 general election; all of the voters showed up inebriated.  YEAH!  Just kidding!  Kind of....

I know I'm late to the party for a postmortem on the 2016 general election, however, there is an article that came across my desk, one that discussed the losses that the Harris County GOP experienced and I couldn't help but share it with you.

We all know that the diverse demographics and the changing political landscape of Harris County makes it nearly impossible to have a Republican stronghold.  Despite all of the best efforts of the Harris County GOP, the Democrats swept the county by replacing almost all of the Republican judges, tax assessor-collector, District Attorney, Sheriff, etc.

Anytime there's a less than stellar result from an election for either party, fingers start to get pointed at those at the top, otherwise known as county party leadership.  Since the election, there have been rumblings among bloggers and activists about the disappointment they have felt about the elections.  Some have even written about it.

Case in point, an article written and published a few days ago for The Weekly Standard talked about the Harris County election results.  The problem with the article is that the sources that were quoted gave dated information.   Mr. Barnes, who authored the article,  picked Gary Polland, former Harris County GOP Chairman and author of the Texas Conservative Review to quote for a recap.  The link to the article written by Fred Barnes can be found here.

From the Harris County GOP's response to the article, "... the same Gary Polland who now publishes a for-profit candidate “slate” and once wrote a glowing editorial endorsement that helped elect former liberal Mayor Annise Parker.  The same liberal mayor who attempted to force her radical bathroom policy into law without voter approval." 

Now, this article was not necessarily 'fake news' because the losses did happen, however, the article was a bit disingenuous because of the dated information and quotes used by the author.  Kind of like when a Congressman that represents me presented a resolution that was passed by a 2011 body of the local GOP and pretended or tried to pass it off as something that was done recently.  Very disingenuous.  

The party did respond to the article and the allegations made within, and here is another quote from that response, " If Fred Barnes had ever contacted me or the Harris County Republican Party to ask about the elections, he would have learned the Party did indeed support Donald Trump, along with every other Republican candidate on the ballot.  He would have learned the truth about what the Harris County GOP actually did in the 2016 campaign-- not the inaccurate spin set out in his article."

No matter where you come down on what you feel the reasons are for the election results this time around, I think that the article that was written and published could be a good reminder for all of us to consider the source.  This is also a time for us to unite behind the party and work together to spread the message of conservative principles in and around Harris County.