Date for RNC Committeewoman Election Set

Republican Party of Texas - Under the bylaws of the Texas Republican Party, a vacancy of the position of Committeeman or Committeewoman shall be filled at a specially called meeting of the State Republican Executive Committee to take place within 20 to 30 days of the vacancy. The bylaws specify that the State Chairman set the date of such a meeting. Chairman Steve Munisteri called a meeting of the Officials Committee on Friday, March 22 to discus potential dates as well as potential rules. It was unanimously agreed on by members of the Officials Committee to recommend to the Chairman that Saturday April 6 be the date of the election, as that was the only Saturday available during the time period allowed by the bylaws.

The Chairman and the SREC announce that there will be a special meeting of the SREC, with the sole purpose of filling the vacancy of committeewoman, scheduled for April 6 at the RPT Austin headquarters at 1108 Lavaca in the 7th floor conference room. The meeting will start at 11:00 AM. Because of concern of lack of available of hotel rooms due to the Capitol 10k that morning, the committee purposely set the start time later than normal in order to give people time to drive in from around the state if they were unable to secure hotel rooms for Friday night.

In addition, the Chairman suggested to the Committee that a candidate forum be sponsored by the RPT to alllow SREC members to ask questions of potential candidates on their qualifications. The Officials Committee voted to host a candidate forum under the following format:

Candidate Forum

1.) Any candidate seeking the position of National Committeewoman must have written proof of some kind (letter, email, etc.) showing that an SREC Member will nominate the candidate. Only those candidates with such confirmation will be allowed to participate in the candidate forum.  

2.) Each SREC member can only commit to nominating one candidate.

3.) Each candidate will be allowed a two minute introduction speech at the start of the forum and a one minute closing speech at the end of the forum.

4.) There will be a question and answer period. Written questions submitted by SREC Members, and SREC Members ONLY, that can be asked of all candidates, will be drawn in random order and each candidate given a two minute response period per question.

5.) If a question is drawn that is substantially similar to a previously asked question the moderator, Chairman Munisteri, may skip the question.

The Officials Committee also adopted supplemental rules recommendations for the SREC for the conducting of the election. These proposed supplemental rules are as follows:

Nomination & Election Process

1.) Nominations will occur from the floor.

2.) Each candidate nominated must give their consent to serve in the position. 

3.) The candidates that are nominated and have given consent will cast lots to determine the speaking order.

4.) Each candidate is given five minutes to speak and may allot that time as they so choose, including other speakers on their behalf.

5.) The vote will be taken by secret ballot.

6.) The Chairman will appoint a head teller and two assistant tellers. Each candidate may also appoint a teller to observe counting of the ballots. In the absence of supplemental rules, Robert’s Rules will govern.

Chairman Munisteri does want to alert all those interested in seeking the position that it does require a personal expenditure of several thousand dollars per year, as it has been the tradition in the past, and we anticipate will be so in the future, that the state party pays for the hotel and airfare of the State Chairman to attend the RNC meeting, as long as those expenses are within the Chairman’s overall expense budget, but not the Committeeman and Woman. Traditionally there have been two RNC meetings per year but this year the RNC scheduled three and it is anticipated that in the future there will be approximately three meetings per year around the country. The meetings usually require a 3-5 night stay at a hotel plus airfare. Candidates should be prepared to spend the money necessary to attend the meetings. The Chairman wants prospective candidates to be aware that it has been the tradition of the National Committeeman and Woman to accept numerous speaking engagements around the state which requires time and travel expenses. In addition, Committeemen and Women are expected to attend quarterly SREC meetings held at the RPT headquarters in Austin.

The party would also like to remind all prospective candidates that they must be nominated by a member of the SREC to be voted on and consequently, the RPT will require that all candidates have proof of support from an SREC member prior to the forum. The RPT requests all candidates provide the RPT with this information as soon as possible if they plan to attend the candidate forum on Saturday, which will commence at 9:15.

Only voting members of the SREC will be allowed to cast votes to fill the vacancy. Voting members include the 62 members from each State Senate district as well as RPT Chairman and Vice Chair for a total of 64 voters. The Chairman also would like to announce that, pursuant to his campaign pledges, he does not publicly endorse in elections for party officials. Non-SREC members may run for the position but only SREC members will be allowed to nominate, speak, and vote in the election. For questions concerning the election, please contact RPT Organization Director Cassie Daniel [email protected].