Sovereign Texas

The Texas State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) met for our regular quarterly meeting in Austin this weekend. As always, the meeting was open to the public. Any interested party with or without media credentials may attend the meetings.

As many readers of this site know, the presidential primary system in this country routinely disenfranchises primary voters in important “red” states like Texas. In the last cycle, due to a combination of rules and courts, Texas had one of the last primaries and had to allocate delegates proportionally. This effectively means we had little to no say as to who was nominated—it was already a “done deal” by the time we voted.

The SREC passed an important resolution regarding this.

The resolution (in full below), lists some of what is wrong with the primary system and declares that “sovereign states have the right to hold statewide primary elections on a date of their choice that best serves their party and state.” In reference to the current “carve out rules” that grant Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada the right to hold primaries before any others, the resolution further declares that “having rules that treat states unequally is inconsistent with Republican values.”

The resolution then encourages the Texas Delegation to the RNC, consisting of State Chairman Steve Munisteri, National Committeeman Robin Armstrong and National Committeewoman Toni Anne Dashiell to keep up their already strong efforts to build voting coalitions with other states in working toward having no carve outs dictated by the RNC and absent that goal or in the interim, that the carve out primaries be “rotated among important solidly Republican and swing “battleground” states”.

This could have the effect of promoting competition among the states, with early-in-the-season primaries being rewards for good performance. Competition between states, as the 10th Amendment anticipates and protects, is good. The Republican Party of Texas is better for Texans and their families’ interests.

Editor Note: Mark Ramsey is an SREC member representing Senate District 7.