Strengthening the Republican Party of Texas: A Clear Conservative Path Forward

Amanda Hopper – for RPT Vice Chair

Texas is the last bastion of liberty, and to preserve the freedom we enjoy we must fiercely protect it at all costs. I am proud to run as Vice Chair alongside Abraham George to lead the Republican Party of Texas and fiercely defend the principles Texas was founded upon. We are at a critical juncture in history which sees Texas in the crosshairs of open-borders globalists, marxists, and Islamists who know that infiltrating and capturing Texas is key to destroying the Western World. The RPT has made real progress under grassroots conservative control, yet significant work remains to strengthen its organization, win tough elections, and expand its influence across every corner of our state.

The greatest strength of today’s RPT is the involvement of grassroots conservatives. Because of this, the party stays tightly focused on the platform, advancing legislative priorities, holding elected officials accountable, and fighting to close our primaries. This is the result of delegates and activists who refuse to let the party drift from the principles Texans hold, and continue setting legislative priorities that reflect our conservative values.

The RPT is not afraid to stand at odds with statewide officeholders when principle requires it. That independence carries a cost: fundraising is harder when the party refuses to simply echo those in power. Yet Chairman Abraham George is arguably the most successful fundraiser of any grassroots conservative chairman in party history, raising over $15.5 million dollars. He proved that you can be loyal to conservative principles and also effectively connect with donors who will advance the cause of the party.

The party has also demonstrated it can deliver results when it stands with conservative legislators. By supporting principled lawmakers, the RPT helped push the needle in the Texas House and secured passage of a record 47 legislative priorities, reflecting the priorities set by delegates.

The most immediate challenge the RPT faces is winning elections across Texas in November. The 2026 midterm will be exceptionally difficult for Texas Republicans. Compounding this electoral test is the ongoing court battle with the Secretary of State over closed primaries. This is essential to protecting the integrity of our nominating process and ensuring that the grassroots conservatives continue to control the future.

Additional weaknesses include uneven organizational infrastructure at the local level, inconsistent training for volunteers, and gaps in communication between the state party and legislators that can leave conservative officeholders without the support they need on the floor.

To turn these challenges into opportunities and build on our strengths, Abraham George and I commit to four steps. First, we will expand and redouble fundraising efforts immediately and sustain them through November and beyond. We will broaden the donor base while remaining anchored in conservative principles, ensuring the party has the resources to support candidates, defend legislative gains, and fight the legal battle for closed primaries. I served as campaign manager for my husband and helped raise $2 million from grassroots and conservative donors. I am also a professional event coordinator and fundraiser for Texas Homeschool Coalition and fully understand the crucial role fundraising plays in building and sustaining a successful conservative movement.

Second, we will advance legislative priorities again in the 90th Legislative Session. Our team’s established relationships with grassroots fighters in the Texas House means we can deliver consistent messaging that gives conservative members the clarity and backing they need to win battles on the floor. Nearly every conservative in the Texas House has already endorsed Abraham George and me precisely because they know we will stand with them when it counts.

Third, we will expand training for precinct and county chairs across the state. Every volunteer must have a practical understanding of how to be most effective, whether in voter registration, turnout, or holding local officials accountable. We will move to a structured, repeatable training system that equips leaders at every level with the tools and metrics they need.

Fourth, we will establish clear expectations and accountability for members of the State Republican Executive Committee. Every county within each State District must receive regular, substantive support from the state party, including training, resources, and direct engagement. No county should feel invisible or unsupported. By setting and enforcing these expectations, we will create a more uniform and resilient organizational structure that strengthens the entire party from the ground up.

Abraham George and I represent the clear conservative team to lead the RPT. The RPT has the right principles and the right people at the grassroots. We can make the party more effective, more unified, and more influential than ever before. Abraham George and I are ready to deliver on that promise. Texas deserves nothing less.

The Republican Party of Texas Can Do Better, We Must

Dave Covey – for RPT Vice Chair

Texas Leadership Must Mean Texas Led

The Republican Party of Texas should be unapologetically Texas led. That is not a slogan; it is a governing philosophy. Texas should lead the conservative movement, not take direction from Washington, D.C., or Florida.

Unfortunately, many grassroots conservatives understand RPT leadership spends too much time seeking approval from the Austin and D.C. elites with political power rather than focusing on Texas solutions and strengthening relationships with the Texas grassroots.

This concern became especially visible during the October 2025 State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) meeting regarding censure resolutions. Reports circulated by the RPT Chairman and legal counsel that the White House was monitoring the proceedings appeared intended to influence the outcome of the vote. Allowing outside pressure to be applied to the State Republican Executive Committee represented a failure of leadership by Chairman George. All the worse if reporting is true that the RPT Chairman, moments before the censure vote, made the call to shut the doors, cut the live feed, and take this out of public view to threaten and coerce votes. A phone call was reported during this closed-door meeting where SREC members were warned how to vote on upcoming censures. Think about it, the Chairman facilitated the governing body of Republicans to be instructed how to vote from the very top!

The problem was allowing SREC members to be placed in a pressured position ahead of an important vote instead of protecting the independence of Texas Republicans. This was a huge failure in leadership by Chairman George and will not happen on our watch.

A Party Must Be Built from the Bottom Up To Win

The Republican Party of Texas must function from the bottom up, not the top down. Precinct chairs, county chairs, volunteers, and SREC members are not obstacles to be managed; they are the foundation of the party.

When I served on the SREC, it was filled with capable leaders from across Texas as it is today. However, many SREC members feel sidelined or overridden by party leadership and staff. No consultant, staff member, or general counsel should undermine elected representatives chosen by Republican voters.

Authority in the Republican Party should flow upward from the grassroots—not downward from Austin insiders.

The results of RPT Chairman George focusing more on Austin elites than the grassroots have had measurable consequences. Republicans suffered two of the most notable election losses in a generation this year.

Under Chairman George’s leadership, Republicans lost a reliably Republican Texas Senate seat to Democrats in Senate District 9 on January 31st. A seat that has been Republican for three decades the Democrats won by 17 points. Even more troubling, Republicans were defeated statewide in voter turnout when Democrats outperformed Republicans in primary election turnout on March 3 earlier this year. These are huge red flags that the status quo is not working if winning is the object.

When RPT leadership loses focus of the grassroots, Republicans lose elections.

As Vice-Chair of the RPT I will spear head opening regional offices jointly with local county parties that have year-round headquarters in North Texas, South Texas, East Texas, and West Texas. These regional offices will become hubs of volunteerism as Republican across the state are finally able to donate their time and energy at local locations to make Texas redder!

When RPT leadership focuses on the grassroots, Republicans WIN elections!

Results Matter More Than Excuses

In the 2024 Republican primary, nearly 78 percent of voters supported eliminating property taxes without increasing Texans’ overall tax burden. Nearly 73 percent supported closing Republican primaries to registered Republicans only. More than 95 percent supported banning hostile foreign entities from purchasing Texas land. Two other significant issues in dire need of attention are the growing push by extremists to enact Sharia law and the unknown impact of proposed AI Data Centers on rural Texans.

I experienced the failures of Texas’s open-primary system firsthand in my race against Dade Phelan. Although I won the initial primary, Democratic crossover voting helped decide the runoff. My experience is not unique. Conservative candidates across Texas face the same problem under an open-primary system that Republican voters overwhelmingly oppose. I’m the only candidate running for RPT leadership that has lost a race because of open primaries, and I will do whatever it takes to close them now. No more delays.

Despite overwhelming grassroots support, these priorities remain unaddressed.

The Republican Party of Texas can do better—and for the future of Texas, we must do better.

Bill Eastland – for RPT Chair

The requested subject is an assessment of the major strengths and weaknesses of today’s Republican Party of Texas and a detail of the concrete steps I will take to improve its effectiveness and expand its influence.

Strengths

There is really only one. That is our Legislative Priorities process.  Since adopted, the Party has become an effective lobbying organization and has had considerable success getting a healthy number of our adopted priorities passed out of the Texas Legislature.  Our first LP was Constitutional Carry.  It took three sessions but almost everything we wanted passed.  On Pro-Life issues, Texas is now the gold standard for state laws that have effectively ended abortion in our state.  There a few improvements needed, such as eliminating mail order abortion medication, but no state does it better than Texas.  There have been a number of other accomplishments.  Our greatest success has been influencing the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and, to a lesser degree, the Speaker to adopt some of our LPs at the start of recent sessions which has almost guaranteed passage of much of what we wanted.  The success of this effort is due to the leadership and hard work of the SREC Legislative Priorities Committee in concert with many other party members who have assisted in the lobbing effort.  This must be continued and strengthened particularly coming up with a better method of voting on the LPs at the State Convention.

Weaknesses

Unfortunately, they are many.  The Party under the Leadership of Steve Munisteri and the two chairs who followed him had a broad fundraising base, enough hired party staff to effectively do the basic work of the party, had developed a robust Victory campaign (the traditional general election Get Out the Vote effort), had a created a program to identify Republican new movers to Texas and get them registered to vote and had fostered a good relationship with our Republican elected officials.  All of that has suffered under the last three chairs.  We are now dependent on a small number of very wealthy donors who give us just enough money to keep our doors open and pay our legal fees.  The loss of a broad donor base can lead to the effective death of a state party.  That base must be rebuilt.  Many of our elected officials are pretty dissatisfied with us and some are outright hostile.  A Victory effort is non-existent.  Victory will have to be done by the elected officials and candidates entirely independent of us. In-migration of citizens from other states is continuing at a high level.  We must reconstitute the new mover program to ID Republicans and get them registered in time for the November election.  In the past, Karl Rove led that effort and it was very effective.  Many were angry over Rove’s role but he provided a great service to the Party.  2018 was an off-year election that was not kind to us across the country.  We have been regaining vote share since then, partly due to Rove’s efforts.  However, this year is shaping up as another off-year election that does not favor us and we are completely unprepared for it.

My concrete steps to improve our Party’s effectiveness and expand its influence.

If I am elected Chairman, I will immediately consult with certain past party Chairs, elected officials and leaders to see if we can devise a plan to salvage what we can in this election. The key person in this process will be Steve Munisteri. (As Abbott’s Senior Advisor, he is at the center of everything having to do with the Party.)  It also must include the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker, but not limited to them.  We must repair our relationship with our elected officials and begin a process to get our significant donors from the past to come back into the fold. Former effective employees must be re-hired.  After the election, we need to ensure our Legislative Priorities process is as robust as possible as we go through the Legislative session.  In the long run, we need to continue to assert our rights as a political party under the First Amendment and work to have more influence over how our nominees are chosen.  Our party is weak because well over 100 years ago, the Democrats purposely wrote laws that make us weak as an institution.  I support adopting a rule that creates a nomination system like Utah’s where the delegates to their state convention determine who will be allowed to file in their primary.  If we do that, and win the ensuing court case, it can dramatically grow the grassroots of the party approximately ten-fold.

Strengthening the Republican Party of Texas: A Grassroots Doctor’s Perscription

Dr. Brooks McKenzie – for RPT Chair

The Republican Party of Texas holds a strong position on paper. We dominate statewide offices, control the Legislature, and Texas remains a red state in a country sliding left. Our platform still reflects core conservative principles — limited government, individual liberty, strong families, and protection of the unborn. Many county organizations work hard, and thousands of precinct chairs and volunteers give their time because they believe in the cause. These are real strengths.

But the weaknesses are glaring and they threaten our future. Too much of the party operates top-down instead of bottom-up. Information stays locked at the top. Precinct chairs in rural counties and urban battlegrounds often get left without training, data, or timely communication. Conventions and meetings drag on because too many participants don’t know Roberts Rules. Transparency is talked about but not practiced — documents, hearing links, calendars, and decisions are scattered or hidden.

Worse, the party has allowed establishment insiders and personal agendas to weaken accountability. Judicial corruption, family court failures, and CPS abuses continue while the party sometimes treats these issues as secondary. Young people show up energized but age out or burn out because we offer them nothing structured to learn how the party actually works. We win elections but fail to build the deep bench and infrastructure needed to turn Texas permanently redder and keep it that way. Without fixing these internal failures, external victories will get harder.

As a developmental psychologist with decades studying how people form trust, attachment, and leadership, I see the RPT needs a practical, principle-based reset. Here are the concrete steps I commit to as State Chair — or as Vice-Chair working shoulder-to- shoulder with the Chair — to fix what’s broken and expand our influence.

First, fill every precinct chair slot and train them. I will launch targeted recruitment in every county to eliminate vacancies. Then deliver regular, mandatory hands-on training: voter registration, door-knocking, precinct conventions, data use, and turnout operations. We will track monthly reports on filled positions and trained chairs. No more untrained leaders flying blind.

Second, build real communication that reaches everyone. I will create statewide text lists, email systems, and a member dashboard so every precinct chair and county executive committee receives the same voter data, scripts, hearing links, and resources at the same time. Pilot it in select counties, then expand. Silos end on my watch.

Third, overhaul the RPT website into a true command center. It will integrate seamless district and county channels with built-in training materials, live calendars, RPT Rules, and platform documents. No more hunting for information. Accessibility and transparency become daily practice, not slogans.

Fourth, launch a youth leadership arm for ages 14–30 that is 100% youth-run. It will mirror the RPT structure with its own elected Chair, Vice-Chair, and SREC-style body at county, Senate District, and House District levels. Every group gets a dedicated Discord server containing identical core materials: Roberts Rules guides, RPT Rules and Platform, hearing links, training manuals, and Biblical principles of leadership, integrity, and service. Local additions are welcome, but the foundation stays consistent statewide. Youth will learn how conventions run, how business is conducted, how to recruit and organize, and why we stand on faith and conservative values. The adult party provides resources and light oversight; the youth own the program. This creates a real pipeline of prepared leaders instead of losing them.

Fifth, ground everything in measurable results and our foundational principles. Quarterly training sessions for chairs, candidates, and volunteers. An annual retreat focused on recruitment and turnout. Set concrete goals: double active grassroots clubs and add thousands of trained volunteers in year one. Track volunteer hours and outcomes. Every decision gets tested against the Bible, the RPT Platform, and whether it strengthens the grassroots or protects insiders.

I have fought corrupt family courts and DFPS systems because children are made in God’s image and deserve protection. That same drive applies here. The party must serve the people, not the other way around. We clean up the internal mess — transparency, training, accountability — and the grassroots will rise. Good people will fill precinct chairs. Young leaders will step up. Conservatives who drifted away will return. Turnout will increase. Influence will expand into every county and every demographic that values faith, family, and freedom.

This is not theory. These are executable steps I will push from day one. Texas Republicans deserve a party as strong on the inside as it looks on the outside. I am committed to building it.

Sandra Whitten – for RPT Chair

I grew up on the East Coast, in a time when politics seemed secondary. This was because we had the luxury of complacency. The area I grew up in was an anchor-red state. You could depend on it. That same state is blue now. In Texas, we have had the luxury of being an anchor-red state. That is a beautiful thing, and I know how easily that can go away. Texas has become my home, and I have made it my life’s mission to keep it red.

The Republican Party of Texas (PRT) prides itself in the way only Texas can – big, bold, and beautiful. We are the largest republican delegation in the World. We have a powerful voice when we work together. We have the most dedicated volunteers, who give their time, money, and heart to this cause we all believe in.

Along with the triumphs of the RPT, there are holes that need to be mended and wounds that need to be healed. In my politically green years, I ran for Congressional District 28. My slogan was to “restore the heart”. It has become clear to me that this is what Texas needs before DC. In the same way one needs to don an oxygen mask before assisting others, our Texas needs to be restored to its fully glory to continue the fight for our nation. I have seen a lack of trust that pours from the RPT, that has been infected with deceitful practices and misinformation.

Politics has become a synonym for deceitful practices. America at large (and yes, even Texas) has convinced itself that you just cannot trust politicians. You should not even try. Politics is just corrupt; that is the nature of the beast. Backstabbing is the norm. Bullying is part of the process. This is the welcome sign for the James Talaricos of the world to step onto the scene as hero’s. They come in and say that this problem of deceit is from the right. “Those Republicans just aren’t loving like Jesus… you need to look to the trans community to see what real love looks like.” People buy it because we have allowed it. When we back-bite and lie our way through to get what we want, instead of working together for the good of Texas, we neither get what we want nor do we see what is good for Texas.

This why I want to restructure the way we do things. The Party Chair will no longer be involved in Primary Campaigns. It is the Chairman’s job to be impartial and support the nominee. This is an impossibility when the office is involved in mudslinging. The Party Chair will be mandated to provide proper documentation for any and all formal financial claims, regardless of whether the claims are verbal or in writing.

A major issue that needs to be resolved is misinformation. This is a buzz word, but it does not have to be. The first, simple step is to make the candidate questionnaires public. It is not the job of the RPT to vet the candidates, but rather to support the nominee. It is the job of the RPT to ensure that our constituents are informed on candidates beyond the name and a slogan. To restore the heart of Texas, our Texans need to know who they are voting for. Our citizens deserve to be informed for the sake of our State, not to be funneled the smallest bit of information as dictated by the highest bidder.

While fairness may seem like a novel concept, I have made every effort to stand my ground, even when it gave way. This is because truth is a first principle. Texans want what is real. Americans want what is real. They want to have pride when they cast their ballots, not cringe and hope that they picked the lesser of two evils. We want our RPT to be the best, not just barely better than them. We owe all 254 counties the same respect, not just the few favorites who get their way. Texas wouldn’t be Texas that way. It’s time we stop the garble of business as usual when we were meant for so much more. Texas can’t run Texas if we’re too busy selling out to the highest bidders for the cheapest causes. So come and take it, Y’all.