Republican Party of Texas
Encyclopedia
The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) is one of the two major political parties in the U.S. State of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. It is affiliated with the United States Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

. The State Chairman is Steve Munisteri
Steve Munisteri
Stephen Peter Munisteri is a retired attorney from Houston, Texas, who was elected chairman of the Republican Party of Texas at the state convention held in Dallas on June 13, 2010. He unseated the incumbent Cathie L. Adams, the wife of a Dallas chiropractor, who had held the position for only...

, a retired attorney and business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

man from Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

, and the Vice-Chair is Melinda Fredricks of Conroe
Conroe, Texas
Conroe is a suburban city 40 miles north of Houston in the gulf coastal plains/piney woods region of southeast Texas.It is the seat of Montgomery County and falls within the metropolitan area.As of the 2000 U.S...

. The RPT is headquartered in Downtown
Downtown Austin
Downtown Austin is the central business district of Austin, Texas. Downtown is located on the north bank of the Colorado River. The approximate borders of Downtown include Lamar Boulevard to the west, 11th Street and sometimes Martin Luther King, Jr...

 Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

. The RPT's mission is to promote a conservative philosophy of government by promoting conservative principles and by providing the infrastructure through which those who share our conservative principles can get involved in the political process, run for and be elected to public office, and govern according to our principles when elected. The RPT is legally classified as a political action committee
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...

 whose structure is determined by state law & by party rules not in conflict with state law.

History

Since the days of Reconstruction, the Republican Party of Texas went through over 100 years of being a minority party in the state. In 1870, Edmund Davis was elected Governor, but was soundly defeated in 1874. In the year 1876, Republicans had made gradual gains in Texas, earning nearly one-third of the statewide vote and electing a small number of candidates to the State Legislature (including several African-Americans). However, by the turn of the century, the Republican Party all but disappeared from Texas with the passage of poll taxes
Poll tax
A poll tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax...

 that many poor Texans could not afford to pay. The first Republican statewide primary was held in 1926, but drew only 15,239 voters. By contrast, the Democrat primary in the same year drew 821,234 voters. Only two more Republican primaries would be attempted in the next thirty-four years.

The first signs of life in the modern Republican Party of Texas occurred after U.S. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

 was elected Vice-President in 1960, when Texas Republicans claimed their first U.S. Senate victory with the election of John Tower
John Tower
John Goodwin Tower was the first Republican United States senator from Texas since Reconstruction. He served from 1961 until his retirement in January 1985, after which time he was the chairman of the Reagan-appointed Tower Commission that investigated the Iran-Contra Affair. He was George H. W...

 in a special election held in May 1961. Tower would serve in this position until his retirement in 1985. In 1966, two Republicans were elected to the US House of Representatives, including future President George H.W. Bush for the first time since Reconstruction, three Republicans were elected to the Texas House of Representatives
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House is composed of 150 members elected from single-member districts across the state. The average district has about 150,000 people. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits...

 and one Republican was elected to the Texas Senate
Texas Senate
The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing 31 single-member districts across the state with populations of approximately 672,000 per constituency. There are no term limits, and each term is four years long. The Senate meets at the...

. By 1972, Texas Republicans had made gains to 17 members of the Texas Legislature and 3 members of the Texas Senate.

The true turning point for Texas Republicans occurred in the May 1976 primary, when Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

 defeated Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...

 by a two to one margin in the state's presidential primary. According to former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, due to Reagan's victory in the Texas primary, "the whole shape and nature of the state changed."

104 years after the last Republican governor, Bill Clements eked out a narrow victory in November 1978. Together, Clements and Tower combined their organizational skills to continue building the RPT and started laying the groundwork for future growth. In 1984, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Phil Gramm
Phil Gramm
William Philip "Phil" Gramm is an American economist and politician, who has served as a Democratic Congressman , a Republican Congressman and a Republican Senator from Texas...

 led a GOP ticket that heavily relied upon the RPT to provide a centralized network of communications. Throughout the rest of the decade, the total Republican vote continued to increase and the party made large gains in both the state legislature and in local races.

Since 1994, every statewide elected office has been held by a Republican. Furthermore, both houses of the Texas Legislature
Texas Legislature
The Legislature of the state of Texas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The Legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin...

 feature Republican majorities. In the State House, Republicans hold a supermajority of 101 Republican representatives in the 150-member body, and in the Texas Senate
Texas Senate
The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing 31 single-member districts across the state with populations of approximately 672,000 per constituency. There are no term limits, and each term is four years long. The Senate meets at the...

, Republicans hold 19 of 31 seats. Both houses are officially organized on a bipartisan basis, with both Republicans and Democrats holding committee chairs.

At the federal level, the Texas Congressional delegation is currently composed of 23 Republicans and 9 Democrats and both of its US Senators are Republican. The last time Texas was carried by a Democratic presidential candidate was in 1976
United States presidential election, 1976
The United States presidential election of 1976 followed the resignation of President Richard Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal. It pitted incumbent President Gerald Ford, the Republican candidate, against the relatively unknown former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, the Democratic...

.

Current elected officials

The Republican Party of Texas controls all elected statewide offices, holds a 19-12 majority in the Texas Senate
Texas Senate
The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing 31 single-member districts across the state with populations of approximately 672,000 per constituency. There are no term limits, and each term is four years long. The Senate meets at the...

, and a 101-49 supermajority in the Texas House of Representatives
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House is composed of 150 members elected from single-member districts across the state. The average district has about 150,000 people. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits...

. Republicans also hold both of the state's U.S. Senate seats and 23 of the state's 32 U.S. House seats.

U.S. House of Representatives (listed by district number)

  • TX-01: Louie Gohmert
    Louie Gohmert
    Louis Buller Gohmert, Jr. is an American politician and current Republican U.S. Representative from Texas's 1st congressional district.-Life and career:...

  • TX-02: Ted Poe
    Ted Poe
    Lloyd "Ted" Poe is a Republican politician currently representing Texas's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. The district includes most of northern Houston, as well as most of the Beaumont-Port Arthur metropolitan area. He is the first Republican to ever...

  • TX-03: Sam Johnson
    Sam Johnson
    Samuel Robert "Sam" Johnson is an American politician and a retired career U.S. Air Force officer and fighter pilot. He currently is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the 3rd District of Texas...

  • TX-04: Ralph Hall
    Ralph Hall
    Ralph Moody Hall is a United States Representative from . First elected in 1980, Hall is the chairman of the Science Committee and a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee...

  • TX-05: Jeb Hensarling
    Jeb Hensarling
    Jeb Hensarling has been the Republican congressman representing Texas' 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives since 2003.-Early life:...

  • TX-06: Joe Barton
    Joe Barton
    Joseph Linus "Joe" Barton is a Republican politician, representing in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1985, and a member of the Tea Party Caucus...

  • TX-07: John Culberson
    John Culberson
    John Abney Culberson is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party and the Tea Party caucus...

  • TX-08: Kevin Brady
    Kevin Brady
    Kevin Patrick Brady is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district includes a large swath of suburban and rural territory around Houston and Beaumont....

  • TX-10: Michael McCaul
    Michael McCaul
    Michael Thomas McCaul, Sr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district stretches from Austin to Houston.-Early life, education and career:...

  • TX-11: Mike Conaway
    Mike Conaway
    Kenneth Michael "Mike" Conaway, is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district is located in West Texas and includes Midland, Odessa, San Angelo, Brownwood and Fredericksburg....

  • TX-12: Kay Granger
    Kay Granger
    Kay Granger , a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Texas, currently represents the 12th congressional district in the U.S...

  • TX-13: Mac Thornberry
    Mac Thornberry
    William McClellan "Mac" Thornberry is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1995. He is a member of the Republican Party....

  • TX-14: Ron Paul
    Ron Paul
    Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...

  • TX-17: Bill Flores
    Bill Flores
    William H. "Bill" Flores is the U.S. Representative for . The district, located in the middle of the state, includes Waco, College Station and Bryan. He is a member of the Republican Party and the former CEO of Phoenix Exploration Company, an oil and natural gas exploration company.-Early life and...

  • TX-19: Randy Neugebauer
    Randy Neugebauer
    Robert Randolph "Randy" Neugebauer is the U.S. Representative for , serving since a special election in 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district includes a large swath of West Texas, including Lubbock and Abilene...

  • TX-21: Lamar S. Smith
    Lamar S. Smith
    Lamar Seeligson Smith is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1987. The district includes most of the wealthier sections of San Antonio and Austin, as well as nearly all of the Texas Hill Country...

  • TX-22: Pete Olson
    Pete Olson
    Peter Graham "Pete" Olson is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2009. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district includes much of southeastern Houston, as well as most of the city's southern suburbs such as Pearland, Sugar Land, and Pasadena.-Early life, education, and military...

  • TX-23: Quico Canseco
    Quico Canseco
    Francisco "Quico" R. Canseco is the U.S. Representative for . He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life and education:...

  • TX-24: Kenny Marchant
    Kenny Marchant
    Kenny Ewell Marchant is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district includes several wealthy areas around Dallas and Fort Worth.-Early life, education and career:...

  • TX-26: Michael C. Burgess
    Michael C. Burgess
    Michael Clifton Burgess, is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003, and a member of the Tea Party Caucus.-Early life, education, and early career:...

  • TX-27: Blake Farenthold
  • TX-31: John Carter
  • TX-32: Pete Sessions
    Pete Sessions
    Peter Anderson Sessions is a politician from the state of Texas. He is a Republican, and currently represents the 32nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the current Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee-Personal:Sessions was born in Waco,...


Statewide officials

  • Governor: Rick Perry
    Rick Perry
    James Richard "Rick" Perry is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full...

  • Lieutenant Governor
    Lieutenant Governor of Texas
    The Lieutenant Governor of Texas is the second-highest executive office in the government of Texas, a state in the U.S. It is the second most powerful post in Texas government because its occupant controls the work of the Texas Senate and controls the budgeting process as a leader of the...

    : David Dewhurst
    David Dewhurst
    David Dewhurst is the 41st and current Lieutenant Governor of Texas, serving under Governor Rick Perry since January 21, 2003. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as Texas Land Commissioner from 1999 to 2003. Dewhurst announced on July 18, 2011, that he was running for the...

  • Attorney General
    Texas Attorney General
    The Texas Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the State of Texas.The department has offices at the William P. Clements State Office Building at 300 West 15th Street in Austin.-History:...

    : Greg Abbott
    Greg Abbott
    Gregory Wayne "Greg" Abbott is the Texas Attorney General, and is the second Republican since Reconstruction to serve in that role. Abbott was sworn in on December 2, 2002, following John Cornyn's election to the U.S. Senate...

  • Comptroller of Public Accounts
    Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
    The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts is an executive branch position created by the Texas Constitution. As with nearly every other executive branch head, the Comptroller is popularly elected every four years concurrently with the Governor and the other elected executive branch positions...

    : Susan Combs
    Susan Combs
    Susan Combs is a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Texas, currently serving as the state's Comptroller of Public Accounts....

  • State Land Commissioner: Jerry Patterson
  • State Agriculture Commissioner
    Texas Department of Agriculture
    The Texas Department of Agriculture is a state agency within the state of Texas, which is responsible for matters pertaining to agriculture, rural community affairs, and related matters.TDA was established by the 13th Texas Legislature in 1907...

    : Todd Staples
    Todd Staples
    Douglas Todd Staples is the current Republican Commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture. Prior to his election in 2006 as Agriculture Commissioner, he had been a member of both houses of the Texas State Legislature and formerly served on the city council in Palestine, Texas.Staples was...

  • Railroad Chairmen: Elizabeth Ames Jones
    Elizabeth Ames Jones
    Elizabeth Ames Jones is one of the three members of the elected Texas Railroad Commission, a regulatory body that oversees the oil and natural gas industries in Texas — as opposed to railroads, as its name suggests...

  • Railroad Commissioner: David Porter
    David J. Porter
    David Jerome Porter , a Certified Public Accountant, is a member of the Texas Railroad Commission. Formerly in a private CPA practice in Midland in Midland County, Porter has since relocated to Giddings in Lee County, Texas.-Background:...

  • Railroad Commissioner: Barry Smitherman

Legislative
Texas Legislature
The Legislature of the state of Texas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The Legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin...

  • President of the Senate/Lt. Governor
    Lieutenant Governor of Texas
    The Lieutenant Governor of Texas is the second-highest executive office in the government of Texas, a state in the U.S. It is the second most powerful post in Texas government because its occupant controls the work of the Texas Senate and controls the budgeting process as a leader of the...

    : David Dewhurst
    David Dewhurst
    David Dewhurst is the 41st and current Lieutenant Governor of Texas, serving under Governor Rick Perry since January 21, 2003. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as Texas Land Commissioner from 1999 to 2003. Dewhurst announced on July 18, 2011, that he was running for the...

  • Speaker of the House
    Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives
    The Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the Texas House of Representatives. The Speaker's main duties are to conduct meetings of the House, appoint committees, and enforce the Rules of the House...

    : Joe Straus
    Joe Straus
    Joseph R. Straus, III, known as Joe Straus , is the current Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. He represents District 121, which comprises northeastern Bexar County, including part of San Antonio, Texas, and several surrounding communities...


List of State Party Chairmen

State Party Chairmen since 1976
  • Ray Hutchison
    Ray Hutchison
    Elton Ray Hutchison, known as Ray Hutchison , is a prominent Dallas, Texas, attorney, who served in the Texas House of Representatives in the 1970s and is married to the state's senior Republican senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison. In 1957, Hutchison graduated from Southern Methodist University in...

     - (1976-1977)
  • Ray Barnhart
    Ray Barnhart
    Ray Anderson Barnhart is a retired businessman and Republican politician, formerly from Pasadena in Harris County, Texas.From 1981–1987, Barnhart was director of the Federal Highway Administration under U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan...

     - (1977-1979)
  • Chet Upham
    Chet Upham
    Chester Robert Upham, Jr., known as Chet Upham , was an oil and natural gas businessman from Mineral Wells, Texas, who served as the chairman of the Texas Republican Party from 1979–1983, corresponding with the first gubernatorial administration of his friend, William P. "Bill" Clements, Jr...

     - (1979-1983)
  • George Strake, Jr.
    George Strake, Jr.
    George William Strake, Jr. , is a Houston, Texas, businessman and philanthropist who served as Texas secretary of state from January 16, 1979–October 6, 1981, during the administration of Republican Governor William Perry Clements, Jr...

     - (1983-1988)
  • Fred Meyer (Texas politician) - (1988-1994)
  • Tom Pauken - (1994-1997)
  • Susan Weddington - (1997-2003)
  • Tina Benkiser
    Tina Benkiser
    Tina Renee Johns Benkiser is a Houston attorney who served as chairman of the Republican Party of Texas from 2003 to 2009. She became chairman on the resignation of Susan Weddington....

     - (2003-2009)
  • Cathie Adams
    Cathie Adams
    Cathie L. Adams is a homemaker from Dallas, Texas, who is the former chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. She won the post in a special meeting of the Republican State Executive Committee held on October 24, 2009, at party headquarters in Austin...

     - (2009-2010)
  • Steve Munisteri
    Steve Munisteri
    Stephen Peter Munisteri is a retired attorney from Houston, Texas, who was elected chairman of the Republican Party of Texas at the state convention held in Dallas on June 13, 2010. He unseated the incumbent Cathie L. Adams, the wife of a Dallas chiropractor, who had held the position for only...

     - (2010-present)

Auxiliary organizations

The official college Republican Party of Texas' student wing is Texas College Republicans
Texas College Republicans
Texas College Republicans is an organization composed of over 35 chapters of College Republicans in the state of Texas. It is an official auxiliary organization of the Republican Party of Texas and the College Republican National Committee...

, which has over 35 chapters statewide.

The Texas Federation of Republican Women (TFRW) is a volunteer women's organization that has "long-standing goals of education, training, participation in government, electing Republicans and encouraging Republican women to run for office". TFRW has 164 local clubs across Texas with over 10,000 members.

The Texas Republican County Chairmen's Association (TRCCA) is composed of the elected chairman of the county Republican party organizations in Texas and operates to support and provide networking opportunities for elected Republican county chairmen in Texas.

The Texas Young Republican Federation (TYRF) is an organization composed of Young Republican clubs across Texas which are open to registered voters who are between the ages of 18 and 40 years old. The TYRF goals are grassroots activism, leadership development, community service and club development.

The Texas Federation for Republican Outreach is committed to increasing participation and affiliation of African-American voters within the Republican Party, and to increase the number of elected Republican African-American candidates in Texas.

The Texas Republican Assembly is a grassroots volunteer organization dedicated to promoting and electing conservative Republican candidates in Texas. There are six charter clubs across Texas.

The Republican National Hispanic Assembly has a chapter in Texas, whose mission is to increase participation and affiliation of Hispanic American voters within the Republican Party, and to increase the number of elected Republican Hispanic candidates in Texas.

The Latino National Republican Coalition of Texas believes "in active civic engagement as a means to bridge the gap between the Hispanic Community and the GOP." There are five chapters throughout Texas.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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