Texas Republican Party Chairman Abraham George released a brief statement Monday, announcing “a significant investment in midterm elections” as part of “a broader strategy to increase voter turnout ahead of the November election.” The less than 200 words speak of “competitive state legislative districts,” but there is also a last-minute jitters in a state considered safe Republican territory. Even more so considering that George’s announcement comes after the publication of an open letter signed by dozens of county party leaders warning that the party’s coordination and funding problems “could make some candidates vulnerable.” The letter posted online cites polls that give incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz a mere 2-point lead over his Democratic opponent for the Washington seat, Colin Allred, and Donald Trump a 5-point lead over Kamala Harris. “The current reality is that Texas is too close for comfort,” the letter states.
Aside from the low-specific investment, the party has pledged to knock on more than 100,000 doors before the election, with a special focus on the South Texas area — with a particularly high Latino population — where many of those districts considered competitive are located. For example, the campaign of Republican Mayra Flores against Democrat Vicente González in the border district 34 of Texas, located in the southeast of the State, which could decide the balance of the House of Representatives; or, at the state level, the race in district 27, which pits Republican Adam Hinojosa against Democrat Morgan LaMantia, in a rematch of a battle that in 2022 was decided by just 700 votes.
The situation is also driven by the state of the state party’s coffers. Last year, they recorded nearly decade-long lows in fundraising, corporate donors and individual contributors. But they were able to hang on thanks to donations from a handful of oil tycoons, who backed District Attorney Ken Paxton decisively last year to help him survive a impeachmentand have sought to push aside the more moderate wing of the party as well.
Even so, the party’s finances remain precarious. According to an investigation by The Texas Tribune,Before its May convention, the Texas Republican Party had just five employees, down from 50 in 2020 heading into that year’s election. And last month, the party reported that its 2024 convention went $600,000 over budget and resulted in a loss of $382,000. Also, from mid-May through early September, the Texas Republican Party’s top fundraising position was vacant. And in its last financial statement, in June, the party reported that it had $2.3 million on hand, down $1 million from the same point in 2020.
All of this has led some local party leaders to question George, who campaigned for party chairman by saying he needed a monthly budget of $1.5 million and more than 100 staff members before the presidential election. In the open letter they refer to this situation on several occasions, arguing that the “current cash on hand should allow him to survive financially until the November 5 election, but it will not allow him much longer.” Adding that, “the current chairman appears unwilling or unable to raise substantial funds.”
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The letter also demanded that the Texas Republican Party declare its efforts to boost mail-in voting. “Without a serious, well-funded mail-in voting program (as we do every cycle), we will be destroyed in mail-in voting, which will shrink Trump’s margin, threaten Cruz’s reelection, and hurt all of our races,” warned Matt Mackowiack, the letter’s author and party chairman in Travis County, where Austin is located. This despite the fact that the party has repeatedly pointed to mail-in voting being used to commit fraud by Democrats.
While the party did not comment specifically in response to the letter, Monday’s announcement and an update to party leaders in which George touted upcoming visits to the south of the state and the recruitment and training of thousands of election observers or workers, clearly seeks to calm tempers.
On the other hand, George also praised the removal of roughly a million people from the state’s voter rolls, and Attorney General Ken Paxton’s ongoing fights to stop voter registration efforts in the state’s most populous, Democrat-dominated counties. The state party chairman framed those moves as “election integrity efforts.” But experts have warned that instead, these actions undermine confidence in elections by perpetuating false notions of widespread fraud. And Democrats and activists have gone even further, accusing Paxton of trying to suppress the votes of thousands of people — a common occurrence in the country’s and state’s history.
But officials in Bexar County, home to San Antonio, defied Paxton’s threats and pressed ahead with their voter registration drive, confident that the prosecutor’s legal claims were misleading and baseless. And on Monday, a district judge ruled against Paxton because the lawsuit came to court after the mailings urging voters to register.
While Mackowiak, the man behind the letter that has set off alarm bells and ruffled feathers within the party, welcomed the announcements from George, whom he ran against for party chairman just months ago, he also maintained his broader concerns about the direction. “The state party appears completely unprepared for this high-stakes election and we all need the Texas Republican Party to raise its game,” he told reporters. The Texas Tribune.No one from either party dares to say openly that Texas is a disputed territory, but polling trends are pointing in that direction and Republicans are reacting. They hope it is not too late.