The Dallas Express had the opportunity to sit down with retired Lt. Col. Allen West, the newly elected chair of the Dallas County Republican Party, to discuss his plans for the future following his defeat of incumbent Jennifer Stoddard-Hajdu in March.
“I think it sends a message when you have a 40 or some odd points of a separation,” West told DX.
The former chair of the Texas Republican Party and gubernatorial candidate received more than 70% of the vote, reported The Texan.
In a Facebook post on the night of his victory, West said, “I am deeply humbled and honored to have won the opportunity to serve as the Chairman of the Dallas County Republican Party. There were so many who worked tirelessly in this noble endeavor. Now, we restore the DCRP to its constitutional conservative principles and values.”
West thanked Stoddard-Hajdu for calling to congratulate him and offering to work toward a smooth transition.
Stoddard Hajdu told DX at the time, “My team and I are disappointed [about] the results.”
Reflecting on her time as chair of the party, she said she and her team were “really proud” of the job they did.
West told DX that one of his top priorities when he assumes the post in June will be addressing election integrity.
“We have to rebuild confidence in our election systems,” West said.
West said he plans to “send a letter to the Democrat chairman of Dallas County and ask if he would like to go in on a third-party audit of the Dallas County processes, procedures, and protocols for elections.”
He also said he wants to make sure unlawful migrants are not voting, arguing against the centralized county-wide voting system and expressing support for precinct-level voting instead.
“[We should] run our own primary and use hand-counted and tabulated ballots,” West told DX.
DX asked West about Texas House challenger Barry Wernick’s request for a recount of his primary race to see if there were irregularities. Wernick claims that Elections Administrator Heider Garcia decided to use voting software that was “not lawfully certified,” according to KERA News.
West told DX, “That’s the reason we need to have an audit. When you have the election supervisor [on the] Monday night before March 5 [say] that he is going to be using the central accumulator, which has not passed the validation test since 2019 — that caused a lot of trepidation among people, and why would you make the decision the night prior?”
Wernick lost the primary election for House District 108 against incumbent Rep. Morgan Meyer (R-University Park) by 523 votes.
“This is not a challenge to overturn the election results. It is an effort to expose flaws, if any, inherent in the current election systems and to protect future elections,” Wernick said in a post on X. “After coming within hundreds of votes in my contest, my supporters became aware that our elections administrator, Heider Garcia, made the decision to use software not lawfully certified for the ES&S EMS central accumulator computer that aggregates votes in this election, and he will do so again in May.”
“Details of this failure have been noted by Texas examiners and have been known since 2019. That’s a violation of election law, which says that the voting equipment used must be tested and certified,” he added.
When asked about his opinion of Garcia, West said he would like to meet with him to get to know him better.
On the subject of the March 5 Republican primary results more broadly, West told DX, “I think it was building. This was building up to a point where you see what happened. A lot of these incumbents were defeated, and I think those in the runoff elections are going to find it very difficult because incumbents don’t do very well in the runoffs.”
West said he believes that the next Texas House session will be “more conservative” and said that Republicans are tired of their party appointing Democrats to committee chairs and are upset over the Republican-led impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton last year.
He also said he believes Republicans will do well in the upcoming November general election due to the various problems facing the country, such as unlawful migration, crime, inflation, and energy dependence.
“We decimated our own oil and gas industry. And that affects us here in Texas,” West told DX.
When discussing young Republicans who want to make a difference in politics, West said the party needs more of them.
“I think young people are very important,” West told DX. “I’ll be out there actively looking for young people who want to step up and have their voices heard.”
West said he plans to be more involved in city council, school board, county, and Texas House races in the area and is focused on educating Republicans and training them to be ready for local elections.
