HOUSTON — The three candidates battling for the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) vice-chair position delivered speeches at the party’s convention in Houston on Thursday.
Delegates will vote on Friday to choose Adrienne Peña-Garza, Alma Jackson Perez, or Dana Myers as the party’s No.2 leader. The current vice-chair, Cat Parks, is not seeking reelection.
Adrienne Peña-Garza is in her third term as chair of the Hidalgo County Republican Party. She spoke about her county turning red after being a safe county for Democrats for over 100 years. Peña-Garza attributed the shift to the county’s constituents rejecting Beto O’Rourke’s policies and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s philosophies. She also hit President Joe Biden for the rising inflation across the country that she claimed prevented many from reaching Houston for the convention.
Peña-Garza also spoke about her father, Aaron Peña, a former Texas House of Representatives member. Aaron Peña served in the Texas House from 2003 to 2013. He was a Democrat until 2010, when he flipped his affiliation to the Republican party.
She shouted out Mayra Flores, a former grassroots volunteer for the Hidalgo County Republican Party, for winning her special election this week for Congressional District 34. Peña-Garza strongly emphasized the importance of grassroots movements.
“We must take back our country and protect our state at all costs, it’s about the grassroots, and the sooner the people of Texas understand that, the sooner we can send a clear and loud message,” she said.
Alma Jackson Perez was the vice-chairman of the RPT from 2018 to 2020. She affirmed that she is “still pro-God, pro-country, pro-family, pro-life, pro-gun, pro-legal immigration, and pro-accountability of all elected officials.” She also spoke about the 35 years she has worked for the Republican party and her achievements during her previous term as vice-chair.
Jackson Perez hit Democrats for the ‘defund the police’ movement, paying “people not to work,” and gun control, saying what needs to be talked about is “self-control.” She called for prayer to be returned to schools and warned that the U.S.’s shift toward socialism was getting stronger.
“Each of us has a part to contribute in order to bring America and Texas back to common sense and moral standards again. We were great once, let’s work to be great again,” she said.
Dana Myers is a retired trauma surgeon in her second term as vice-chair of the Harris County Republican Party. She claimed the Harris County Republican Party was “financially underwater” when she took over the seat, but that has since been reversed. She also cited her contribution to a team that recruited 213,000 new registered Republican voters.
Myers said the next step Republicans need to take, specifically in Harris County, is to take back the courts and school boards. Myers also called on the party to “activate Republican women across the state” while shouting out Mayra Flores’ win in CD 34.
She then derided President Biden for the “border crisis, rampant crime,” supply chain and energy issues, and Critical Race Theory in schools. Myers said Texas must lead the fight against the Democrat’s policies.
“Other states will follow [Texas]. This will not be easy; we must work every day to protect Texas, take back our school boards, take back our local city governments, and elect strong conservatives to state and national offices,” she said.
At a recent forum hosted by Grassroots America, a Tyler-based conservative organization, the three candidates agreed that the party’s legislature should prioritize securing elections and restricting child gender transitioning.
However, Jackson stood out from the other candidates by saying the party needs to do more to hold elected officials who stray from the party’s platform accountable.
While the race for vice-chair is competitive, the race to be the party’s No.1 leader will have no drama. Matt Rinaldi will officially remain as the chair of RPT after the filing deadline passed on Thursday with no other candidate joining the race.
In his speech at the convention Thursday, Rinaldi made it clear that the party would become even more aggressive as it fights for its priorities and against the left.
“We can’t be content with merely winning elections and slowing America’s leftward trajectory. We can’t rest on achieving a few legislative victories, then sit back, proud and content, from contests. We need to take the fight directly to the left and go on offense,” said Rinaldi.