Good afternoon,

Tomorrow all across Texas, Republicans were scheduled to gather at County and Senate District Conventions to propose resolutions and elect delegates to our State Convention. Now, however, the global effects of the impact of Coronavirus are being felt in nearly every precinct in the Lone Star State and the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) has strongly recommended those local Conventions be postponed until after May 14.

Despite this crisis, our Republican leaders throughout this great state have worked diligently this week to prepare for these conventions and are handling them appropriately at their local level amidst the national, state and local disaster declarations. Given the unprecedented circumstances we are encountering and continuing to manage, they have had no easy task and are to be commended.

Many Counties and Senate Districts have already set new convention dates and we have provided the information received thus far on the RPT website under the “Conventions” tab in the navigation bar.

While we are working to provide you the best and most up-to-date information, we encourage you to be in close communication with your county party. 

I thank the Republican Leaders across Texas - our SREC Members, our County Chairs and our Temporary Senate District Convention Chairs - for working so hard to make arrangements for you to participate in the Convention process. They have joined us on multiple calls over the past week to discuss how to prepare and how to make adjustments for the March 21 Conventions.

We want you to be with us in July in Houston for our 2020 RPT State Convention! These county and senate district conventions are the only chance for you to be elected a delegate or alternate to our state convention, so we want to be sure you have the information you need to attend. Though you don’t necessarily need to be present to be elected, you do need to ensure your name is submitted to the local nominations committee. Again, contact your county party for more information on how to participate.

As we discussed on our statewide townhall conference call on Monday night, we are in the process of moving the State Convention from May 11-16 to July 13-18 in Houston at the George R. Brown Convention Center.  We are pleased to report that in addition to the Convention Center, our hotel accommodations remain largely intact. We are working on details with the hotel regarding moving current bookings to July and other lodging news for July. We will be updating you as the information is available.

I said the word “process” above because moving one of the largest political gatherings in the free world is indeed a multi-step process! I want to thank Governor Greg Abbott for providing waivers needed for the SREC to proceed with the business necessary so that we won’t violate Texas Election Code. I want to thank our RPT Officials Committee for their time this week to help clear the way for decisions to be made. I thank our RPT Executive Director Kyle Whatley who has been on this around-the-clock to work with our Convention location and vendors to keep the process moving in order to make July happen. I want to thank our RPT General Counsel Wade Emmert, RPT Parliamentarian Chris Howe and our RPT staff who have been working incredibly hard this week to make sure we are compliant in our actions and keep up our communications with you so you have the most current available information.

Please see the RPT website for information about the conventions tomorrow. p If you have questions, email [email protected] and we will respond as quickly as possible. 

Thank you,

James Dickey

Chairman, Republican Party of Texas