TEXAS, USA — Note: This article originally appeared in the Texas Tribune here.
Abraham George will be the next chair of the Republican Party of Texas after winning an election at the party’s convention.
The election, which culminated Friday evening, emerged as a referendum on outgoing Chair Matt Rinaldi. Under Rinaldi’s reign, the party’s divisions deepened and its fundraising and staffing levels plummeted. As Rinaldi’s chosen successor, George is expected to continue the party’s trajectory, with the far-right using the party institution as a bully pulpit to attack more moderate conservatives.
George, a former Collin County GOP chair who recently ran for the Texas House, defeated party Vice Chair Dana Myers in the second round of voting on the convention floor. Four other candidates failed to advance to the convention floor, including Ben Armenta, a Houston-area businessman; Mike Garcia, former executive director of the Texas House Freedom Caucus; and Travis County GOP Chair Matt Mackowiak. Another, former Real Estate Commissioner Weston Martinez, was the third-place vote-getter on the floor and endorsed Myers after he was eliminated.
Mackowiak’s late entrance into the race last week underscored the divisions within the party and dissatisfaction with Rinaldi’s leadership — and the influence of far-right oil billionaire funders Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. After Mackowiak was eliminated from the election, he endorsed Myers, despite George emerging from the preliminary round of voting as the frontrunner.
“I attempted to create a team to stop Abraham George, who is wholly unacceptable as party chair, and to take on the challenges that face the Republican Party of Texas after the failed leadership of the previous chair,” Mackowiak said in a statement Friday afternoon.
George’s campaign for party chair was marred by reports that he was intercepted by police last year as he left his home with a loaded gun to confront a man he believed was sleeping with his wife. His wife, Mariam, joined George on stage Thursday, when he spoke to the delegates at the start of the convention.
