It’s deja vu all over again with the Harris County Republican Party. The disastrous results for the HCRP in the November 2016 election has invigorated the old guard and put the current regime in their crosshairs. Gary Polland fired a cannonball at Paul Simpson and Simpson responded in the most inappropriate way possible.
First, the cannonball. Somehow Polland convinced his decades long friend Fred Barnes to publish an article that I would go to Vegas and bet was written by Polland employee and former HCRP employee Marc Cowart. What are friends for, right?
There’s an untold story from the 2016 election that should encourage Democrats and worry Republicans. It happened in Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city in population and the hometown of former President George H. W. Bush. To be precise it’s Harris County, Texas—which consists mostly of Houston—that we’re talking about.
On November 8, Hillary Clinton lost Texas to Donald Trump by 9 percentage points. But she won Harris County by an astonishing 13 percentage points. And that’s not all. Republicans lost every county-wide race (including incumbents) and 24 of 24 judgeships. The son of Lt. Governor Dan Patrick was among Republican judges who were ousted.
For Republicans, it was literally a wipeout. Even so, that doesn’t quite capture how bad it was for them. The Democratic sweep underlined how rapidly the GOP is fading in Harris County, third population-wise among the nation’s counties. In 2012, Mitt Romney lost to Barack Obama by 971 votes. In 2016, Trump lost to Clinton by 161,511. She beat Trump by a larger margin than former Texas governor and President George W. Bush achieved in his two presidential campaigns.
The GOP’s suffering is all the more painful because of the false dawn provided by city’s 2014 ordinance that outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation, “sexual identity,” and 13 other factors. The ordinance was challenged in a referendum in 2015 as opponents rallied around the battle cry of “no men in the women’s bathrooms.” That killed the ordinance. It lost by a whopping 61 percent to 39 percent, raising Republican hopes that Houston is more conservative than everyone thought.Maybe it is, but Republicans haven’t benefitted from that. Gary Polland, a three-time Harris County Republican party chairman, can’t remember a time the GOP has done so poorly. “It could be back to the 60’s.” Jared Woodfill, who lost the chairmanship in 2014, does remember. “This is the worst defeat for Republicans in the 71-year history of Republican party of Harris County,” he said.
(click here to read the article by Fred “Marc Cowart” Barnes at WeeklyStandard.com)
Obviously, the facts relayed are true. Republicans got shellacked, no question about it. But the commentary isn’t exactly on target. An untold story? Sheesh, how many times do we have to tell it before Polland will say it’s been told already? Obviously we’ve gone over it here at BJP many times but the ‘untold story’ has also been told on Polland’s own Texas Conservative Review, Brietbart Texas, the Houston Chronicle, the Texas Tribune, the Washington Post, the New York Times and on every television station in Harris County. It was an astonishing, astounding, disastrous defeat. But untold?
It is interesting that Polland calls the defeat of the City of Houston bathroom ordinance a ‘false dawn’. If he’s right, what does Hotze, Woodfill, et. al. have to offer?
Let’s move to the end of the article because that is the meat of it:
Polland said Republicans can’t wait to elect a new Harris County chairman in the 2018 primary. “This is not about ego. It is not about who is in charge. It’s about the survival of the GOP in Harris County.”
And there it is. Polland can’t wait to elect a new chairman.
Okay, so that was the cannonball. Frankly, if you didn’t know Polland and you didn’t know the history of the Harris County Republican Party, which I suspect represent 99{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the readers of the Weekly Standard, you shrug and go on about your business. Unfortunately Paul Simpson took it personally and responded in the most inappropriate way possible.
Harris County Republican County Chair Paul Simpson issued the following statement regarding a fake news blog posted by the Weekly Standard.
“I was angry when I received a link to a fact-free story about our Party and the 2016 Harris County elections, allegedly written by Weekly Standard columnist Fred Barnes. Mr. Barnes never contacted me or anyone who works with or for the Party before publishing this hit piece. It cited only two alleged direct sources: two former disgruntled county chairs who have seen their days as king-making profiteers coming to a close. In an extremely difficult 2016 election environment that had anomalous results across the country, including Harris County – where millions of outside left-wing dollars poured into local races to elect Democrats –, Mr. Barnes’ sources never once volunteered to raise money for the Party, call a voter, or knock on a door. Instead, a week before the election they laughed it up on a local cable access show hoping a wipe out would sweep their corrupt practices back to power.”
“If Fred Barnes had ever contacted me or the Harris County Republican Party to ask about the elections, he would have learned the Party did indeed support Donald Trump, along with every other Republican candidate on the ballot. He would have learned the truth about what the Harris County GOP actually did in the 2016 campaign– not the inaccurate spin set out in his article. More importantly, he would have learned what the Party is doing to win the battleground that is Harris County, including an in-depth strategic review announced last November. If Mr. Barnes would have called, our grassroots army could have shown him how we are fighting back and organizing for the 2018 elections, growing the Party, equipping our army, and working closely with the Governor, Lt. Governor, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, and others to ensure an effective operation. We know the liberals from New York City, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. are not going to back down. We will fight them for every vote in Harris County.”
When I say inappropriate, I’m talking about using official Harris County Republican Party resources (email list and website) to defend his honor because he was angry. When former HCRP Chair Jared Woodfill used the party email list for his campaign, I criticized him harshly and am not going to give Simpson a pass. What I see happening with the ‘new’ regime is the exact same abuses of the ‘old’ regime. The ‘new’ regime simply has a different set of party insiders ready and willing to circumvent sound ethical practices to get their way.
As for Simpson’s argument, it simply falls flat. He and his team did not support Donald Trump. They did not use Trump’s issues. They did not run against Hillary Clinton. They got their asses kicked. No amount of wordsmithing or attacking Polland and Woodfill is going to change that. No amount of telling people how many calls you made, how many pieces of mail you sent or how many doors you knocked on is going to change that.
Simpson needs to stop trying to sugarcoat the disaster and just admit what every single Harris County Republican already knows – Republicans got whupped in Harris County. Then he needs to tell people what he is going to do different instead of telling people it would have been worse if the party hadn’t worked so hard. It couldn’t have been worse! Simpson needs to review what he wrote prior to being elected party chair.
There’s always tension between political activists, and their party’s candidates and officeholders. Activists advance principles. A party elects candidates. But their interests have to be balanced. A party that advances no principles is meaningless. But a party that wins no elections is irrelevant.
Few people, other than the old guard, want to see another expensive, divisive, long, drawn out battle for HCRP Chair. It is a huge waste of resources, time and talent. Unfortunately, it looks like that is where we are headed and Simpson is playing right into the hands of the old guard with his thin skinned defensive posture.
“They did not run against Hillary Clinton. They got their asses kicked.”
I voted for Mr. Simpson. Having stated that, I have vowed not to support a Republican candidate for four years and fully expect to adhere to my vow. I do so because of the person at the top that now represents the Republican Party. In my opinion, anyone that could support a person like Trump is either brain dead or has put Party over Country. Maybe the younger persons have not studied history and the older Republicans have forgotten that Russia was the enemy and as far as I am concerned they still are. It was Russian money that killed and wounded all those Americans in Vietnam, It was also Russian money behind much of the Korean war. They have not changed much since the fall of the Kremlin, they still have more nukes than we do, they are still seeking to expand. They have no compulsion about killing persons who disagree with them.
But back to the statement about supporting Trump. Trump lost by a much larger margin than the judges, would it have been a good strategy to have hung that albatross around their neck? In fact I am telling all the people that I know that the best strategy is to hang Trump around every single Republican. Trump may make some of the most conservative social conservatives happy but that may be the extent of what he may accomplish. I look forward to four years of Trump as he will make not only make Harris County completely Blue but may make Texas Blue also in 2020.
Neither. . . . . .
There are plenty of intelligent, rational, thinking voters that voted for Trump because his opponent was far, far worse. As for the Russians, Hillary had her own Russian connections, as well as paychecks from dozens of other countries that were buying her influence through the Clinton Foundation.
Texas turning blue? . . . . . keep dreaming.
Fat, I remember when Texas was Blue, nothing is forever. Four years ago who would have thought the Democrats would have a sweep in Harris County?
What were Hillary connections to Russia fat? I read extensively and I have not found any that would be substantiated, was she corrupt, yes but so are almost all politicians there may be exceptions so I won’t say all.. The fact remains that Mother Teresa could have been the Democrat and probably the same people who voted for Trump would still vote for Trump. They all pander to the money people that give to their reelection campaigns.
As to 2018 it is still a little early and Trump will soon run out of executive orders for attention, which really have not accomplished much. Trumpcare is still there and every thing I keep reading is that it will still be there four years from today, but who knows maybe the fiscal conservative will vote against their believes. But if things are going the same way, I expect that Harris County will win most county wide positions. Ed Emmett may survive as he is closer to the Democrats than the Republicans.
I would rather vote on a 100 million bond election for flood control than to keep the Astrodome. They are already talking of upgrading NRG Center more bond money to cater to the rich.
As to the Clinton/Russians I am assuming that you may be referring to this;
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html
Neither:
Texas was blue when Democrats were rational.
‘Nuff said.
Not much of a response Fat, I take it then when one has no argument one resorts to name calling. That’s okay I have been known to engage in doing that, it seems to work some of the time. Have a great day many years hopefully in a Blue county and state.
Wow. Outstanding article – fair and balanced. I have personally voiced my concerns that the current GOP leadership basically distanced themselves from candidate Trump, until just a couple of weeks before the November election. They certainly didn’t advocate for him.
Excellent sleuthing. There’s obviously no perfect politician, but some grievances seem to overtake the good.
The Republicans got a shellacking in the November election. The current GOP leadership attacked the predecessor’s stats (blaming leadership for the lack of Republicans in Harris County), so it’s only appropriate that a lot of the blame for November 2016 must go to the this GOP’s leadership.
Eye opening article. Keep up the good work.
If you take the entire article seriously and put 2 and 2 together, it claims that we lost because we didn’t push Trump hard enough, and because we didn’t have enough outreach, particularly to Hispanics.
I’d like to quote what a friend of mine had to say about that:
“Win Hispanic votes by deporting their family!”
“Don’t like your mother in law? Vote Republican!”
I have to admit, they are catchier than “Harris County Works!” I’m just not sure they would go over well with the target demographic.
Trump has no principles (other than self-promotion). The Republican Party can be the party of Trump, or the party of principles. It cannot be both. If Republicans fail to keep Trump in check, the “bloodbath” of 2016 will be remembered as a mere scratch. The next two years will be very telling as ACA and entitlement reforms could hit Trump’s “deplorables” hard.
Neither,
considering your comments on “off the kuff” I can’t imagine ever seeing you vote in a Republican Primary.
yep
Paul, Trump turned me against the Republican party, you can believe what you want. I don’t have a reason to tell fake stories unlike the president of the United States.
Great article David..thanks
Having Devin Anderson at the top of the ticket in Harris County didn’t help at all. With the mess she pulled and no push back from the local leaders of the party indicates to me there isn’t much there.
The messages of the two Parties could not have been clearer. Not just at the top of the ticket, but the entire down ballot. This was not a matter of key competence of party personnel. This was truly an election on what the voters believe. Every one of the winning candidates better represented those beliefs.
If one is completely credulous, believes anything as long as it is coming from a Republican mouth, and is satisfied not to apply logic or research to the propaganda they are fed, then, I suppose, it was possible to support Trump. However, if you are a skeptic, have a code of ethics, research political claims no matter who they come from, then, not only was it impossible to support Trump, it was impossible to support any candidate who supported Trump. Even the absentee coward Ted Poe, a covert Trump supporter in a safely gerrymandered district, only won by the smallest margin of his political career. So yes, there was a Trump effect. But it only went to denote the bad character of the GOP candidates.
About 110 days ago, the Texas GOP got their “donkeys” handed to them. After any loss (just like after a non-peerless victory), a post-mortem should be done.
Harris County is likely turning Blue, but it’s not like it solely happened in the last 4 years. Romney was a conservative that conservatives, even if they weren’t enthused for, could get behind because he was a known quantity conservative that they knew would be a good president.
Trump got Democrats excited to go and vote against him AND vote for Clinton. While there weren’t 100,000 of them, several thousand people got their citizenship to vote “Never Trump”.
We will see in 13 months if that anger is able to carry the Harris County GOP to make a change, but it will be equally interesting to see how the County Judge and HCP2 Commissioner seats go in March AND November. Trump’s lack of popularity in Harris County could flip one or two of those seats. Both are respected for how well they do their job, but there have been others who also did their job well who were pushed out by either a slow shift in the electorate or a seismic political shake-up.
GOPers are great at Circular Firing Squads. It was just such a Circular Firing Squad that got Trump elected. He certainly was NOT the best or most qualified candidate, just the opposite. He just knew how to manipulate the media, And now you are stuck with them and you have to pretend that you like them, and you have to defend him, and you have to let on like he was what you wanted all along. You can plainly see that he is not a Conservative, that he is a liar, and that he wants to establish his totalitarian regime. But Republicans have to pretend that this is what they wanted all along, because this is what they ended up with. Sad.
There was almost no outside help for the Democrats this past election. There was great local grassroots organizing and there was a great bunch of candidates. That’s why they won. The GOP needs to recruit humans of better character as candidates.
I shared many years ago when Obama first ran for office the “plan” the Democrats were going to use Nationally and local to Hubbart and Paul Simpson. They kept saying they had it all under control while the Democrats has a motto: 1) Educate 2) Demonstrate 3) Active it
Congressman Kevin Brady wanted to see it too, so a meeting was set up and he got to seeing it. He was perplex at the ways it was being worked. Yet our own GOP DID NOT CARE…because they knew more than me so he thought. He is very distant when he does not like or care for you to share what he can’t claim is his own idea. Paul Simpson will continue to make Harris County turn completely BLUE and that is going to help the rest of the State turning because they are too “arrogant” to educate by learning new concepts, Demonstrate a desire to really incorporate new ideas, and teach each other to Activate those working plans to a solid win.
I gave up on the GOP Party of Harris County because they know it all. We in the grassroots that have really “activist minds” are toss to the sides. Now I sit back and shake my head because great Judges loss on stupidly.
It turned BLUE also for this distancing themselves from the voters in Harris County that is so Metropolitan in customs and traditions and interest….so much as Paul Torres quoted saying in one of his articles “If only the Harris County Republican Party would understand this simple, fundamental rule of human behavior. Perhaps HCRP Chair Jared Woodfill could invite Rep. Torres to speak at one of the quarterly executive meetings?
Haven’t you guys NOTICED over the 30 years of going to the Lincoln/Reagan dinners…have your seen any Latinos Pastors saying grace or Latino children dancing or bringing in a Mariachi Band to since the Anthem ??? If I am wrong please tell me which year I missed seeing them up on our GOP Stage…Asian??? Phlippinos??? anything other than just “White and Black”. I have been BEGGING for this to take place and even threaten I would stand up in front and shot up my concerns on what the Party is showing to those Latinos that each year show their faces and keep quiet. They did not care. Now they are talking bs out of the mouths on “luv you Latinos” …. give me a break!!!
I would not come to another dinner I stated even if I was giving a “free ticket” until they have recognize we are in the Party and we are Conservative “like they keep tell us” and we vote too….but you have to earn our LUV you words and demonstrate it by having us hear it and see it.
Keep it up my dear GOP and Chairman….like TRUMP says….”How is it working for you over the years”?
Paul, I realize you do not like me because I supported Jarred and it was plain. But I have come to know you very well and you do not represent me at all…you lied!!! and you know what I am saying is truth…you can continue your behavior because it neither here or there on me. You are loosing us, and those that remain around you are either seeking a job in the County or they are wanting to be granted a “bench”. Keep having your great days.