The Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club hosted four Republican Party Primary candidates at their weekly meeting January 20, 2022. The four candidates were: James White for Texas Agriculture Commissioner; Dan McKaughan for TX CD-8; Mark Ramsey and Brett Guillory for TX CD-38.
James White concentrated his remarks on the ethics (or lack thereof) of incumbent Sid Miller. He repeatedly referred to Sid Miller’s campaign consultant Todd Smith, who was recently indicted by the Democratic District Attorney of Travis County. Used to be that Republicans would dismiss political indictments out of Travis County but a campaign is a campaign I guess.
White also mentioned a few things that he thinks are relevant to the office, such as border security, economic security and food security. I sort of understand how those issues are tangentially related to the office but I wish that he had talked more about the issues that the office directly affects. White’s website has no policy issue section.
I think that James White is a great candidate and he would be a very good commissioner. I also think that it is unfortunate that he is basing his campaign upon negative personal attacks on Sid Miller. There are a number of things that White could focus on regarding Miller’s performance. And he did mention some in passing, namely Miller’s huge budget request and then subsequent steep increases in fees to farmers and ranchers, but mostly focused on Miller’s ties to Smith. When I asked him if he had any direct evidence that Miller was corrupt, he couldn’t provide any.
James White is the Houston Chronicle’s choice for this position.
Dan McKaughan is running for the district that Kevin Brady used to represent. I was impressed by his passion for conservative issues, particularly in the question/answer portion of the meeting.
I’m pretty sure but not certain that he said that he wasn’t using a campaign manager but I didn’t write it down. Whether he did or didn’t, whomever wrote his bio on his website is one heck of a writer. I urge you to go and read the whole thing if you want to be inspired and pumped up like I am after reading it. Here’s a snippet:
But while these East Texas values—these truly AMERICAN values—these basic fundamentals of a moral people—are still alive here and in most parts of this Union, they seem to be daily under attack by forces that want to see them destroyed and purged from the country. These forces are not content to live and let live, not content to let Americans be Americans.
And a complicit government only aids their cause.
Brett Guillory is running in the new district that was drawn for establishment choice Wesley Hunt. Brett is a teacher who stressed that he is not running for a job (unlike Wesley Hunt) but is passionate about serving the people of the district. His teacher background show up on his issues page, where he has this interesting bullet point:
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is infecting our education system at every level. The indoctrination of our youth with this radical, Marxist agenda must be stopped. I will work to ban this ideology from our schools.
During his remarks he said that he would do away with the Department of Education if he could. That’s certainly a good position from my point of view.
Mark Ramsey is also running in the new district that was drawn for Wesley Hunt. Or, as Mark called him, Washington Wesley. Mark is familiar to anyone that has been involved in the Republican Party in Harris County and the Republican Party of Texas. He has represented Senate District 7 as the SREC rep, he chaired the platform committee for the RPT and he created and chaired the legislative priorities committee for the RPT. He also was a representative in the electoral college and cast his vote for Donald Trump. In other words, he is the antithesis of Washington Wesley.
Mark’s issues are standard fare for any solid conservative Republican. His issues page is boilerplate bullet points on those issues. Where Mark stands out from any of the candidates on the ballot is on what he called his references page. If you take a look at that page you’ll see a long list of precinct chairs that are supporting him. These leaders are the backbone of the Republican Party and know the work that Mark has done and how solid of a candidate he is.
Mark stressed that there are three things that voters need to consider when hiring someone to be their representative.
- Experience
- References
- Integrity
Without question, Mark has the most experience of the candidates in Republican Party politics. Without question, his “references” are the backbone of the Republican Party. I’ve known Mark for many years now and I’ve never heard a single person question Mark’s integrity.
If I were a voter in CD-38, I’d vote for Mark Ramsey in a heartbeat. I damn sure wouldn’t vote for Washington Wesley.
It feels good to get out and be with other Republican activists and leaders. It’d be great to meet you if you have an opportunity to attend a meeting of the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club.