Lavaca County  Republican Party  of  TEXAS

 For Immediate Release   submitted by

Cheryl Thompson-Draper- Chairman   Lavaca County Republican Party

713 5168880 (cell/text)     ChairmanLCRP@gmail.com

June 6, 2020

 

Key events that occur every two years after the political party’s Primary elections are the political party’s voting precincts conventions and the county convention. Lavaca County Republican Party conventions were held at the Lavaca County Courthouse Annex on 412 N. Texana, Hallettsville on Saturday May 30, 2020 after a postponement due to the Chinese Virus and resulting issues. There were 13 of 19 voting precincts represented at the precinct conventions and the same number attended the County Convention that afternoon. Face masks were optional, hand sanitizers were readily available, seating was as distanced as possible and tables and chairs were also sanitized.

At the morning Precinct conventions, the voting precincts passed or failed many resolutions to present to the County Convention Resolutions Committee. Each of the voting precincts elected their own Delegates and Alternates that would later attend the county convention to vote on resolutions and Delegates and Alternates to the State RPT convention. The Precinct Convention Chairmen that served were: Pct. 1- Mary Lee Berger- Spaulding, Pct. 2 Kevin Bright, Pct. 8 David Berger, Pct. 9 Frankie Bates, Pct. 12- Mark Nevlud, Pct. 15- Kathleen Leininger, Pct. 17- Judy Garmon, Pct. 19- Mark Myers, Pct. 20- Theresa D’Amico, Pct. 23- John Cinadr, Pct. 27- Tom Foyt, Pct. 30 -Vicki Vickers and Pct. 31- Michelle Hall.

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Chairman Cheryl Thompson-Draper convened the County Convention & welcomed all in attendance. An invocation was led by Pastor Jerry Tanner and Pledges by County Commissioner Frankie Bates. Chairman introduced the elected officials that were in attendance: State Senator Lois Kolkhorst, State Representative Ben Leman, County Judge Keith Mudd, County Attorney Elect- Kyle Denney, County Clerk- Liz Kouba, Commissioner Pct. 3 - Frankie Bates, JP Pct. 1- Mark Ivey, JP Pct 2 Travis Hill and our SREC Representatives- Edee Sinclair and David Luther. Chairman and the Lavaca County Republicans honored former County Judge- Tramer Woytek a plaque representing his contributions to the Republican party as the first Republican County Judge and other notable achievements he earned while County Judge. US Congressman Michael Cloud visited via a video as did National RPT Committeewoman and Chairman of Arrangements for the National GOP Convention- Toni Ann Dashiell.

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During the afternoon County Convention, the Nomination Committee- Chaired by Becky Berger and members: Vicki Vickers, Debbie Hopper, Anthony Harper and Dan Balzer presented to the convention their slate of nominees. The voting Precinct Delegates at the County Convention elected the following to attend the state convention as Delegates and Alternates representing Lavaca County Republicans : (in order of election) Cheryl Thompson-Draper, Becky Berger, Theresa D’Amico, Jerry Tanner, Vicki Vickers, Tom Foyt, Kevin Bright,  Paul Yamarick, Cheryl Bates, John Cinadr, Barb Koehn, Patricia  Kessler, John Vickers. Monica Foyt, Julie Tanner, Frankie Bates, Patricia Grahmann, Nicole Cromey, Kathleen Leininger, Marie Day and Kevin Myers.

 

In the afternoon between the precinct and county conventions the Resolutions committee had met  Co-Chaired by Tom Foyt and Paul Yamarick with committee members: Pat Kessler, Barb Koehn and Keith Mudd to cull through the resolutions presented by the voting precincts- matched up the ones similar and failed others. At the County convention the Resolutions Committee Co- Chairs presented 20 Resolutions from Lavaca County grassroots voting precincts to be presented to the State Convention Resolutions committee at the State Convention in July in Houston. A few of those resolutions that were adopted by the County Convention Delegates included (in part): upholding the Electoral College and specifically not allow for binding the delegates to a nationwide majority vote; Legislature to immediately pass legislation to ban the use of Texas resources for enforcement of, unless specifically written, federal acts that go beyond the Texas Constitution and the Constitution of the United States anticommandeering doctrine;  we reaffirm support for the 'School Options' plank #133 and to include that we support any and all equitable expansion of school choice in Texas ; Legislature and Governor to address the lack of traditional civics education in K-12 by returning to studying the rights, privileges and obligations of citizenship in this Republic and end programs such as “Action Civics” that pretends to be civic education for the 21st Century;  elimination of any undergraduate programs that fail to graduate a minimum of 50 students in a span of five years and the elimination of all graduate programs where more than 25% of students are not gainfully employed after two years;  allowing any medical student meeting existing national training standards be allowed to perform clinical rotations at hospitals within Texas borders ; Be it resolved that we support the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches be aware that all economic and spiritual activity is essential and are most importantly essential to our liberty …  and several other resolutions addressing government affairs, state affairs and legislative priorities .

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Permanent Convention Chairman- Cheryl Thompson-Draper wishes to thank the County Convention Committee Chairmen for their work in hosting this event for the local Republican Party. Chairs include: (the previously mentioned) Resolutions Co-Chairs and members, and the Nominations Chair and members, Secretary- Phyllis Bush , Assistants Judy Garmon and Mary Lee Berger- Spaulding, Arrangements- Theresa D’Amico and members-David Berger and Julie Tanner, Parliamentarian- Judge Mark Ivey, Rules Committee- Jerry Tanner, Sergeant at Arms-US Marshal Court Security Officer- Kevin Bright, Organization- Mike Johnson, Registration- Brenda Cash with assistants- Dana Johnson and Julie Tanner, Credentials Co Chairs- Liz Kouba and Vicki Vickers assisted by John Vickers, Auctions and Trump signs- John Draper and John Vickers , vote counters: Theresa D’Amico, Jerry Tanner, Nicole Cromey and Marie Day, convention photographer- Kathleen Leininger and Set Up and Take Down Co Chairs- David Berger and Kevin Bright -with the help of the Crossroads High School Republicans- Max Machacek (Chairman), Cole Kubicek (Vice Chairman) and Brock Sestak (Treasurer) and their sponsor- Ashly Kubicek. Without the dedication of these fine volunteers our precincts and county conventions would not have happened

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Announcements at the end of the convention by the Chairman included Republican Party of Texas State Convention dates: July 16-18 in Houston. Paul Yamarick has been appointed by James Dickey the Texas Republican Party Chairman to the State Convention Legislative Priorities Committee and Cheryl Thompson-Draper has been appointed to the State Convention Organization Committee. LCRP regular meetings will resume June 23 (4th Tuesday evening each month). Chairman also announced the basic process for the nomination of one republican name for the November 3rd general/special election ballot for Lavaca County Judge.

 

Benediction was given by Pastor Jerry Tanner and the body voted to adjourn.