WRITE OF CENTER
ART HUMPHRIES
KENDALL COUNTY REPUBLICAN
The Kendall County Republican Party conducted its biannual convention this past March. Then the state party convened the week of May 20.
The key objectives of those events were to elect leaders and develop and approve a platform by which our legislators are expected to abide in creating governing statutes. Texas statutes are the laws enacted by the state legislature.
You had representatives at both of those conventions, but I’ll make a nickel bet that most readers don’t know who represented them, i.e., who were the delegates from their precinct.
Did you know you could have been one of those representatives? In that process, if you wanted to be considered and put yourself forward, you also might have been elected to be one of our state delegates at the national convention electing our nominee for president of the United States.
If you want to be part of that process — for instance as a convention delegate — contact the Kendall County Republican office at [email protected]. It’s not too soon to prepare for the 2026 conventions, and to find out who represented you, so your voice can be heard. You’ll find your precinct chair at kcrptx.com.
Civics class aside, what’s interesting about all that were the results.
Our own Kendall County “favorite son,” incumbent Republican County Chair Mike Wheeler, was elected in a landslide to the Texas State Republican Executive Committee for Senate District 25 (Sen. Donna Campbell).
In effect, Mike is now a director on the board that governs Republican politics in Texas.
The other news was that our Kendall County convention delegates approved and submitted nine resolutions to the state convention for consideration. Some of our county resolutions, also known as “planks” included: To ensure illegal aliens don’t achieve voting rights. No person who enters the U.S. illegally should ever have the right to vote in Texas, regardless of future citizenship status. That right should be forever forfeited.
Texas should not appropriate funds, directly or through tax incentives, for electric vehicle ownership or infrastructure.
Requesting the Texas legislature to indefinitely extend the call for a Convention of States, with the objective of limiting the power and jurisdiction of the federal government.
Eliminating state-mandated tax increases to local property tax levies, returning full authority for appraising properties to the local level and eliminating excessive increases in property appraisal values.
There were five other resolutions that failed to pass at the county level. Some were pretty interesting.
One addressed closed primary elections, wanting political party-specific primaries to require voters to register in advance, in our case as Republicans, to vote in a Republican primary.
As much as we’ve heard across Kendall County of wanting to maintain the look, feel and culture of our “down home” county by controlling mass development, another failed resolution at the county convention addressed restriction of land development by developers, with prioritization on ground water and surface water management, rather than usage restrictions for current residents and businesses.
That lack of support for restrictions on developers carried through at the state convention last month in a resolution that calls on the Texas Legislature “to continue to streamline the building permitting process to ease burdens and costs on developers and consumers ... and to close loopholes ... to circumvent these laws.”
Yet another state convention resolution that passed as a priority for the Legislature did address water resources. We support tying surface rights of ownership to groundwater rights of ownership. We support regulations that may put limits on a person’s capture and use of groundwater, if such use will negatively impact adjoining owners’ use of their groundwater for private wells, their water supply, or agricultural use.
To see the full batch of planks in the state GOP platform, go to texasgop.org.
So, there’s a snapshot of grass-roots politics. Obviously, there’s a lot more to it. But it starts and ends with the people involved; getting fair-minded, community-oriented residents willing to listen, learn, share, negotiate and lead.
If you’re interested in participating, join us – Kendall County Republicans at kcgop. [email protected] or kcrptx.com.
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