SAN ANTONIO - Abraham George won an open race to lead the Texas majority party when he defeated veteran activist Dana Myers early Friday evening in a runoff for state chair at the state GOP Convention in the Alamo City.
George entered the final vote on the convention floor as the betting favorite in the leadership sweepstakes after winning 16 of 31 Texas Senate district caucus votes that were taken separately outside the meeting hall earlier in the day.
Myers, who's the party's outgoing vice-chair, emerged on top in seven caucuses while Weston Martinez was first in five, Mike Garcia led two votes while Travis County GOP Chairman Matt Mackowiak won one. A Houston medical consultant who's a physician, Myers got an apparent boost when Mackowiak urged his own supporters to switch their allegiance to her after his elimination from the contest.
Myers represented the older establishment wing of the state GOP as a former official for the Texas Federation of Republican Women and vice-chair for the GOP at the state and local levels alike. Delegates who are Myers allies in TFRW and other party organizations and causes appeared to be crushed by the defeat tonight at George's hands.
But George appeared to be the frontrunner from the outset when Attorney General Ken Paxton issue an enthusiastic endorsement for the top party post in the wake of Matt Rinaldi's announcement that he would not seek the chairmanship again at the convention this year,
George, a former local party chairman in Collin County, launched the bid for state chair shortly after a failed bid to unseat GOP State Rep. Candy Noble of Lucas in the House District 89 race in the primary election in March. Noble defeated George by 5 points with almost 53 percent.
Paxton endorsed George for the House in a revenge crusade that targeted Noble and 59 other House Republicans who voted to impeach the AG a year ago. But Governor Greg Abbott rescued Noble with major infusions of campaign cash and personal appearances in the district on her behalf before the March vote.
Several delegates from HD 89 said they suspected that the governor was behind some devious tactics like texts encouraging Democrats to break ranks and vote for Noble as an enabler for House Speaker Dade Phelan.
Abbott declined to take sides in the state party chair competition - and he's skipping the state convention for the second time in a row
on the grounds that he's busy in the trenches trying to elect pro-school vouchers candidates in Tuesday's primary runoff election.
George moved to the U.S. from India with his family as a teenager. He expressed his gratitude to supporters tonight in a post on X.
"I am humbled and honored to have received the support of thousands of my fellow Republicans and be elected as chairman of the Republican Party of Texas," George said "I look forward to uniting with every single Republican in our state and working towards our shared objective: electing Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and every other Republican on the ballot this November. Thank you delegates!"
Mackowiak called on George to step down as his first act of business as state chair.
"You have had several violent events at your church," Mackowiak said in a post on X. "You abused your wife at home which led to a 911 call by your six year old.
You have used three aliases in the past 18 months.
You are a fraud.
Resign now. Or later in disgrace."
more to come ...
