Sunday, July 12th, 2020

Last night, the State Republican Executive Committee convened to address the status of the convention. With the lawsuit against Mayor Sylvester Turner, the City of Houston, and Houston First pending with the Supreme Court of Texas, the SREC kept all current plans in place, awaiting the decision of the Texas Supreme Court which could occur as early as tomorrow morning. The fight for the right to hold our Convention against an unjust Democrat shutdown is firmly intact. 

The SREC confirmed that the temporary committee meetings will take place in person in Houston beginning tomorrow, Monday, July 13th at 11:00 AM as scheduled. Executive Director Kyle Whatley gave an update on his work vetting the locations from other counties in the region that had offered space for the convention. The space available was either not large enough, would add significant additional costs to construct air-conditioned tent meeting spaces, or not conducive for meeting (i.e. the facility was outside with either limited outdoor air conditioning or none at all). The SREC voted against moving the convention to another physical location. 

As a reminder about hotel rooms, should we get to a situation where you need to cancel hotel rooms, the official Convention hotel rooms all have a 48 hour cancellation notice policy or less. If you booked outside the RPT room blocks, you will need to check with your hotel on their cancellation policy.  

The convention schedule has been shortened to accommodate these unusual circumstances to focus on the critical business of our convention this year – including electing the Presidential Electors who will cast Texas’ 38 Electoral College votes for President Donald J. Trump!

Please see the revised convention schedule at texasgop.org/2020-state-convention. 

In the event that we are required to execute the online convention contingency plan, the convention schedule would remain unchanged and information about refundable hotel room cancellations at the Marriott Marquis would be provided. Training materials for delegates and Caucus Chairs would be distributed via email and training sessions would begin on Tuesday for the online Zoom platform and electronic voting system, Meeting Pulse, as approved by the RPT Officials Committee last week. . 

Serving as a Delegate or Alternate Delegate to the Republican Party of Texas State Convention is a significant responsibility. We appreciate your commitment and sacrifice, and we are committed to ensuring the best possible convention in spite of these unprecedented challenges.

We will continue to keep you updated as developments progress. 

For Texas,

Chairman James Dickey