Top Pro-Life victories of the Republican Party of Texas Convention 2018

You spread the Pro-Life message grander than ever at the Republican Party of Texas Convention in San Antonio.  Read below the biggest victories YOU empowered last week!

Education

• Your support of Texas Right to Life gave Bridey Davis, a current Dr. Joseph Graham Fellow at LeTourneau University and former Team LIFE high school camper, the training she needed to spread the Pro-Life message at RPT.  Bridey sacrificed a few days of her summer vacation to speak with attendees and delegates about our shared Pro-Life values and Texas Right to Life’s life-saving work!
• Four summer interns at your Pro-Life headquarters gained firsthand experience working in the field at the RPT convention: Luke Ayers from Trinity University, Sharae Flores from Texas Tech University, Stephen Robbins from Houston Baptist University, and Katherine Procter from Texas A&M University.  As young Pro-Life professionals, the interns promoted State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) candidates, produced live broadcast shows, learned new skills like photography, and advocated for life-saving policies.

Political

As the governing body of the Republican Party of Texas, the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) determines the direction of the Republican Party of Texas in between conventions.  The following Texas Right to Life endorsed candidates claimed victory at the convention:

• James Dickey, Republican Party of Texas Chairman;
• Bob Kecseg, SREC Committeeman, SD 1, Mineola;
• Allison Winter, SREC Committeeman, SD 4, Conroe;
• Kathaleen Wall, SREC Committeeman, SD 17, Houston;
• Mark Ramsey, SREC Committeeman, SD 7, Houston;
• Terri Leo, SREC Committeeman, SD 7, Houston;
• Debbie Terry, SREC Committeeman, SD 12, Flower Mound; and
• Susan Fountain, SREC Committeeman, SD 16, Dallas.

Additionally, convention attendees’ enthusiasm for the Texas Freedom Caucus, including the overwhelming turnout at their reception, demonstrated the grassroots’ desire for unwavering Pro-Life values in Republican elected officials.  The Freedom Caucus’ reception had more energy and excitement than any other and should mark their mainstreaming moment, if not their capturing grassroots control of the party.

Texas Right to Life endorsed candidates who won their primary elections earned public praise at the convention, including at the Freedom Caucus reception.  Even Pro-Life candidates who were not victorious in the primary election attended the convention with active, upbeat participation.

Grassroots activists also enthusiastically embraced our newly launched Ambassador Program, which garnered 20 sign-ups at the convention.

Legislation

Our legislative team worked around the clock during convention to ensure the Republican Party of Texas platform holds the Right to Life cause with the same tenacity and priority as you do.  The top policy victories from the convention include the following:

• Added the Preborn NonDiscrimination Act (PreNDA) plank in the Temporary and Permanent Platform Committees, urging the Texas Legislature to stop discriminatory abortions;
• Strengthened the patients’ protection plank, urging the Texas Legislature to repeal the 10-day countdown of the Texas Advance Directives Act, in the Temporary and Permanent Platform Committees;
• Ensured Republicans elect a Pro-Life speaker of the Texas House in the Legislature by convincing the Temporary and Permanent Platform Committees to protect the plank urging Republican representatives to honor the Republican Caucus speaker selection process;
• Endorsed prudent incrementalism and PreNDA in the previously adopted “abolish abortion” plank via the Temporary and Permanent Legislative Priorities Committees; and
• Successfully defended the proposed legislative priority from hostile floor amendments in the general session of the convention.

Other victories include:

• Defeated efforts to “streamline” and shorten the platform, including an official minority report from the Permanent Platform Committee;
• Protected Rule 44 used to successfully censure rogue Republicans (e.g. Joe Straus and Byron Cook), which was under attack by moderates;
• Established Texas Right to Life as the experts while the Health and Human Services and State Affairs Subcommittees considered and rewrote the Pro-Life sections of the platform;
• Recruited new Pro-Life delegates from around the state to engage in the convention process; and
• Gleaned new ideas and ways we can impact the 2020 state and precinct RPT conventions.

External Relations and IT

• You and your Pro-Life friends watched online and in our live studio audience when we broadcasted four shows at the convention, featuring most prominently Republican Party of Texas Chairman James Dickey and the Texas House Freedom Caucus.
• Our state-of-the-art stage and audio-visual equipment set the standard for live production and presentation at the convention.  
• Several news organizations covered Texas Right to Life’s presence at the convention, which garnered a reach of over 12 million readers.
• We distributed over 2,250 branded items to grassroots activists.
• By announcing the call to action over our speaker system, our quality sound equipment empowered us to send droves of delegates to the general session when the time came for key Pro-Life votes.
• Mothers could privately breast feed and new parents could change their babies in the new “baby station” included in our booth.
• Friends of the Pro-Life cause provided tremendous help in assembling and disassembling our booth before and after the convention.
• Forty new Pro-Life advocates from the convention followed Texas Right to Life on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• Because you liked, shared, and retweeted posts from your Pro-Life headquarters, our social media engagement rate grew six times larger.
• Pro-Life supporters like you enjoyed the new photo booth, which featured fun cardboard cutouts of President Ronald Reagan and Senator Ted Cruz.