In Tarrant County, all eyes are focused on 2020. Will red — or blue — prevail?
The message to Tarrant Republicans was clear Saturday night.
It’s time to unite and focus on the 2020 election, putting stinging losses last year — and an internal fight over whether to oust Shahid Shafi from party leadership because he’s Muslim — in the past.
“We’ve got to have unity going into 2020,” U.S. Rep. Ron Wright, R-Arlington, told the Star-Telegram before talking to a crowd of hundreds gathered at the Omni Hotel for the Tarrant County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner. “We’ve got to work harder in 2020 than we did in 2018.
“We got surprised in Tarrant County” in the 2018 election, he said. “We got surprised all over the state of Texas.”
Wright and fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess of Pilot Point were the keynote speakers for the event that raises money to fund local GOP efforts over the next year.
The crowd at the fundraiser was noticeably smaller than in past years, which some quietly suggested could be a result of the recent party fight over Shafi. Others indicated turnout could be down because this is not an election year.
Either way, officials stressed on Saturday that if Republicans don’t want to see a repeat of the 2018 election, they must work together.
In 2018, Democrats made inroads in this red county by ousting officials such as then-state Sen. Konni Burton and then-County Commissioner Andy Nguyen.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz won his re-election bid, but he lost in Tarrant County. And Wright won the multi-county race to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Joe Barton in Congress, but he lost by nearly 10,000 votes in Tarrant County.
“Now is the time for Republicans to be united,” Burgess said. “We see what happens in an election cycle” when they are not.
Tarrant GOP
In recent years, protesters have been present outside this high-dollar fundraiser. There were none Saturday night.
The annual GOP fundraiser drew a number of leaders, including Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, County Judge Glen Whitley, Sheriff Bill Waybourn, District Attorney Sharen Wilson, state Sens. Kelly Hancock and Brian Birdwell, state Reps. Stephanie Klick, Matt Krause, Jonathan Stickland and Bill Zedler and more.
Officials estimated that there were around 450 people at the dinner, compared with about 650 last year.
Shafi was among those present.
Some had feared the recent fight over whether Shafi should be a vice chairman because he is Muslim would impact this event.
After months of debate, Tarrant County Republicans voted 139-49 in January to keep him in the leadership post.
Since then, a Rio Grande Valley man offered a “$500 cash bounty” to anyone who could give him the names of the 49, and one of the champions of ousting Shafi was named to a GOP precinct chair recruitment committee. Soon after that, the committee was, at least temporarily, disbanded.
Shafi, meanwhile, continues to share a message of hope and unity. “We need to ... move forward,” he told fellow Republicans earlier this month.
Republican Party of Texas Chairman James Dickey attended the dinner Saturday night, saying he showed up because of the Shafi vote.
He said the party worked as it should, through a process, while the question of whether Shafi should be removed from his post was considered.
And Dickey gave as shout out to those who attended for showing up to this annual event.
“Thank you for showing up to support your county party because, by God, your party needs it,” he told the crowd. “We need you. There is no one else to step into the gap.”
2020 election
The Lincoln Day Dinner comes as local and statewide Republicans are focusing on the 2020 election.
“What happened in Tarrant County, what happened in Texas, happened nationwide in the suburbs,” Wright said of last year’s election. “In the past, Tarrant County has been somewhat impervious to national voting trends. That was not the case (in 2018).
“We were outworked,” he said. “Where they hit us hardest was southeast Tarrant County.”
The key to regaining some supporters next year is reaching out to supporters in suburbs across Tarrant County and nationwide.
“We need to address the concerns of people in the suburbs,” Wright said. “Educated women nationwide went more for Democrats this time. We’ve got to get them back.”
To do that, Republicans must now start organizing at the precinct level and energizing volunteers.
“We are still the majority party in Tarrant County,” Wright said.
Recently, Dickey sent out an email to supporters across the state, saying the GOP must get to work right now.
“Texas is on RED ALERT after the 2018 elections,” Dickey wrote. “The Democrats have zeroed in on Texas for 2020.”
Dickey stressed that Republicans likely would lose the White House if the GOP presidential candidate doesn’t win Texas.
“We cannot let the Democrats gain any more ground in Texas.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2019 at 8:31 PM with the headline "In Tarrant County, all eyes are focused on 2020. Will red — or blue — prevail?."
