Republicans to Texas Democrats: RIP

Republicans wanted to say one thing about Texas Democrats this week.

Rest In Peace.

Gregory Gonzalez drove a black hearse around the Fort Worth Convention Center — where the Texas Democrats were holding their biennial state convention — Friday afternoon.

The message: Texas Democratic Party, R.I.P., 1846-2018.

"I just wanted to drive around and just kind of give them a peaceful, dignified service," said Gonzalez, a Fort Worth Republican, saying he was commemorating "the death of the Democratic Party."

No Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas in more than two decades.

A statement from the Republican Party of Texas indicated that leaders there wanted to tip their hats to "the hundreds of thousands of former Democrat voters who have found a home in the Texas Republican Party" through the years.

And they wanted to "highlight the Texas Democrat Party’s legacy of failed statewide elections and its decades of fighting for such causes as late-term abortions, job-destroying regulations, and higher taxes."

Republicans held their state convention last week in San Antonio, pointing out the need to keep the state red in the midterm election this November.

Officials with the Texas Democrats declined to comment on the hearse or the message.

But one passerby shared his thoughts.

"F--- you," he yelled as he walked by.

This story was originally published June 22, 2018 at 1:39 PM with the headline "Republicans to Texas Democrats: RIP."