Time To Move Forward (January 2025) To A New State Party Chair
November 21, 2024, Editorial
By Carroll G. Robinson
The Texas Democratic Party’s (TDP) State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) will be meeting in San Marcos on December 14, 2024. At that meeting, the members of the SDEC should officially accept the publicly announced resignation of Gilberto Hinojosa from his position as State Party Chair. The SDEC should then schedule a Special Meeting, in January 2025, to elect a new State Party Chair.
The SDEC should not wait until March 2025 to elect a new State Party Chair. That would be a strategic political mistake.
A new State Party Chair needs to be in place before the Democratic National Committee (DNC) votes to elect a new National Chair. Texas Democrats need to be represented at the DNC during that election by the person who will lead us through the 2026 Mid-Term election and the rebuilding of the State Party.
The new TDP State Party Chair needs to be the person who casts a vote for the new DNC Chair so all those candidates get to know and interact with our new State Party Chair. This is just a common-sense political move.
The new State Party Chair should also be selected in January 2025 so they can help organize messaging, with Democrats in the Legislature, congressional delegation and at the local level, during the 2025 Texas Legislative Session that starts on January 14, 2025 as a part of, I hope, a larger messaging strategy for the 2026 and 2028 General Elections.
Electing a new State Party Chair, in March 2025, will not give the new State Party Chair sufficient time to organize their new administration to have a meaningful impact during the 2025 Legislative Session.
Finally, Texas Democrats need a new State Party Chair, in place, by January 2025 so the State Party can get started on effective fundraising. Texas and national donors are highly unlikely to donate to a lame duck State Party Chair who has already publicly announced his resignation.
It’s time to move on and move forward.
