Clint Moore wrote this piece concerning the Harris County Republican Party before he passed. He shared it with me and others. It was posted on his Facebook page as well. I never really saw Clint on social media and his weapon was his telephone. These are Clint’s words speaking about Paul Simpson and his beloved Harris County Republican Party. I have not altered them in any way. Rest in Peace

Clint Moore-

WE NEED A NEW HCRP CHAIR – A BIG CHRISTMAS WISH FOR ALL HARRIS COUNTY REPUBLICANS WHO DESERVE BETTER !!!!!!
Howdy to all, after 2 consecutive blowout defeat elections here in Harris County, it’s time for a new HCRP Chair. We need to immediately shift the HCRP Chairman discussion from whether we need a new chair, to finding a new Chair over the next 60 days. Clearly, we need a new Chair, who needs to be someone that is best prepared with a plan to compete in 2020, access to really big money for Harris County Republicans, and has the time and knowledge to take Harris County to the next level, as Beto did for the Dems here. Clearly, as Simpson argued effectively against Jared in spring 2014, we cannot stand a 5th major county defeat (2008, 2012, 2016, 2018). What makes this one the worst of all is that it occurred in a traditionally good “non-presidential/gubernatorial” year for Republicans. Thankfully, we won all our statewide races, despite Harris County. Little did Simpson realize that his ill-advised plans would bring us two more blowout defeats. Simpson and his Emmett-Davis led funding team were also inadequate to compete against Beto’s big organizing money that funded the HCDP efforts here. 2020 will complete the wipeout across the county if we stick with our current Chair, his weak money team, and their current strategy. Why? Because Beto will be back against Cornyn (or whomever, if Cornyn does not run). We’ve got to ID new potential Republican voters as Beto did for his Dems, register them by the thousands, and GOTV them in November 2020. Ultimately, the really big money source that might help us the most could be the Trump campaign, who certainly now understands that they will need to spend big money here in Harris County, if they hope to defend Texas with its 38 electoral votes for Trump. Remember, 2018 was just a dry run for Beto. He still has tens of millions unspent (and unraised yet) for 2020, and you can guarantee that its biggest chunk will be spent here like 2018. How did he do that? By paying people to knock on thousands of apartment complex doors, signing up the residents (citizens or not), and then GOTVing those same new voters in the election. The lack of straight ticket voting won’t save us in 2020, as some had hoped. There are simply too many new Democrat voters on the rolls that can again be easily GOTV’d in 2020. All will vote easily and quickly for the first two Democrats – Prez & US Senate, on the ballot. Most importantly, we cannot continue to have HCRP leaders like Simpson (and Emmett & Davis), that want to run away from Trump in 2020 and his conservative agenda. Emmett-Davis-Simpson are the leaders of the liberal-moderate faction in Harris County, and work against Trump too often. Emmett even works (and voted) against Dan Patrick, our own conservative Lt. Governor! He even mean-spiritedly attacked him at today’s NWFRWC luncheon. Dan is probably the closest of our statewide officials to President Trump. To continue to be opposed to Trump like Simpson-Emmett-Davis are, is to guarantee another massive failure here again in 2020. How did that work for us in 2018 and 2016? We need a new HCRP Chair with a game plan to compete with the Dems and big money sources, if we are to have any chance to carry the county again. Maybe if next Monday night’s HCRP EC meeting, Simpson were to say he’d be willing to step down at the January HCRP EC meeting, we could begin a 60 day search for that person, and then the HCRP EC could pick the new Chairman at that meeting. (No, I am not interested nor available for the job.) During that 60 day period, Emmett also needs to take at least half of his remaining campaign funds, and donate them to the HCRP. It will certainly need the money during this interim transition period, and I can’t think of a better use of half of Ed’s remaining campaign funds than that. He received those funds because he was the powerful Republican County Judge, and not any other reason. He got there as a Republican nominee everytime, so rather than pocket the money for his own purposes, he should give at least half of it to the HCRP, especially since he basically directed Simpson’s strategy with his money and donors for both blowout elections. As a 30+ year precinct Chair, Election Judge, fmr SD 7 & 15 Chair, fmr SREC SD 7, 6-time National delegate (I was elected to all of these party roles), etc., I’ve seen a lot of HCRP chairs come and go. I have no one in mind at the moment to replace Simpson, but whomever we elect in January, they need to bring a 1) game plan to compete, 2) time and knowledge and energy, AND 3) over a million dollars just to start. Please, let’s find someone new, or it will be just the failed Simpson-Emmett-Davis team again. We cannot survive a 3rd blowout election in 2020 like their last two. Who’s got the game plan, the money, the enthusiasm, and the time, to make it all come together and lead us to victory again in 2020? So, who can unite us, ……….rather than divide us like Ed Emmett? Let’s hear from you soon, please. Many thanks, Clint