TYLER COUNTY – A lack of movement from the Tyler County Republican Party has at least one political leader concerned.
Robert Poynter, who serves as mayor of Chester, and is a chair/parliamentarian for Pct. 7, said that the county’s GOP has not been able to meet the minimum quarterly requirement of meetings, and has largely been dormant.
“It’s frustrating when you have things going on in the House that aren’t ethical,” Poynter said.
Poynter said he was especially bothered by the recent election in the lower chamber of the new speaker, Dustin Burrows.
Burrows, a Lubbock Republican, who represents HD 83, was elected to lead the House last month over David Cook, a candidate supported by many at the top levels of the state’s government, including Attorney General Ken Paxton. The vote tally was 85-55 in favor of Burrows.
In an open letter to the county GOP, in order to, as he said, hopefully generate some energy, Poynter said the party needs to be talking about “the shenanigans going on in the Texas House of Representatives.”
“Things are getting out of hand and many of our State Representatives just stabbed their voters in the back,” Poynter said.
Within the county’s GOP leadership, Rusty Kuciemba had taken over as chair in 2022, after long-serving chair Michael Paddie had died, but Kuciemba stepped down due to active military duty, which has him out of state, Poynter said. At present, the current chair, Claudia Provance, has battled health issues, he said.
“I have asked Claudia, if she wouldn't mind stepping down, and allow someone else to take over the reins. I haven't heard back after leaving several messages on her phone, email or voice mail. I've included Daniel Hunt (SREC Committee Chair) in on this email, so that he knows we are trying to turn the ship around here in Tyler
County and get the Republican Party active again,” Poynter said.
The Booster attempted to reach out to the county’s GOP, but the only contact number, email and website listed on the county GOP’s Facebook page are associated with the state’s Republican Party.
According to the rules of the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) as well as state GOP rules, the party is supposed to meet quarterly, which has not happened since Kuciemba stepped down, Poynter said.
Poynter offered that he can assume the duties of the county chair until the next election cycle, in order to get things moving, he said, should Provance step down.
“Someone has to step up and do it,” he said. “We have to get the people involved, and getting the people to know that all elections are local.”
Poynter said some of the things he would like to see the county GOP undertake are fundraising efforts and civic education, such as guest speaking engagements, in the county’s public schools, in order to educate the next generation of voters.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do. There are opportunities coming, and money coming into Tyler County,” he said.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us and we must start now. We are rendered irrelevant if we don’t do anything.”
Poynter welcomed anyone interested to contact him by phone at 281-661-0035.
