Concho Valley News

The Republican Party of Texas converting the GOP Convention to an online event didn't come as a surprise to McCulloch County GOP Chair Dixie Pitcox. 

"I was expecting the RPT Convention to become virtual weeks ago," Pitcox said. "It was inevitable, given the COVID-19 circumstances."

The chairwoman feels that the switch to an online convention took away from the in-person committees due to varying degrees of technological skill in the participants. 

"Candidates in person leave impressions and technology can be manipulated," Pitcox explained. She also rejected the idea of wearing masks at an in-person convention, saying that it "wouldn't have made a difference," but that participants who wanted to wear a mask could have done so at all functions. 

Republican Party of Texas Chairman James Dickey said that the GOP's State Convention week in Houston was off to a "wonderful start," and that the Party "looks forward to continuing their important work in an online convention."

“We thank our incredible team of attorneys for their valiant work exhausting all legal remedies fighting the partisan Democrat shutdown of our in-person convention over the last several days," Dickey said. 

In the legal documents of the Republican Party of Texas v. the City of Houston, the GOP sued Houston for allegedly forcing the GOP to cancel their convention. The GOP accused Democrat Mayor Sylvester Turner of "ignoring the stringent safety measures put in place by the RPT while allowing other public events that were conducted unsafely."

"The RPT is at a crossroad, we need to unite and work together for our party," Pitcox said. "We have to be cohesive in our beliefs and a virtual convention doesn’t make for cohesion. ... Personally I’m saddened that the convention became a Democratic mayor vs. the RPT."

Pitcox said that conventions, among other political functions, are an important part of a party's political process. 

"If there is not a political process where in the people are part of this process, the nation is in trouble and often changes its type of government," she said. "Our history is rich with people who have given their lives to provide us our freedoms and even more who serve in a capacity every day to keep our freedoms. The right to vote is a freedom that should never be taken lightly.”