Matt Rinaldi: Another Notch In The GOP's Bedpost

Sayonara, Matt Rinaldi. It's popcorn time for the rest of us.

With prison sentences looming on the horizon for both Donald Trump and Ken Paxton, what could further push the Republican Party of Texas into further chaos? New leadership.

Yesterday, the Texas GOP Chairman announced his retirement, opening the door for the fourth Chairman the Republican Party of Texas will see in four years.

Rinaldi’s leadership was characterized by historic gains for the party’s far-right faction, significant internal conflict, and a shift towards more extreme policies. Under his chairmanship, the Texas GOP aligned more closely with far-right activists. Rinaldi himself was often at odds with moderates within the party, including House Speaker Dade Phelan.

Matt Rinaldi backed a group with white supremacist ties while working for its billionaire funder, Farris Wilks.

In fact, Tim Dunn, Matt Rinaldi, Dan Patrick, Steve Toth, Alex Mealer, and many other TX GOPers are tied up in a Nazi network with Nick Fuentes, Jonathan Stickland, Ella Maulding, Luke Macias, and Young Republicans of Texas. None of this has gone away.

Rinaldi is a carpetbagger among a sea of carpetbaggers, and this Connecticut native maintains that his chairmanship was successful. While the far right has taken over much of the Texas GOP, Republicans haven’t made gains in state or federal government in Texas over the last two election cycles, even when they gerrymandered the maps in their favor.

There isn’t a Republican Chair who can stop Texas’ leftward shift, and GOP Chair Elections are fantastically entertaining.

To Matt Rinaldi: Sayonara. Adios. Don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord split you. You won’t be missed on this side of the aisle.

The next Chair of the Republican Party of Texas will be elected at the 2024 Texas GOP Convention, which will be held May 23 - 25. Let me tell you, as a leftist who feels so much joy from Republican chaos, I can’t wait.

If you weren’t following me way back then, I wrote about the 2020 SREC and Chair elections at their 2020 State Conventions. It was hilarious.

Each district was supposed to collect its district votes and then report them back to the Convention chair. When the delegates were to for Chair and Vice-Chair around midnight, Saturday night, James Dickey said they were under cyber attack.

Except, when Sunday morning came along, at least five districts had not turned in their votes yet when they declared Allen West the winner in the wee hours of the morning. And for the districts that did vote, many of their delegates were still left out of the process.

You have to remember that it was all online at the time because of COVID-19, and most of the Republican Party is elderly, so there were so many technical issues.

Only 26 Senate Districts were able to vote out of 31. This means that five entire Districts did not vote; SD7 was just one of them.

According to the Republican Party of Texas’ bylaws, the entire election was illegitimate, and the process called for another election. Hundreds, likely thousands, of GOP delegates never voted for the then-State Chair, Allen West. It was pretty funny.

There never was another election; they just pretended nothing happened. Election integrity. Right? There was some outrage on social media for a few days, and then Republicans moved on to the next shiny object. If people pay close enough attention, they’d know the Republican Party of Texas has been in all-out chaos for many years.

This means the next GOP Chair will be as terrible as Matt Rinaldi.

They can’t do any worse. Right?

Here’s who has thrown their hat in the ring (so far):

• Abraham George: If there’s one thing that loves more than two first names, it’s losers. Abraham George lost his primary election to Representative Candy Noble (R-HD89). He previously served as the GOP Chair for Collin County. If you haven’t followed Collin County data, they’ve been trending blue for years and will likely flip this election or next. Matt Rinaldi and many far-right Republicans like Tony Tinderholt, Shelley Luther, and Steve Toth have already endorsed him.

• Dr. Dana Myers: Dr. Myers is the current Vice Chair under Matt Rinaldi. She’s been on Team anti-Nazi. (It’s a small team within the Texas Republican Party—a minority.) She would probably be the best choice for Republicans if they wanted to put adults back in charge, but she won’t win. The right only wants chaos. Remember when they booed John Cornyn?

• Weston Martinez: Martinez is a “texit” guy and pals around with This is Texas Freedom Force and extremist militia. This group has been known to show up to drag shows and Confederate statues in camo and armed with semi-automatic weapons. Martinez once went with them to Georgetown to intimidate and harass the local DeConfederate Group there. On a live video from the event, Martinez defended This is Texas Freedom Force, stating their actions regarding the statue couldn’t be racist because his last name was Martinez.

• Ben Armenta: Armenta ran for Land Commissioner in 2022 but lost in the Republican primary, receiving only 3% of the vote. Since then, he’s had a podcast and joined Moms For Liberty, bullying school boards.

Other candidates could be declared. It won’t matter who wins; the damage to the Republican Party will be permanent. Their internal civil war has made enemies and factions for the foreseeable future. While the GOP may hold their ground another election cycle or two (hope not), they will eventually lose enough ground Texas will flip. Until then, make sure to keep a bag of popcorn in the pantry.

Important 2024 primary RUNOFF election days:

• April 29, 2024: Last day to register to vote.

• May 17, 2024: Last day to apply by mail

• May 20, 2024: First day of early voting.

• May 24, 2024: Last day of early voting.

• May 28, 2024: Last day to receive a ballot by mail.

• May 28, 2024: Election day.

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