Texas GOP ousts chairman, picks tea party firebrand Allen West to lead in 2020 elections

AUSTIN – Conservative firebrand and former Florida Congressman Allen West will lead the Texas Republican Party into the 2020 election, after ousting the former chairman during a convention marred by technological difficulties.

West claimed victory early Monday and was quickly congratulated by President Donald Trump.

”I just want to say how truly humbled I am by this honor, and that I will work hard for Texas and Texans,” West said on Facebook.

The retired Army lieutenant colonel was propelled into Congress for a single term amid a tea party wave in 2010, but lost his reelection bid in a staggeringly costly race in which he spent $17 million, outspending the Democrat who defeated him more than 4-1.

During his short-lived exploration of a congressional bid, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called West a “certified wacko,” noting that he had called Social Security “21st century slavery,” claimed he had a higher security clearance than the president, and had used his time in Congress to argue that Islam is “not a religion” but a “totalitarian theocratic political ideology,” and that terrorism is inherent to the faith.

With control of Texas teetering, Democrats embraced his victory over James Dickey, who has chaired the Texas Republican Party for three years, arguing that West’s extremism will alienate voters just in time. Trump lags former vice president Joe Biden by 5 percentage points in the most recent Dallas Morning News/University of Texas at Tyler poll. Other surveys show a dead heat. Either way, signs all point to a tough fight in a state Trump carried by 9 points and which no Republican nominee has lost since 1976.

Republicans have no path to the White House without Texas. As Sen. Ted Cruz told the state GOP’s virtual convention this weekend, “Texas is the key to national domination for years to come. If the Democrats win Texas, it’s all over.”

Dickey conceded around 4 a.m. Monday and wished West the best.

“I love the Republican Party and all of the grassroots Republicans who make us great,” he said on Facebook. “Let’s win in November.”

The ouster comes after a strained convention that was shifted online at the 11th hour, after Houston’s Democratic mayor barred an in-person convention and courts rejected the party’s attempts to overturn that amid the coronavirus epidemic. Technological difficulties plagued the event, pushing delegates to postpone unfinished business into a second convention, the Texas Tribune reported.

The Texas Democratic Party slammed West.

“We’re disgusted but not surprised that Texas Republicans chose a certified racist conservative hardliner like Allen West as their new chairman,” said spokesman Abhi Rahman. “West is everything that is wrong with the Republican Party and brings to light their failures on building an inclusive, welcoming party that is deliberate and thoughtful in handling crisis situations. He’ll fit right in with the modern day Texas Republican Party.

West spent 22 years in the Army and was a battalion commander during the Iraq war. He was relieved of his command in 2003 and fined $5,000 after firing a gun near an Iraqi man’s head during an interrogation.

In Congress, he often stirred controversy.

One of two black Republicans in the House at the time, he called President Barack Obama a “low-level Socialist agitator” and called Obama supporters “a threat to the gene pool.” He claimed that as many as 81 House Democrats were members of the Communist Party but never offered evidence or named names.

A month after Trump’s election, West posted a meme on his Facebook page, which had 2.5 million followers, urging the president to pick Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis as defense secretary because he will “exterminate Muslims.” Days later, West was at Trump Tower, where the president-elect was planning his transition.

West later moved to Texas and last year he toyed with running for Congress in Dallas, challenging freshman Rep. Colin Allred, a Democrat who ousted longtime Republican Pete Sessions in 2018.

Democrats accused West of using the trial balloon of a campaign to promote his latest book. They also encouraged him to run, for the same reasons they embrace his takeover of the state GOP on Monday – hoping it will tar other Republicans with his extremism.