Smith County Republican County Chair candidates from left, Kevin McCall and David Stein, incumbent, answer questions at one of the Republican Club’s candidate forums earlier this month. 

1. Smith County Current Election Information
2. Smith County Sample Ballots

With the March primaries nearing, the Smith County Republican Club held a forum featuring candidates for Texas House of Representatives District 5 and 6 and the GOP county chair candidates Feb. 8 at The Grove in Tyler.

Incumbent Cole Hefner, Jeff Fletcher and Dewey Collier are Texas House of Representatives District 5 candidates. Daniel Alders is the candidate for Texas House of Representatives District 6. Incumbent David Stein and Kevin McCall are candidates for GOP County Chair.

Candidates had one minute to respond to questions and two minutes for closing remarks. Hefner and Fletcher were absent from the forum. Hefner has prior commitments, and Fletcher was absent due to medical reasons.

Editor’s Note: Answers include both direct quotes and paraphrased statements from the present candidates.

Republican County Chair

The county chair is the local party leader in each county throughout the state. Some of their responsibilities include overseeing the primary, candidate filing, and other elections; chairing county executive committee meetings; organizing and leading the local party; and overseeing and assisting with precinct and county or Senate district conventions as required.

Q: How do you plan to increase volunteer engagement?

McCall: Increasing engagement involves realizing and appealing to the electoral makeup of the county.

“We cannot afford to alienate any portion of that electorate,” McCall said. “That would be my outlook for moving forward with engagement of all of the electorate.”

Stein: In response, Stein referred to actions he’s already taken as GOP county chair, such as increasing the number of precinct chairs to allow the party to oversee its entire electorate and increased training for precinct chairs, election workers and poll watchers.

“We’ve gone from about 30 or so to approximately 50 right now, and there are still 24 open slots,” Stein said. “Some of them are in less heavy Republican voter districts, but it still gives us an opportunity to recruit someone there from the ground up and build Republicans.”

Q: What do you plan to do to increase diversity within the party?

Stein: It’s essential to work with existing diversity groups to spread the message and go where the people are. Stein is already working with the Texas Minority Coalition and the Hispanic Professionals Association of Tyler.

“Jesus gave us the model of going to where the people are, not making people come to where we are, and that’s how we’re going to get engaged,” Stein said. “Whether it’s the Hispanic population, whether it is the African American population, as well as one lot of people don’t talk about, the Asian American population.”

McCall: Local outreach within the community leads to increased engagement. Everyone needs to have the same overall sentiment of America and Texas first and economic empowerment.

“That’s how you raise people up within the community,” McCall said. “It’s all about economic empowerment … Once they see that they have a good level playing field, they could get a job, they can move forward — I think they will connect the dots to our party.”

Q: How do you intend on increasing fundraising for the GOP?

McCall: Continuing to have annual dinners and public figures to headline events and creativity can go a long way regarding fundraising.

Fundraising has been successful for the party, and continuing that strife is essential.

Stein: When he started as county chair, the party didn’t have any surplus funds, but he said he’s been successful in fundraising. One of the first efforts was selling Donald Trump-branded merchandise and working with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to appear at fundraising events.

It’s a matter of continuing those efforts, he said.

Q: What ways can you see being influential to mentor the next generation into the party?

Stein: The party has to be welcoming and inviting to young people. He’s already started working with the Texas Young Republican and other young republican groups.

“When they invite me, I show up. I try to mentor them. I try to help them understand all processes, get them involved in the conventions.” Stein said. “We need that younger lot. You need not be afraid to come to some of us old folks and say, ‘Look, I want to get involved; help me.’”

McCall: Young Republican groups are built-in support of the party.

“The young Republicans are the built-in key to fostering voter involvement and electoral involvement, party involvement,” McCall said.

State Representative

The Texas House of Representatives and the state Senate comprise the Texas Legislature. The legislature’s duties include considering proposed laws and resolutions, constitutional amendments and appropriation of funds for state government operations.

District 5

District 5 encompasses 19% of Smith County, 100% of the cities of Winona, Lindale, and Hideaway, and 7% of Overton.

Q: What three priorities are top of list for you to tackle in the next session?

Collier: His top three priorities are national security and securing the Southern border, eliminating taxpayer funding of medical and psychological gender transition and the sexualization of children and improving infrastructure.

Q: How will you work to secure a long term, cost effective and timely solution to the border crisis?

Collier: He said he is the only candidate with a plan to address the border crisis. Collier spent 26 years in the U.S. Army. That experience made him aware of Hesco’s surface-mounted barrier systems.

“The Hesco system has been deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq and multiple theaters throughout the world,” Collier said. “It’s a very simple system, very cheap and very cost effective.”

Q: District 5 has a lot of homeschool and special needs families, how do you see ESA (School Choice) issues progressing in future sessions?

Collier: School choice is a top priority for Collier. The money given to public schools for a child’s attendance should follow the child no matter what school, public, private, homeschool or other options parents choose for their child.

“That is not a voucher. That is money that is earmarked, entitled for each one of those children,” Collier said.

Q: Do you feel it is your place to advocate for such community impact issues such as broadband expansion?

Collier: Broadband expansion is vital to rural communities. It ensures those people have access to information and can exchange information.

“They’re trying to marginalize the people in our country,” Collier said. “We need to make sure that we emphasize what’s happening in our rural communities.”

Fletcher couldn’t attend due to a medical emergency but sent a statement to be read.

Fletcher said he was compelled to run for office because he believes incumbent Hefner continuously ignored the priorities and values of his constituents in HD5. Fletcher said Hefner lacked character for launching a series of automatic calls defaming Fletcher.

“I promise that if I am elected to office, I will always place the district first in every decision,” the statement said. “I will never be influenced by the snatch or the swamp, which Austin has become.”

District 6

District 6 encompasses 81% of Smith County, 100% of the cities of Arp, Emerald Bay, New Chapel Hill, Noonday, Tyler, and Whitehouse and a majority of Bullard and Troup. Rep. Matt Schaefer has held the position for 12 years but announced he would not run for reelection.

Alders is running unopposed in the Republican primary and was allotted 20 minutes of speaking time.

As a seventh-generation East Texan, Alders’ goal is to ensure the community remains that way for the generations.

“We, the people, need to wake up and remind ourselves that those values of life, liberty, and the responsibility to govern ourselves are increasingly uncommon in our day and age,” Alders said. “We are living in a world of chaos where up is down and wrong is right.”

Alders’ No. 1 priority is reestablishing sovereignty by securing the border. He will enforce immigration laws and demand persons entering the U.S. do so legally.

“A nation without borders is not a nation, and Texas is uniquely suffering from open border policies from our federal government. We have to continue to fight back,” Alders said.

Alders will prioritize institutional decline.

“We view the world, more often than not, as institutions are neutral,” Alders said. “They are not.”

Republicans are good about building things and instilling principles, values and ideas but are bad at keeping what’s been built. Progressives are good at tearing what Republicans build down, he said.

“It is time to restore merit-based value evaluation and free market principles,” he said.

He discussed prioritizing investing in modern infrastructure, the need to reclaim the role of parental responsibility and education and cutting the government’s wasteful spending.

The joint primary elections will be held March 5. Feb. 20 is the first day of early voting. For more information, visit www.smith-county.com/government/departments/elections/current-election-information.

Feb. 20: First day of early voting by personal appearance

Feb. 23: Last day to submit an application for a ballot by mail (received, not postmarked)

March 1: Last day of early voting by personal appearance

March 5: Last day to receive ballot by mail

Source: Smith County Elections Office