Dear Friends,
Happy New Year 2026!
Looking back at 2025, that was a pretty good year. Nationally, we enjoyed a full year of patriotic, energetic leadership from President Trump. He has reset the global chessboard. Importantly for the United States and Texas, the President brought law, order, and control back to the border. Despite Democrat claims, it turns out that “comprehensive immigration reform” was not needed at all. We just needed real leadership.
Your votes mattered: locally, statewide, and nationwide. Texas citizens again returned conservative Republican leaders back to Austin. Galveston County leaders continued a very long streak of reducing taxes and competently managing our local affairs. And as I noted in my last message to you, the Galveston County Commissioners Court laid an important foundation by challenging a local majority-minority coalition district and winning at the Fifth Circuit Court. The Texas Legislature and Governor Abbott followed through with Congressional redistricting, which could add 5 Republicans to Congress.
In my last message, I noted that Republicans secured about 63% of the county votes in the 2024 general election. That was up from about 60% in 2020. This year, it interesting to compare the number of Republican vs. Democrat who are candidates in the upcoming 2026 Primary Election. At the local level, very few Democrats are running to challenge incumbent Republicans: just 1. And at the political party level, there is much more energy on the Republican side. Democrats are fielding just 25 precinct chair candidates, and none of the races are contested. In contrast, on the Republican side, 55 candidates are running for precinct chair, and 9 of those races are contested. See the Secretary of State website to dive deeper. https://goelect.txelections.civixapps.com/ivis-cbp-ui/candidate-information
So, 2026 is looking pretty good. Right? Wel,l not so fast. In off-year election contests, Democrats won important races in New Jersey, Virginia, and the Pennsylvania high court. A “democratic socialist” won in New York City. And California is redrawing its own Congressional district to favor the Dems. And as we see in Minnesota, the Democrats are creating and pushing civil unrest. There are headwinds out there, and we can take nothing for granted.
I listened to Michael Berry on the radio today. I’ll paraphrase how he put it using a baseball / World Series analogy: “Championship teams win… in spring training.” In other words, the political successes we enjoyed after the November 2024 elections were there because of the work we all did in 2023 and 2024. By that analogy, we are in the middle of “spring training” again! The next election cycle will be won by those who show up, get involved, support our candidates, and stay engaged for the months ahead. We have work to do; every effort, every outreach, and every contribution matters.
Before closing, many of you know that I’ve decided not to run again for County Chairman. Though challenging at times, it has been my honor to serve you in this capacity. Brad Boney was the only candidate who applied to be Chairman, so he will lead the Galveston County Republican Party starting this summer. You may know that I served 2 terms on the Friendswood City Council. As a possible 3rd term approached, I had the same feeling then as I do now: the time is ripe. It is time for new leadership, new energy, and new ideas. I’ll be doing a hand-off with Brad over the next few months and will continue to help him in the background.
And in closing, I hope to see you all at our upcoming Lincoln Reagan Dinner: Friday January 30, 2026, at the San Luis Resort. Our Lincoln Reagan Dinner provides critical funding for voter outreach, grassroots engagement, and party operations that allow us to keep Galveston County Republican RED !!!
We have an excellent panel on tap. We will be celebrating America’s 250th Birthday! And what a good way to ring in the new year and welcome our future Chairman, Brad Boney. Get your tickets here: https://galvestoncntygop.com/2026-lincoln-reagan-dinner-january-30th/
Blessings, good health, and prosperity to you and your families in 2026!
Patrick J. McGinnis, MD
GCRP Chairman