‘We have to swamp the Democrats’: Taylor County GOP chair urges Republican unity, addresses influence of outside organizations on elections

BIG COUNTRY, Texas ( KTAB/KRBC ) — In this week’s Big Country Politics, Chris Carnohan, Chairman of the Taylor County Republican Party , discusses the necessity of uniting the Republican Party in Taylor County and addresses concerns about the influence of outside organizations on elections.

Carnohan was elected to the Republican Party chairman position earlier this year.

“The basic idea of the Republican Party chairman is to be the CEO, or the spokesman for the local party conducts the meetings, has lots of appointment powers, interacts with all types of government agencies, the elections office, obviously the County Commissioners Court, various different public and governmental entities that we deal with. Also, part of my job is coming back as a reelected chairman,” Carnohan said.

Carnohan was reelected with 15,364 votes in the March 5 primary out of 19,520 cast.

“That means 78.7% of the Republican primary voters voted me back in… I view that as a mandate to unify our party,” Carnohan said. “In 130 odd days now, we’re probably going to have the biggest election with the most impact on us, as citizens of these United States, that we will ever see when we’re coming to one of those forks in the road. Depending on which way we go, it’s going to make a world of difference in what the rest of our decade and maybe our lives will look like. It’s most important that our citizens be informed, educated, and then motivated to do something with that information: go to the ballot box and vote on November 5 or earlier.”

He was sworn in on Monday, but he stepped down from the position earlier this year. At the time of his resignation, he was eligible to be on the ballot for March 5, and his resignation had no impact on that.

“I want to thank the voters for the vote of confidence. The upshot of it was there was for want of a better term, maybe a storm brewing, dissatisfied party members. No ship has two captains, much less a committee of captains. I believe our purpose as the Taylor County Republican Party is to maximize the Republican vote in this county and to have actively involved participating citizens. That’s the goal of it. Others may have different views as to how that could best be accomplished. But right now, we’re in an election season with less than 20 weeks to go. We have to get the voters up, add them, and get them to the polls. That’s the only thing that matters,” Carnohan shared.

He shared that, in the end, places like Abilene and the Big Country can make up the difference for Republican voters.

“In the final analysis, if we don’t get the votes, what good did we do? We didn’t do it. And I don’t know how many of the viewers are aware of the seven golden cities West Texas, we make up the difference. If you think about Texas, Houston is going to vote Democrat. Dallas will probably vote Democrat. San Antonio will vote Democrat. Austin will vote Democrat. Am I naming the largest counties in the state? You bet I am,” Carnohan said. “If they’re all going to vote Democrat, you know what? The Republican candidates on the statewide ballots have to make it up somewhere. So that’s where the seven golden cities come in. That’s Amarillo, Wichita Falls, Lubbock, Midland, Odessa, San Angelo, and Abilene. Abilene is one of those seven golden cities. We have to have a massive Republican turnout. We have to, without being offensive, we have to swamp the Democrats. They have to know they got drowned in our votes.”

Carnohan quoted Proverbs 6:16-19, listing the seven abominations to God: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community. He said those who stir conflict in their community need to unite to conquer a common goal.

“Sowing discord is not what you do before you enter the biggest battle of your political world. You don’t fight among each other. A friend joked with me the other night that the Democrats, when they’re under fire, circle the wagons, and they shoot out. Republicans, on the other hand, when they’re under fire, circle the wagons and start shooting each other. That’s obviously a losing proposition. We have to unify,” Carnohan explained. “The bottom line of it is, if we vote 80% with somebody else, they’re not our enemy. Those people are our allies. We can’t agree with anybody on 100% of everything doesn’t work. I may like chocolate better than you do. So once, we have to pick our battles, and the battle right now is to beat Democrat challengers; there are no statewide Democrat incumbents; we have to beat them across the board.”

Carnohan expressed gratitude to Freda Ragan and the elections office for their efforts related to the election.

“Frieda and her entire staff are just wonderful to work with. They’re they’re so dedicated. Anytime elections are upcoming, and now we’re voting weeks, if not months, in advance of the election day. Her staff is just hard at it. They have to educate all the poll workers, all the supervisors, and various parts and pieces of the whole process. It’s massive. It’s a massive undertaking, and they do an incredible job. They’re dedicated beyond belief, and I appreciate them so much,” Carnohan expressed.

During election season, many people donate money to their chosen candidates. Carnohan pointed out that while the average person can only contribute so much, others from all over the country donate thousands to local races.

“Most of us can’t just write six-figure checks; I don’t know anybody who can personally. On the other hand, there are PACs. They can be anywhere basically in the country and can send six figures or seven figures to a particular race if they want to. Anybody heard of George Soros? That’s what he does. He’ll contribute a million dollars to a district attorney’s election in a little place out in the boonies… They’ll have an unfair or an out of proportion effect on not just the race, but also the candidate, and then the elected winner of the election,” Carnohan shared. “I think a lot of folks are concerned with their voice being heard when they can contribute 25 or $100. And somebody, some other entity, is sending in hundreds of 1,000s of dollars. How is my voice going to be heard in a mix-up like that? I don’t think that’s a good long-term situation. I think it also subverts because if some part of the country is richer, they shouldn’t control the voting in the parts of the country that aren’t as flush and don’t have as much cash.”

He explained that this would become a legislative issue, but it would also spill over into constitutional matters and the concept of freedom of speech.

“I think that good legislators who are dedicated and will study this have means to find the way to pass a law that will at least start curtailing the effective far distant organizations that we don’t know we’ve never heard of. We don’t know what their real agenda is. I think that’s a danger that we want to be aware of and try to throttle back so that it doesn’t take over and control the elections for us,” Carnohan said.

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