A GOP Agenda for a Metropolitan County

If you’re not from the Houston metropolitan area, you might ask yourself “why should I care who leads the Harris County Republican Party?”

Houston, Texas is the fourth largest city in the nation, Harris County is the third largest county in the nation, the population of this metropolitan area is larger than most states, and (most importantly) this area has been the most Republican-leaning of the major metropolitan areas in the nation for at least a generation. Therefore, the short answer is that what happens here in the near future will help shape the future of the Republican Party for the next decade. And, what we plan to accomplish here is to revitalize the GOP by expanding the party’s base into urban neighborhoods. This will be no easy task, but it must be done. Simply put—we intend to attack this effort as if it were a crusade, and then spread this crusade to other metropolitan counties across the country.

The single greatest challenge facing Republicans who want to change the political dynamic in our urban neighborhoods is overcoming the negative perception of our party in those neighborhoods. Frankly, we are perceived as only caring about the concerns of the most fortunate members of our communities, while so many of our neighbors struggle within perpetual cycles of behavior that destroy any chance for future economic growth and happiness. The question for Republicans is, do we have the will to join hands with our struggling neighbors to help create the solutions for the problems they face, or will we simply stand back and let the Democrats continue to make matters worse for all of us by renewing and expanding the welfare state?

I believe that, by doing the hard work of applying our Republican principles of liberty, responsibility and growth—individual to individual, school to school, and neighborhood to neighborhood—we will turn these conditions around. I am confident that this crusade can work, because our ideas have worked whenever they’ve been implemented. When enterprise zones, privatization of public housing, public/private partnerships for providing community services, and educational choice and competition have been implemented, they’ve worked to improve the lives of people in the affected neighborhoods. But to make this effort work now, our approach must be comprehensive and permanent.

Why is Harris County important or unique to this plan? Harris County is still the largest, politically conservative county in the country, and still has Republican elected officials in positions that can affect the direction and outcome of this effort. Therefore, we Republicans in Harris County must be the laboratory for this GOP effort.

To be that laboratory, we intend to create an environment in which our neighbors in these communities will listen to the GOP again. We will start by talking about the issues they care about—education (including not only the tools for the 21^st Century job market, but also the foundations of character and morality needed to be an effective citizen); economic growth and opportunity; low taxation; limited and effective local government; and a strong defense with secure borders—in a manner and tone that will attract people to listen to us, and join us. To start this discussion, we will become members of every community and offer these metropolitan voters something to vote for.

We will establish a permanent and active presence in every precinct, neighborhood and school district in the county. Framing the issue clearly, a young Marine, home from two combat tours in Iraq, recently made a challenge to a group of conservative activists—if he could risk his life a half-a-world away for strangers, couldn’t we muster the courage to cross the streets of our county to embrace our neighbors, talk to them about our principles, and invite those who agree with us to participate in the GOP? If we truly believe in our principles of liberty, responsibility and growth, this Marine’s question should answer itself.

Establishing a permanent and active presence means more than attending public events to be seen. Instead, we will actively engage in activities that are designed to improve the life of these neighborhoods. This aspect of the crusade must involve creating and participating in activities where our activists can engage with our neighbors, such as community clean-up projects, recycling programs, adopt-a-highway programs, food-pantry and family-shelter programs, child and adult mentorship programs, and sponsoring and teaching adult education and citizenship classes.

As we establish our presence, we will work with members of these communities to develop actual policies consistent with our principles, which address the issues relevant to their lives; and we will help establish networks of civic organizations and community centers that will provide a community infrastructure through which these neighbors can eventually help themselves, rather than turn to government.

Finally, to sustain this crusade permanently we will recruit, train and support party leaders and candidates from these neighborhoods who will press our agenda in their precincts, city councils, school boards, and legislative districts.

Houston and Harris County share many of the elements of the old and young, and the large and small cities and metropolitan counties spread across the country. But they also share something other similar areas don’t have—a conservative political base from which to launch this crusade. If Republicans successfully develop an urban/metropolitan policy agenda here, we will use that agenda as a blueprint to take to every major city and metropolitan area in the country, and thereby help enrich our urban communities while assuring the competitiveness of the GOP for the next generation.