Last weekend’s Republican Party of Texas convention in Dallas exposed ongoing infighting between Waco’s Republican establishment and upstart conservative activists with ties to the local Tea Party.

In a prime example, China Spring refuse hauler Jimmie Kerr unseated Waco attorney Chris DeCluitt for one of two local spots on the State Republican Executive Committee.

Kerr said his victory would lead to greater involvement of Tea Party members in area Republican politics.

Tea party protests in Waco have brought out conservative activists in recent years.
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald, file

“Anybody that’s running for public office, whether they’re a Republican or a Democrat, they’re not going to win without the support of the Tea Party, and I’m going to work hand-in-hand with our Tea Party people,” Kerr said.

Supporting activists

For years — and long before the Tea Party movement — Kerr said conservative Republican activists in McLennan County have been marginalized when it comes to party decision-making.

Kerr said Wednesday that he had yet to talk to McLennan County Republican Party Chairman Joe Hinton and Vice Chairman M.A. Taylor.

Kerr challenged Taylor for county GOP chair in 2007 but withdrew from the primary because of an illness in his family.

“They venomously dislike me because I’m the change for the future,” Kerr said, though he said he does intend to meet with them.

That future, he said, includes recruiting more precinct chairs, essentially the boards of directors for the county Republican parties.

He insisted electing more precinct chairs was about getting more people involved in the party and not a power-grab for more control in county Republican organizations.

Kerr said he also wanted to see more voter-registration drives in state Senate District 22, for which he’s now one of two party representatives.

DeCluitt credited Kerr with running a hard campaign but said his candidacy was damaged partly because of his work to get Kip Averitt re-elected in a GOP primary over Darren Yancy, even after Averitt announced he was leaving the campaign trail for health reasons.

Yancy had the support of a number of prominent Tea Party members in the district.

“And people were upset with me because I was a (David) Sibley supporter,” he added.

Testing leadership

DeCluitt said as Tea Party-backed candidates gain positions of power in Texas they’ll quickly be tested with some of the obligations of leadership.

“I think that the Tea Parties are maturing and starting to come into their own,” he said. “People are going to listen to what they say, and if they’re way out there it may come back to haunt them in the future.”

As for his future, DeCluitt said politics would remain a big part of it.

“This is in my blood,” he said. “There’s no way I’m stopping.”

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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