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The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) is one of the two major political parties in the U.S. State of Texas. It is affiliated with the United States Republican Party. The State Chairman is Steve Munisteri, a retired attorney and businessman from Houston, and the Vice-Chair is Amy Clark of Floresville. The RPT is headquartered in Downtown Austin. The RPT's mission is to promote a conservative philosophy of government by promoting conservative principles. The RPT is legally classified as a political action committee whose structure is determined by state law and by party rules not in conflict with state law.

The Republican Party developed dramatically in Texas during Reconstruction after constitutional amendments freeing the slaves and giving suffrage to black males, as blacks joined the party that had ensured the end of slavery. African-American leaders, frequently men of mixed race who had been free and educated before the war, provided leadership in extending education and work opportunities to blacks after the war. They supported establishment of a public school system for the first time. Men such as William Madison McDonald in Fort Worth, Norris Wright Cuney in Galveston, and Henry Clay Ferguson worked for the black community and the state.

In 1870, Edmund Davis was elected Governor, but was soundly defeated in 1874. In the year 1876, Republicans had made gradual gains in Texas, earning nearly one-third of the statewide vote and electing a small number of candidates to the State Legislature (including several African Americans). Democrats established legal racial segregation and disfranchisement.

After the Reconstruction era, the Republican Party of Texas gradually lost power, and after the turn of the century, the "Lily Whites" pushed blacks out of power. The Democrats passed disfranchising laws near the turn of the century requiring poll taxes be paid prior to voter registration; together with the party establishing white primaries, black voting dropped dramatically, from more than 100,000 statewide in the 1890s, to 5,000 in 1906.[1] Mexican Americans and poor whites were also adversely affected by such measures. For more than 100 years, the Republicans were a minority party in the state.

Between the departing of Robert B. Hawley from his second U.S. House term in 1901 and the seating of Bruce Alger in 1954, the sole Republican to represent Texas in Congress was Harry M. Wurzbach, who served in the U.S. House for most of the 1920s and left office in 1931.[2] The first Republican statewide primary was held in 1926, but drew only 15,239 voters. By contrast, the Democratic primary in the same year drew 821,234 voters, as disfranchisement was well established, and Texas was essentially a one-party, white-only voting state. Only two more Republican primaries were run in the next thirty-four years.[3]

In 1961, James A. Leonard, was the "first Executive Director of the Republican Party of Texas to emphasize the Party's new intention to become a force in state government." "In the dead of night," he moved the Party Headquarters from Houston to Austin" and "mobilized the Party's meager resources to support the candidacy of a 36-year-old Associate Professor of Government, John Tower, to fill Lyndon Johnson's vacant US Senate Seat." James A. Leonard "was an architect to John Tower's breakthrough 1961 Senate victory claim to Lyndon Johnson's (US) seat..." " in the special election after Johnson had been elected as vice-president with John F. Kennedy on the Democratic ticket.[4]John Tower served in this position until his retirement in 1985.

African Americans had been mounting challenges to segregation and disfranchisement across the South to have their constitutional rights enforced. After Kennedy's assassination in 1963, President Lyndon Johnson urged passage of the civil rights legislation he had supported. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In reaction across the South, conservative whites began to realign with the Republican Party, while African Americans overwhelmingly registered with the Democratic Party, which was helping enforce their rights.

In 1966, two Republicans were elected to the US House of Representatives, including future President George H.W. Bush, for the first time since Reconstruction. That same year, three Republicans were elected to the Texas House of Representatives, and the first Republican was elected to the Texas Senate in 39 years. By 1972, Texas Republicans increased their gains to 17 members of the Texas House and 3 members of the Texas Senate.[3]

The true turning point for Texas Republicans occurred in the May 1976 primary, when Ronald Reagan defeated Gerald Ford by a two-to-one margin in the state's presidential primary. According to former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, due to Reagan's victory in the Texas primary, "the whole shape and nature of the state changed."[5]

104 years after the most recent previous Republican governor, Bill Clements eked out a narrow victory in November 1978. In 1984, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Phil Gramm led a GOP ticket that relied upon the RPT to provide a centralized network of communications. Throughout the rest of the decade, the total Republican vote continued to increase, and the party made large gains in both the state legislature and in local races.[3]

Since 1994, every statewide elected office has been held by a Republican. Both houses of the Texas Legislature feature Republican majorities. After the 2010 elections, Republicans held a super-majority of 101 Republican representatives in the 150-member body.[6] After the 2014 elections, majority is now 98 of 150 in the House. In the Texas Senate, Republicans hold 20 of 31 seats post-2014 after holding 19 for the previous six years. Both houses are officially organized on a bi-partisan basis, with both Republicans and Democrats holding committee chairs. At the federal level, the Texas Congressional delegation is composed of 24 Republicans and 12 Democrats; both of its US Senators are Republican. The last time Texas was carried by a Democratic presidential candidate was in 1976.

In its 2012 platform, the Republican Party of Texas rejected the teaching of "Higher Order Thinking Skills... critical thinking skills and similar programs," giving as a reason that this sort of teaching has "the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority." Media ridicule led to a response from RPT Communications Director Chris Elam that the inclusion of the term "critical thinking skills" was an oversight which cannot be corrected until 2014, when the next state convention will occur.[7][8]

In a 2014 interview with YNN, executive director Beth Cubriel voiced her opposition to equal pay legislation and encouraged women to negotiate better for the pay they deserve instead of backing up court dockets and saying that "Men are better negotiators. I would encourage women instead of pursuing the courts for action to become better negotiators".[9]

On June 7, 2014 approximately 8,000 delegates to the Republican Party of Texas State Convention in Fort Worth, Texas voted to add a plank to the platform in support of reparative therapy for homosexuals. Shortly after the convention, Chairman Munsiteri said in an interview with Texas Public Radio that he was opposed to the plank and that its inclusion in the platform was due to a "parliamentary maneuver" that prevented debate on the plank before the platform as a whole was adopted and that there is no way in knowing if the plank is representative of the views of the majority of Texas Republicans.[10] Despite Chairman Munisteri's statement, the platform plank received strong support from delegates in the majority of Senate District conventions across the state and has been vigorously defended by previous state chair Cathie Adams [11] as well as several statewide grassroots organizations such as "Texas Values," the "Texas Republican Assembly," and the Eagle Forum.[12][13][14]

The full language of the reparative therapy plank is as follows:

Reparative Therapy- We recognize the legitimacy and efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual lifestyle. No laws or executive orders shall be imposed to limit or restrict access to this type of therapy. [15][16][17][18][19][20]

The Republican Party of Texas controls all elected statewide offices, holds a 1912 majority in the Texas Senate, and a 9555 majority in the Texas House of Representatives. Republicans also hold both of the state's U.S. Senate seats and 24 of the state's 36 U.S. House seats.

Biannually, in even-numbered years, delegates at the Texas GOP State Convention elect a man and a woman from each of the thirty-one State Senatorial districts to serve a two-year term on the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC). The State Republican Executive Committee along with the elected State Chair and State Vice Chair manage the affairs of the Republican Party of Texas between state conventions.[21]

The official college Republican Party of Texas' student wing is Texas College Republicans, which has over 35 chapters statewide.[22]

High School Republicans of Texas is the Republican Party of Texas' Official High School Republican Auxiliary with chapters in high schools and communities across Texas. For more information, visit their website at http://www.hsrtx.org.[23]

The Texas Federation of Republican Women (TFRW) is a volunteer women's organization that has "long-standing goals of education, training, participation in government, electing Republicans and encouraging Republican women to run for office". TFRW has 164 local clubs across Texas with over 10,000 members.[24]

The Texas Republican County Chairmen's Association (TRCCA) is composed of the elected chairman of the county Republican party organizations in Texas and operates to support and provide networking opportunities for elected Republican county chairmen in Texas.[25]

The Texas Young Republican Federation (TYRF) is an organization composed of Young Republican clubs across Texas which are open to registered voters who are between the ages of 18 and 40 years old. The TYRF goals are grassroots activism, leadership development, community service and club development.[26]

The Texas Federation for Republican Outreach is committed to increasing participation and affiliation of African-American voters within the Republican Party, and to increase the number of elected Republican African-American candidates in Texas.[27]

The Texas Republican Assembly is a grassroots volunteer organization dedicated to promoting and electing conservative Republican candidates in Texas. There are six charter clubs across Texas.[28]

The Republican National Hispanic Assembly has a chapter in Texas, whose mission is to increase participation and affiliation of Hispanic American voters within the Republican Party, and to increase the number of elected Republican Hispanic candidates in Texas.[29]

The Latino National Republican Coalition of Texas believes "in active civic engagement as a means to bridge the gap between the Hispanic Community and the GOP." There are five chapters throughout Texas.[30]

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Republican Party of Texas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The All Progressives Congress (APC) is a political party in Nigeria, formed on 6 February 2013 in anticipation of the 2015 elections.[2][3][4] APC candidate Muhammadu Buhari won the presidential election by almost 2.6 million votes.[5] Incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat on 31 March.[6] This was the first time in Nigeria's political history that an opposition political party unseated a governing party in a general election and one in which power will transfer peacefully from one political party to another.[7] In addition, the APC won the majority of seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives in the 2015 elections, though it fell shy of winning a super-majority to override the ability of the opposition People's Democratic Party to block legislation.[8][9]

Formed in February 2013, the party is the result of an alliance of Nigeria's three biggest opposition parties the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) merged to take on the People's Democratic Party.[10][11] The resolution was signed by Tom Ikimi, the who represented the ACN; Senator Annie Okonkwo on behalf of the APGA; former governor of Kano State, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, the Chairman of ANPP's Merger Committee; and Garba Shehu, the Chairman of CPC's Merger Committee.[12] Ironically, less than 2 years before the party's historic victory in the 2015 elections, Messrs Annie Okonkwo, Tom Ikimi and Ibrahim Shekarau resigned from the party and joined the PDP.[13][14][15]

The party received approval from the nation's electoral umpire Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on 31 July 2013 to become a political party and subsequently withdrew the operating licenses of the three predecessor parties (the ACN, CPC and ANPP). In March 2013, it was reported that two other associations African Peoples Congress and All Patriotic Citizens also applied for INEC registration, adopting APC as an acronym as well, reportedly "a development interpreted to be a move to thwart the successful coalition of the opposition parties, ahead of the 2015 general elections."[16] It was reported in April 2013 that the party was considering changing their name to the All Progressive Congress of Nigeria (APCN) to avoid further complications.[17]

In November 2013, five serving Governors from the governing PDP defected to the APC, as well as 49 legislators who will now join the ranks of 137 legislators in the APC as a result of the prior merger of the smaller opposition parties.[18][19][20] This initially gave the APC a slim majority of 186 legislators in the Lower House out of a total of 360 legislators; however, subsequent political wrangling and pressure from political factions and interests outside the National Assembly of Nigeria, gave the party only 37 additional legislators thus giving the APC a nominal majority of 172 out of 360 Legislators, as opposed to the PDP's 171 (though some smaller PDP-allied parties hold the balance of the other seats.[21] This was further confirmed when the party seated 179 members on January 15, 2015 when the House resumed after a long recess to finally affirm its majority.[22] The governors who defected to the APC were Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State, Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State. It had been previously reported that Governors Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State and Sule Lamido of Jigawa State were to set to defect from the People's Democratic Party to the APC; however, both ended up remaining with the People's Democratic Party. In the 2015 elections, Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu ran as a senatorial nominee of the People's Democratic Party for the Niger State east senatorial district, losing in a landslide to the APC's David Umaru.[23]

On 1213 December 2014, the APC was admitted as a consultative member into the Socialist International.[24]

Prior to the formation of the APC and its victory in the 2015 elections, Muhammadu Buhari had previously contested (and subsequently lost) the Nigerian presidential elections of 2003 and 2007 as the presidential nominee of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the 2011 Nigerian presidential election as the presidential nominee of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

The APC is generally considered to be a center-left political party that favors controlled market or regulated market economic policies, and a strong and active role for government regulation. A substantial number of its political leaders are followers of or politicians who subscribe to the social democratic political philosophy of Obafemi Awolowo and the socialist and anti-class views of Aminu Kano. Moreover, the majority of the APC's base of political support is in southwestern Nigeria and the Northern Nigeria, which are dominated by the country's largest ethnic groups, the Yoruba and the Hausa-Fulani, respectively.

Most political parties in Nigeria are socially conservative as a reflection of the views of the populace. However, compared to Nigeria's other major party, the People's Democratic Party, the APC is considered a more socially conservative party. This is in part due to the party being dominated by an older generation of Nigerian politicians and the fact that a substantial base of its voters live in the predominantly Muslim Hausa-Fulani parts of Nigeria. Like the PDP, the APC is against same-sex relations, and strongly favors social conservatism on moral, religious and cultural grounds.

The APC is more supportive of state-autonomy advancing state police as part of its manifesto.[25] Its social policy is a combination of social nationalism. Despite the parties' domination by pro-devolution politician like Atiku Abubakar, Bola Tinubu and Chief Akande, the parties presidential bearer and the CPC wing is less inclined to federalism and this basic tension is somewhat of ideological strange bed fellows accommodated in context of desire to win and combine forces in the 2015 election cycle.[26]

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All Progressives Congress - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Question What is the difference between a liberal and a puppy? Answer -A puppy stops whining after it grows up.

Question What is the only thing worse than an incompetent liberal President? Answer -A competent liberal President.

Question Who was the first liberal Democrat? Answer -Christopher Columbus. He left not knowing where he was going,got there not knowing where he was,left there not knowing where hed been and did it all on borrowed money.

Q: How many liberals does it take to change a light Bulb? A: At least ten, as they will need to have a discussion about whether or not the light bulb exists. Even if they can agree upon the existence of the light bulb they still may not change it to keep from alienating those who might use other forms of light.

Q:How many liberals does it take to change a light bulb? A:None. Liberals wouldnt actually change the light bulb, but they would show compassion for it by talking a lot about how terrible it is in the dark and more funding is needed to improve dim, 60 watt bulbs up to bright and productive 100 watt bulbs.

Q: How many liberals does it take to change a light bulb? A: Let George Bush fix it! Its his fault its dark anyway!

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SHORT JOKES ABOUT LIBERALS - Laugh@Liberals

Welcome !2015 NSA Adult and YouthSoftball and BPA Youth Baseball

Adult Coaches

New for 2015, here are a few changes you need to know about.

1. Players will give the coach they want to play for their Player number.

2. Coach signs in to team account and starts building roster by putting in player numbers to be added automatically to the roster.

3. No more Coach sending invites and waiting for Player accept.

4. No more Players signing in to Accept to be on a roster.

5. Player is officially on the roster once they sign the printed online roster.

This is NSAs way to make the process easier and simpler for coaches and players.

We are looking for sponsors for the 2015 softball tournaments. If you, or anyone you know might be interested in sponsoring one tournament, or be a sponsor for a series of tournaments, please contact me. We are looking at some exciting changes to our tournament structure, and are sure that you will like what we have coming in 2015 with our Tournaments.

Weinvite you tosanction your teams here on-linefor the 2015 season, beginning in January, 2015. Look here for UpcomingLeague play,info for Tournaments, Updated National rules, Classification & Roster rules, Post season play, NSA points system, SUPER WORLD SERIES info, Hotels, NSA links and Sponsors.If you are interested in becoming a Tournament Director or run the NSA Program at your Ball Park, PleaseContact us at bhancock@playnsa.com,or call the NSA State Director Bill Hancock at 918-607-1661.We look forward to seeing yourSoftball Team on the Diamonds in 2015 !!

Indian Springs 2015 SUMMER LEAGUES

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So, If you are looking for Post season play with an Association that works hard to put teams in their CORRECT Classification, Thenwe look forward to seeing your teamat many of the Ball Parks in Oklahoma this year. We want to see as many teams as possible qualify for World Series and "Super" World Series events in September and October.

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Oklahoma NSA Softball

The Kentucky senator and GOP presidential candidate lumped Clinton, the Democratic 2016 front-runner, and Rubio, a surging Republican candidate, together on foreign policy -- criticizing them for being too willing to intervene in Middle Eastern conflicts in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper Sunday on "State of the Union."

"I see her and Rubio as being the same person," he said. "They both wanted a no-fly zone. They both have supported activity in Libya -- the war in Libya that toppled Gadhafi, an intervention that made us less safe.

"They both have supported pouring arms into the Syrian civil war, a mistake that I think allowed ISIS to grow stronger. And they both have supported the Iraq War. So I mean, what's the difference?"

He was particularly critical of both Clinton and Rubio over Libya, saying the two had advocated an intervention that led to instability and turned the country into fertile territory for ISIS.

"I fault Hillary Clinton. I fault President Obama. But I also fault the neoconservatives within my party like Rubio who have been eager for war in Libya, in Syria, in Iraq, and they want a no-fly zone in an airspace where Russia is already flying," Paul said.

"It's a foolhardy notion, and people really -- this is the kind of stepping it up to a debate over who would best be commander in chief that we really need in our country," he added.

Paul also took a shot at Rubio over an immigration bill he once sponsored with New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, which included a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

"He was a coauthor of the bill -- I mean it was the Rubio bill, the Rubio-Schumer bill," Paul said. "So he does have to explain it. I think it will be a big part of things."

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Rand Paul: Clinton, Rubio both 'neoconservatives ...