Jared Woodfill

Jared Ryker Woodfill, V
Chairman of the Republican Party of Harris County (Houston), Texas
Incumbent
Assumed office 2002
Preceded by	Gary M. Polland
Succeeded by	Paul Simpson
Personal details
Born	August 9, 1968 Houston, Texas, USA
Spouse(s)	Celeste Marie Ponce Woodfill
Relations	Paul Pressler (law partner)
Parents	Jared, Sr., and Betty Beck Woodfill
Residence	Houston, Texas, USA
Alma mater	Clear Lake High School University of Texas at Austin St. Mary's University School of Law
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Non-denominational Christian

Jared Ryker Woodfill, V (born August 9, 1968),^[1] is an attorney from Houston, Texas, who from 2002 to 2014 was chairman of the Harris County Republican Party. He was elected chairman for six two-year terms. Woodfill was the longest serving and youngest ever elected as county chairman. He is known for social and fiscal conservative positions. In 2015, he was named Houstonian of the Year by KRIV Fox 26. Conservative Houstonians will always be thankful for Woodfill's fundraising of $20 million dollars while leading the HCRP. In 2015, Jared Woodfill became the spokesman for Campaign For Houston,^[2] the group that fought former Houston Mayor Annise Parker's Bathroom Ordinance and prevailed, 61 to 39 percent among the electorate.^[3]

Background

Woodfill's father, Jared, IV, is a former employee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Houston who helped to return home the crew of the aborted Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970. His mother, the former Betty Beck, is a former instructor at San Jacinto College. Woodfill graduated from Clear Lake High School, the University of Texas at Austin, and St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas.^[4] Woodfill is affiliated with the firm Woodfill and Pressler, LLP. His law partner is the retired conservative jurist Paul Pressler. Woodfill is married to the former Celeste Marie Ponce.

Party politics

Prior to his election as county chairman in 2002 to succeed Gary M. Polland, Woodfill had been vice-chairman for State Senate District 17 and the legal counsel for the Harris County Republican Party.^[4] In 2010, Woodfill won his third term as county chairman over Donald Jeffrey Large, who had run for the District 140 seat in the Texas House of Representatives in 2004 and received just under one third of the vote.^[5][6] Large's candidacy for county chairman did not become viable in part because of a lack of campaign fundraising.^[7] Large polled only 7,099 votes out of 117,757 votes cast, or 6 percent of the total.^[8][9]

Woodfill ran into trouble in his 2014 race for a fourth term though he carried the vigorous backing of his predecessor, Gary Polland, and other conservative leaders in the party. He was unseated by the Houston engineer-turned-lawyer Paul Simpson, who received a $90,000 donation from County Judge Ed Emmett, who was unopposed for the Republican nomination for his office. Woodfill and Emmett became politically estranged in 2012. Emmett claims that Woodfill took personal credit for the establishment of "victory centers" when the sites were actually the work of Emmett and the state Republican party.^[10] Simpson supporters claimed that Woodfill had grown lackluster in campaign fundraising and had accented "social issues" as chairman, including a lawsuit against Mayor Parker regarding benefits for same-sex couples employed by the city.^[11]

Woodfill also carried the support of State Senator Dan Patrick, who was elected lieutenant governor to succeed David Dewhurst, and Paul Bettencourt, the former Harris County tax assessor-collector and Patrick's successor in the District 7 seat in the state Senate. In the state Senate race, Bettencourt was an easy winner and was endorsed by Polland, Woodfill, Richard J. Trabulsi, Jr., the chairman of the political action committee, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, and pastor Rick Scarbough of Vision America.^[12]

In March 2015, a year after he lost the county chairmanship, Woodfill declared his candidacy for state Republican chairman after Steve Munisteri stepped down to join the 2016 presidential campaign waged by U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Others in the race were Wade Emmert, chairman of the Dallas County Republican organization, former state party vice chairman Robin Armstrong, an African-American physician from Dickinson in Galveston County, and Tom Mechler of Amarillo, the party finance chairman since 2010. The 62-member Republican Executive Committee elected Mechler on the third secret ballot in a special meeting in Austin.^[13] Mechler and Cathie Adams had lost the chairmanship race to Munisteri at the 2010 convention in Dallas.

To retain the chairmanship, Mechler must be again elected in 2016 by delegates to the regular state Republican convention, which will be held May 12–14 in Dallas.^[14][15]

Woodfill is now challenging Mechler for a full term as Texas GOP chairman at the forthcoming state convention. A resolution over secession from the United States, which is opposed by Mechler, is expected to be debated at the convention.^[16] In this race against Mechler, Woodfill carries the backing of such conservative groups as Texas Home School Coalition, Texas Right to Life, Eagle Forum, the National Organization for Marriage, Concerned Women for America, the Houston Area Pastors Council, and Conservative Republicans of Texas, headed by physician Steven F. Hotze of Katy in Harris County.^[17]

References

1. "Jared Ryker Woodfill, V". search.ancesry.com. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
2. Campaign for Houston, Facebook
3. "Early voters say 'no' to Houston equal rights ordinance". KHOU. November 3, 2015. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
4. "Jared Woodfill Biography". mbasic.facebook.com. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
5. "2004 General Election Vote Totals" (PDF). Harris County, Texas.
6. "Texas House District 140". The Texas Tribune. August 4, 2006.
7. Polland, Gary (February 2, 2010). "Is It Time For a New GOP Chair in Harris County?". Texas Conservative Review.
8. "2010 Republican Primary Vote Totals" (PDF). Harris County, Texas.
9. Moran, Chris (December 18, 2009). "Claims of missing cash fuel race for Harris GOP chair". The Houston Chronicle. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
10. "Kiah Collier, UPDATED: Paul Bettencourt says he predicted Emmett's whopper donation, February 26, 2014". The Houston Chronicle. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
11. "Kiah Collier, Challenger wins GOP chair race, March 4, 2014". The Houston Chronicle. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
12. "Endorsements". paulbettencourt.com. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
13. "Tom Mechler elected new leader of Texas Republicans". Houston Chronicle. March 8, 2015. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
14. Brian M. Rosenthal (March 8, 2015). "Tom Mechler elected new leader of Texas Republican Party". The Houston Chronicle. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
15. "Tom Mechler Elected Texas GOP Chairman". breitbart.com. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
16. Douglas Ernst. "Texas GOP officials urge statewide secession vote: Surge in support over last 4 years". World Net Daily. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
17. Gary M. Polland. "You Can Judge a Candidate By the Company He Keeps". Texas Conservative Review. Retrieved April 17, 2016.