Jeff Strater (via Facebook)
The Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus elected new officers for a two year term beginning July 1. The DFW area is well represented among new officers.
Stonewall Democrats of Dallas’ Jeff Strater was elected president and Tarrant County Stonewall Democrats Sue Spell will become vice president.
Brandon Vance, who is president of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, will be secretary of the statewide organization. Maggie Ellis was elected treasurer. She is a member of Stonewall Democrats of Austin and the only officer not from North Texas.
Strater succeeds Jay Narey as president. Narey is a former president of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, which is the largest club affiliated with the Democratic Party in Texas.
“I have every confidence in the make up of our new Executive Committee, our President-elect Jeff Strater is a decades long Stonewall member and highly experienced in Democratic Politics both locally as well as on the State and National levels and he has my full support,” Narey said. “I am also excited about Brandon Vance our new Secretary-elect who becomes the first African American LGBT member to serve on the Executive Committee. This year were able to achieve more gender and racial diversity with the incoming leadership team – which was one of our goals and something I’m very proud of.”
Narey explained the roles of the local clubs and the statewide organization.
“The Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus serves as an umbrella organization — though Stonewall Democrats as an organization has long been a bottom-up rather than a top-down institution,” Narey said. “We believe strongly in giving our local chapters local autonomy as they are much more familiar with the political lay of the land than we could possibly be in a State as large as Texas.”
The by-laws of the statewide organization prohibit it from getting involved in or endorsing in primary or runoff elections.
“As a statewide group, we focus more on supporting the entire Democratic slate of candidates in the general election,” he said.
Another important role of the statewide organization is assisting in the development of new local chapters.
The statewide organization helps in organizing the state convention every two years. The Texas Democratic Convention begins today and is virtual. Anyone can attend virtually at TexasDemocraticConvention.com.
— David Taffet
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