Why I Support Ellen Loveless for CC GOP Chair

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

You might know that I endorse Ellen Loveless for party chair.  I have been asked to offer reasons why I take this position.  First, I will tell you that I spent hours talking with Howard Powers and Ellen Loveless.  They are both great people.  I sent a check to each of them at the beginning.  Finally, I decided Ellen would be the better choice.  To begin with, here are notes I took from a Candidate's Forum hosted by Collin County Patriots, 1-9-2024, Tuesday night at Collin College.

	Ellen Loveless	Howard Powers	Shelby Williams
Should it be possible to remove a bad County Chair?	Yes	Pass	No
Should we have closed primaries?	Yes	No	Yes
Should the Republican Party decide who can be on its ballot?	Yes	No	No
Should the CC GOP endorse in municipal elections?	Yes	Yes	No

I thought that these were important questions so I took notes and compared them to other people's notes, trying to be accurate.  I liked Ellen's answers to these questions.

I believe that our executive committee meetings will be more productive under Ellen.  Our productivity problems, from my observation, come from having the county party chair fight with the executive committee (EC).  The conflict has come from the chair trying to thwart the will of the executive committee.  Is the role of the chair to be a dictator or a facilitator?  We members of the executive committee, who are grassroots activists and citizens of Collin County, are educated, successful and independent minded people who won't be pushed around.

Quite a lot of men confuse leadership with bullying.  Two of our party chairs have tried to bully me, and I think that is why they were poor leaders, because they resorted too quickly to bullying others.  I do not believe Ellen Loveless will try and bully anyone.  Furthermore, I do not believe that she will allow herself to be bullied by others.  She has backbone.  She is feisty.

Our party chairs have, in my opinion, bent under pressure.  Most recently, Chair Abraham George, after the EC voted to ask Jim Pikl to resign as SD8 Committeeman, started working against the EC.  After the Pikl vote, we were not allowed to conduct business for 3 months.  That was a 3 month delay in endorsing the Republicans in the Princeton election for city council and ISD.  Voters were seen at the polls in Princeton holding push cards that showed our endorsement.  The work we do matters and we should not have a party chair that fights us.  I believe after the Pikl vote that pressure was applied to our chairman and he bent under the pressure.  That has to stop.  I believe Ellen will not bend under pressure because she has no ambitions for higher office. 

Moving beyond political reasons for supporting Ellen, there are qualitative reasons for supporting her.  I think she has a good heart.  She is chair of the prayer team.  She is a devout Christian, and I believe we need God's blessings in these difficult times.  Besides the American flag, her house flies the "Appeal to Heaven" flag.

That means something to me.  You can read about it here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Tree_Flag

Furthermore, she is supported by people I respect.  I was privileged to sit at her table at the Lincoln Day dinner, along with Sharron Albertson, Karl Voigtsberger, and Bunny Pounds.

There are a number of reasons, both political and personal, that led me to support Ellen Loveless for party chair.

She will be forward looking as the party chair, she will be cooperative instead of combative, and we will become more productive as a party.  I will be voting for her and I encourage you to join me in voting for Ellen Loveless for GOP chair.

Thank you for your time,

Robert Canright