The Hopkins County Republican Party held its “Old Time Political Rally” on Saturday at the Hopkins County Regional Civic Center. Chairman of the party, Donnie Wisenbaker welcomed guests to the rally, standing in as host for the occasion. Wisenbaker thanked Sheriff Lewis Tatum for providing security for the event, but he continued by saying, “this is probably the safest place to be in Sulphur Springs,” hinting at the crowd’s attitudes towards concealed-carry. Expanding on his appreciation of the second amendment, he stated, “we need to fight for those freedoms.” The Gun Owners of America joined the party, spotlighted by guest speaker, Stephen Willeford, now a national spokesman for the organization. After responding to a crisis with his own weapon, Willeford saved lives during the Sutherland Springs Church shooting on Nov. 5, 2017. He shared the chilling details of the event and ended with the importance of gun ownership in America. “You are your own first responder,” he stated. Highlighting the need to take action, Willeford shared, “Chris Wordman, the praise ministry leader was shot in the back and was instantly paralyzed. The shooter walked over to him and aimed his pistol directly at Wordman. At the same moment, Willeford yelled out as he reached the entrance to the church. The shooter immediately dropped his weapon.” Willeford saved the life of Wordman by taking action into his own hands. “It took 19 minutes for responders to arrive,” he stated, “our church didn’t have that time – 26 people died that day, 20 more were injured, only three people walked out of that church without a bullet.” During the opening of the rally, Dr. Troy Jackson shared a powerful invocation. Once the Regional Director of Training and Engagement for the Republican Party, he is now the director over the entire state of Texas.
Wisenbaker stated, “if you’ve been around him very long, then you’ll understand why they have him over the whole state – there is more energy in that guy than there is in 50 of us.”
Brian Slaton, State Representative of Texas House District 2 participated in the rally. Slaton thanked Brad Cummins for his singing performance of the National Anthem and rendition of “God Bless the USA.”
Urging the Republican voters to stay unified, Slaton challenged them to take others with them to the polls, showing up in numbers. “Come November, we need Gregg Abbott to win. Make sure you’re getting more people to vote than you did in the last election.”
Following Slaton’s rally speech, Sheriff Lewis Tatum spoke about providing security to local schools and the need to close the southern borders of Texas. Wisenbaker stated in his introduction, “we have one of the hardest working sheriffs in the state of Texas – we’re all proud of him.”
Tatum opened by saying, “we have been working hard with the schools.” Regarding intensive security checks on social media, he mentioned, “if you make a threat of any kind against a school or another student, we’re going to address it right then. If we get it off social media at 1:30 in the morning, we’re going to be at your house at 1:35.” Tatum focused on the need for closure and secure border patrol as a part of the Republican party campaign. Referring to southern borders, Tatum stated, “it’s like a third world country -when I was an investigator, a gram of methamphetamines was $100, now it’s $10.” Continuing, he stated, “we are lucky to live in Hopkins County, we are blessed – all of our elected officials work hard together. If we didn’t all work together, we couldn’t do it.”
In following, Hopkins County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1, Judge B.J. Teer presented an inspiring speech.
He stated, “our moral values are on the line – the cause is that we have got to get ready to go to battle. We must be ready to fight for what we believe.”
Also urging improved votership, Teer noted, “it’s going to take all of us – it’s not going to be someone else. We need to be ready to fight the war, and we need to be educated to fight the war. If we don’t stand up and fight then all our rights are going to disappear.”
Director of Grassroots Engagement for Texans for Abbott, Rhonda Anderson stated, “we need men and women that are brave enough to get involved in the elections through their actions.” She urged everyone to commit to knocking on 25 doors in their neighborhood to get them to vote. “We have to get our young people involved,” she added.
Bowie County Republican Chairman, Gary Singleton stated, “our founding fathers sacrificed a lot to give us freedoms that we have today, and our rights that we enjoy today. We have to fight again for our independence. We have got to mobilize. We have got to make sure our voice is heard and that our cause is known.”
Hopkins County Courtat- Law, Judge Clay Harrison noted, “it is the spirit of freedom that is ultimately going to take the country back.” Judge Robert Newsom also delivered an inspiring speech. He began by stating, “it is possible to turn things around, but it is possible to lose our freedoms.” Continuing, he added, “we must win. This is the most important election of our lives. We must win. We can change things.” Following Newsom, Judge Northcutt stated, “it has become my calling in life to follow Robert Newsom.” Northcutt provided a couple of eye-opening events in election history. He began by saying, “just like now locally, where most of our elections are determined in the primary – and by the way that’s a little scary – all the local elections for all intents and purposes here, people might not think it’s important to go and vote in November for state-wide elections and that’s a scary proposition.”
Recalling 2004, he noted, “Frank Long was going to be retiring as District Attorney. Two men, Martin Brady and Heath Hyde filed to run for that office. After counting, Brady led the votes by 11. Hyde paid for a recount, which ended in gaining 10 votes in Delta, Franklin and Hopkins Counties. Brady only won the election by one vote. '
Regarding the upcoming election, Northcutt said, “this election is so very important.” He also recalled the 1948 election when Coke Stevenson, the longest-serving governor in the history of Texas, and Lyndon Johnson, both advanced to the run-off. “The reality is this, at the end of the day, Lyndon Johnson won by 87 votes in a statewide election,” Northcutt stated, “people stayed home – the voter turnout for that election was horrific.” He stated that he would argue that this particular election between Coke and Lyndon may be the most consequential election nationally, perhaps in the last century or more. “If Johnson would not have won, he would not have become the senate majority leader,” he stated, “he would not have been vice president or president – who knows what happens with Vietnam. Who knows what happens with the programs that he built, the ‘Great Society’ and that sort of thing. We’ve got to vote.”
Cole Hefner, Representative of Texas House District 5 stated, “in 2018, we had Beto O’Rourke running for the United States senate against Ted Cruz and we found out that not all parts of the state believe like ours,” regarding rural east Texas. He mentioned, “when those votes came in that night, if you took out east and west Texas counties, the Democrats – statewide – had won by 200,000 votes. When you add east and west Texas, our statewide party won by about 200,000 votes. So, while we’re 80 percent Republican here, we’ve got to show up to vote.”
After an exciting and encouraging rally, Wisenbaker closed by stating, “it’s time for all of you to go out and do what needs to be done. We’re not asking you to lay down your life. We’re asking you to vote, asking you to get your neighbors to vote – we can’t do it without your help. We want to be able to have meetings like this and our grandchildren to have meetings like this, and the only way we’re going to accomplish that is to get out and vote.”