Tom Mechler

Thomas Richard Mechler (born c. 1957), a petroleum and natural gas consultant from Amarillo, Texas, is the former chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. He was chosen on the second secret ballot by the 62-member Republican State Executive Committee meeting in Austin on March 7, 2015, after the resignation of Steve Munisteri of Houston, who had been the chairman since 2010. Under Mechler's tenure, the GOP held all statewide offices in Texas.

Background

Mechler graduated with an engineering degree from Texas A&M University in College Station and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has formerly resided in connection with his employment in Wasilla, Alaska, Angel Fire, a village in Colfax County, New Mexico, and in Texas: Kerens in Navarro County, San Antonio, Claude, Pampa, and Amarillo.^[1]

Political life

To win the state chairmanship, Mechler defeated several intraparty rivals, including former vice chairman and current Republican National Committeeman Robin Armstrong, an African-American physician from Dickinson in Galveston County; Wade Emmert, the Dallas County party chairman, and Jared Woodfill, the former Harris County chairman known for his support of social conservatism. Woodfill was unseated as chairman in Harris County in 2014 by Paul Simpson. In 2010, Munisteri defeated Mechler at the party's state convention in Dallas, and Mechler instead was named the party treasurer and was credited with bringing stability to party finances. Mechler was elected in 2016 by delegates to the regular state Republican convention, which was held in Dallas from May 12–14.^[2][3] At the state convention on May 13, 2016, held at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Mechler turned back another challenge from Jared Woodfill, the former Harris County chairman, in the race for a full term as Texas GOP chairman. The race had become heated when Dr. Steven F. Hotze, a Woodfill supporter from Houston, said that Mechler supported a "disgusting homosexual agenda", a charge that former chairman Steve Munisteri called "despicable". Woodfill withdrew when twenty-seven of the thirty-one state Senate districts supported Mechler's retention and declared his own backing of Mechler.^[4]

Mechler has been the Republican chairmen in two Texas counties,^[5] one of which is Gray County, which includes Pampa, the second largest city in the Texas Panhandle. To succeed himself as party treasurer, Mechler tapped Republican activist and assistant treasurer Thomas "Tom" Washington of Denton.^[6]

In 2005, then Governor Rick Perry appointed Mechler to the board of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice where he served for nine years, the last five as the Board Vice-Chair. Mechler has served as a Volunteer Prison Chaplain since 2002.^[2] Governor Greg Abbott said that he expects Mechler to "strengthen the party [and] continue the momentum of our state's Republican victories and preserve the very values that have made Texas the greatest state in the nation to live, work and raise a family."^[2] Mechler opposes marriage of same-sex couples and once said he would cancel his subscription to his home-town newspaper, the Amarillo Globe-News, were it to place in its pages a picture of two men or two women kissing each other.^[7]

Mechler has been a grassroots leader since first becoming involved in Republican Party politics in 1986 in Wasilla, Alaska where he was first elected as a Precinct Chair, followed by his election as the District 16 Vice-Chair and subsequently becoming the District 16 Chair and member of the Alaska Central Committee. He held these positions until leaving Alaska to attend the Wharton Business School in 1990. He became reinvolved as a Republican grassroots leader when he was elected the Gray County GOP Chair in 1993 (Pampa, Texas), a position he held until he moved to Armstrong County in 2000. He became the County Chair in Claude, Texas in 2001, serving for a year when he was elected to the Texas State Republican Executive Committee where he served from 2002-2006. Mechler first became involved in politics because of his strong pro-life beliefs which he continues to hold to this day.

In his statement of resignation as state Republican chairman, Mechler cited time constraints and business and family matters. Having worked in 2016 to unify the Donald Trump and Ted Cruz factions in the Texas GOP, Mechler called for party unity and outreach in his departing statement. A successor for a two-year term will be chosen on June 3 at the state convention in Austin. Candidates expected to seek the position are Travis County chairman James Dickey,  Rick Figueroa of Brenham, and Mark Ramsey, a state committee member from Spring in Harris County.^[8]

The 62-member State Republican Executive Committee and the vice chair narrowly chose Dickey to succeed Mechler. Dickey polled thirty-two votes to thirty-one for rival Rick Figueroa.^[9]

References