A few weeks ago on March 6, over 60 Montgomery County GOP precinct chairs and conservative grassroots activists filed an amended petition in support of their writ of mandamus against Chairman Bryan Christ. Pending in the Texas Supreme Court, the petition alleges Christ failed to report properly elected precinct chairs to the Texas Secretary of State in violation of state election law. A writ of mandamus is a request for a court to mandate an official to do their job.
Texas law requires that party chairs keep an updated list of precinct chairs and vacancies with the Texas Secretary of State. Those documents are posted and made available for candidates, vendors, and others. As of this writing, no response from Christ was posted on the court’s website.
Long time Shenandoah resident Betty Anderson who has been the GOP Precinct 31 Chair for the past 18 years said, “I filed one of the many declarations of complaint, because, after attending almost every county GOP Executive Committee meeting for the past 25 years, I’ve never seen such extremely poor leadership by our Republican Party chairman.”
“I support this legal action to try to help resolve the most recent division now going on within our local party structure. Bryan Christ has either been negligent or willfully incompetent in chairing the Montgomery County Executive Committee (CEC) since he’s held this position for several years now. He has been continually unwilling to accept the will of the conservative majority CEC members. I’ve never seen this level of what appears to be ongoing division, lack of cooperation, and conflicts of interest within our party. He has not accurately reported many properly vetted and seated precinct chairs, which is one of his statutory duties.”
Anderson pointed out that Bryan’s wife, Kristin Nichole Christ, has been a political consultant for over 10 years and benefits financially from Bryan’s position as county chair and many Republican Party resources. “She has also recruited some republicans to run against other republican precinct chairs, especially if these precinct chairs have not supported her clients for election/reelection. This has been a family business which has been clearly divisive and a major conflict of interest. This division has severely impeded the CEC’s orderly participation in county elections and get-out-the-vote participation.”
Anderson said anyone who would like more information can reach her at andermom@gmail.com. Precinct 31 includes Shenandoah west of I-45, The Woodlands – Alden Woods and Grogan’s Mill, and south Conroe.
