Scudder Wins Full Term as State Dem Chair
after Accusations of Irregularities at Party
Capitol Inside
June 27, 2026
CORPUS CHRISTI - The Texas Democratic Convention ended a three-day run in this coastal city on Saturday as showcase for missed opportunities, wasted time and questionable moves before Kendall Scudder's overwhelming re-election on Saturday as the state party chair after allegations of wrongdoing by former staff.
Scudder, who'd moved the state party headquarters to Dallas as his first major act of business, won a full two-year term as the party boss in Texas in a vote of delegates that was conducted online for the first time. The activists in Corpus Christi also kept the status quo in place with Dallas activist Shay Wyrick-Cathey's re-election as the state party's vice-chair.
Scudder's chief opponents in the leadership fight had accused him of trying to silence them with a rules change that denied other candidates for the leadership post the opportunity to make their case to the delegates on the convention floor. Scudder appeared on stage multiple times in the course of party duties in contrast.
But the incumbent chair's two most formidable opponents - Monique Alcala and Marco Orrantia - extended an olive branch on Saturday night in the wake of Scudder's easy victory in a bid to keep the post that he won in March last year ina vote of the State Democratic Executive Committee. Alcala had been the executive director at the Texas Democratic Party when Scudder became the organization's chairman. Orrantia is a former Travis County precinct chair and ex-TDP staffer who'd accused Scudder of dereliction amid claims of mismanagement stemming from the management of a filing system for candidate for party positions.
Alcala and Orrantia congratulated Scudder for achieving a goal that they said he been a lifelong dream for him. But the former party chair contenders repeated some of the problems they'd sought to use against Scudder in the leadership competition.
"Our campaigns shined a light on serious allegations of union-busting, financial improprieties, and misuse of TDP's resources at the State Party," Alcala and Orrantia said in a joint statement. "We are heartened that our campaigns helped fuel the successful elections of multiple reform-minded candidates to the SDEC and TDP executive offices. The work of oversight and accountability is vital to winning Texas in 2026."
The delegates who backed Scudder were undaunted by accusations of illegal activity with the masking of the organization's debt in financial reports that the TDP filed with the state. Austin lawyer Bill Aleshire - a former Democratic tax assessor-collector in Travis County - lobbed the allegations in complaint to the Texas Ethics Commission in May. Eleven former Texas Democratic Party staff members sent a letter to Scudder urging him to drop a bid for a full term as state chair.
While some Democrats in Corpus Christi expected the race for state chair to be much closer than it turned out to be, Scudder all but eliminated the possibility of a successful challenge with a decision to bar candidates for the leadership post from addressing the full convention like the GOP's candidates for state party chair have typically had the opportunity to do.
more to come ...
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