State GOP Boss Hatches Committee
to Begin Massive Rebuilding in Texas
Capitol Inside
November 8, 2026
Texas GOP Chair D'Rinda Randall informed the party faithful on Sunday night that she's assembling a group of "statewide leaders" to examine what went wrong in the midterm election last week when Democrats turned the Lone Star State blue after three entire decades of Republican rule.
Randall, who won the party leadership post in June, said in a post on X that the Texas Mandate Committee would be an "invitation-only" collection of "statewide leaders" who will conduct the post-mortem on the midterm vote and devise a plan with the goal of winning the state back.
Randall didn't say if she was referring to the same leaders who lost re-election races last week when Democrats swept all of 15 statewide races on the Texas ballot. The only Republicans who will still hold offices that are elected statewide in Texas in 2027 are U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and a couple of railroad commissioners who weren't on Tuesday's ballot.
The state GOP boss could have been referring to party leaders as the people she's invited to participate at the new committee's inaugural meeting that will concentrate on "accountability, strategy, and action," according to Randall's social media statement.
Randall said she wasn't trying to play the blame game in which so many of her fellow Texas Republicans have been immersed since the historic drubbing that the Democrats inflicted here last week. But the state party chief also sought to distance herself from the finger-pointing that's been under way in earnest since the Republicans fumbled the nation's second largest state away to Democrats with victories by James Talarico, Gina Hinojosa and Vikki Goodwin in fights for U.S. Senate, governor and lieutenant governor and the flipping of the Texas House majority as gravy.
"This is not about placing blame," Randall declared. "It is about planning to win."
But Randall appeared to try to immunize herself from the blame game. "My responsibility is to TEXAS, and that is where my focus will remain. "I have been your Chairwoman for just 150 days, and let me be clear: "I WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED," she said in all capital letters with bold text. "I WILL NOT BACK DOWN. AND I WILL NOT BE DISTRACTED FROM OUR MISSION."
Randall could be setting herself up for criticism by excluding people from the investigative and planning panel except those she prefers. Rank-and-file Republicans have long seen the state party as a clique of people who don't represent the GOP electorate. But she sought to head it off pre-emptively.
"We will not win Texas back by attacking each other," Randall added. "We don't have time for political power plays, infighting, and personal attacks. They only threaten the Republican Party and the seats we hold."
And the number of seats the GOP holds in Texas was slashed dramatically at the polls last week. Talarico captured the U.S. Senate seat that Republican Ken Paxton had been seeking. Hinojosa unseated Governor Greg Abbott. Goodwin ousted Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. Democrat Sarah Eckhardt knocked off Comptroller Don Huffines and Ben Flores defeated Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham while GOP contenders Nate Sheets, Mayes Middleton and Bo French lost fight for agriculture commissioner, attorney general and a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission. The Democrats flipped 20 Texas House seat and two on a congressional map that Republicans in Austin redrew last year for a five-seat gain.
Cruz said during the weekend that Republicans could take Texas back in 2028. But expectations for a Phoenix rise from the dumpster fire that the GOP is now in just two years could be more delusional than Abbott, Patrick, Paxton and most of the other Republicans here appeared to be throughout the year until the Democrats took back the state with a vengeance in last week's midterm election.
Randall skirted the elephant in the room - President Donald Trump - who did more to hurt the Republicans that any president in the history of the U.S. has ever done to their own party. With Trump in the White House for two more years, the Republicans in Texas can probably expect a beating here in 2028 that's worse than they suffered this year.
more to come ...
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