SAN ANTONIO – Election Day may be over, but there are still some questions left unanswered and ballots that need to be counted in certain states.
Leaders from both state political parties joined us Sunday on Leading SA to reflect on the Texas elections and react to Joe Biden being named the president-elect.
Retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel Allen West, the chair of the Texas GOP, said although Election Day is technically over, some states are still counting the votes, and may even undergo ballot recounts.
“You still have some states that are counting. You still have to have a canvassing of the votes and up the ballots and then you still have to have a certification. So I think that we still have some more of that process to go on. And as the president’s statement did say, that there are going to be triggered mandatory recounts,” Allen West said.
West said he believes the Democratic process still needs to play out.
On the other side, Dr. Carla Brailey, vice-chair of the Texas Democrats, was excited about the future of the national leadership of the president-elect and vice president-elect.
“I’m absolutely elated as a Black woman to see a Black woman be selected as vice president-elect; just means so much. While we have been shattering the glass ceiling because we still have work to do, we have definitely broken that ceiling,” Dr. Brailey said.
Texas had been at the top of a lot of political pundits' minds as a possible swing state in this election, but the Chair of the Texas GOP said the thought of Texas going blue didn’t even cross his mind.
“Absolutely not, because when you look at the policies being promoted by the Democrat Party, they are policies that are not beneficial to the great state of Texas,” West said. “As a matter of fact, when you had Vice President Biden and the presidential debate talk about transitioning from oil and gas and you know that Kamala Harris is a co-sponsor of Green New Deal. That does not bode well for the Texas economy, nor for our oil and gas industry, which has made America energy independent and a net exporter of energy resources.”
Dr. Brailey says although Texas didn’t turn blue during this year’s election, she believes some things “were changed locally.”
“We’ve heard all this year that Texas is the biggest battleground state and we now know that Texas is a seriously serious state that’s moving forward. That is not red. I think one could argue that we’re purple, but we had some gains all across the state of Texas, did not get exactly what we wanted in terms of a blue wave, but we made sure that things were changed locally,” Dr. Brailey said. “Texas just was not quite ready to take that leap.”
You can watch the full interviews with West and Brailey in the video player above.
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