Bryan Mayor Pro Tem James Edge has issued a response to the Brazos County Republican Party Executive Commission’s Resolution of Condemnation released yesterday. The resolution was in response to Edge publicly endorsing Democratic candidate James Talarico in the race for Senate and can be read by clicking HERE. Edge issued the following response via Facebook which you can read below: The Brazos County Republican Party Executive Committee, under the leadership of Russ Ford, has voted to publicly “condemn” me because I endorsed James Talarico for the United States Senate. I have to admit, I’m a little flattered. A month before a consequential election, with plenty of important things for a political organization to be doing, they decided that James Edge is the problem that requires their attention. I suppose everyone eventually gets their moment in the sun. Seriously, I think their decision to attempt to retaliate against me (for exercising my 1st Amendment rights) demonstrates just the type of destructive, divisive, hyper-partisanship that I, along with many others, want to get away from. And I am certainly in good company. The Brazos County Republican Party has developed something of a tradition of attacking Republicans who don’t conform sufficiently to their prevailing orthodoxy. John Cornyn. John Raney. Kyle Kacal. Dade Phelan. Joe Straus. And others who, at various times, have been deemed insufficiently conservative—or insufficiently willing to follow their extreme positions, have all been attacked by these same people. The irony is that the Republican Party I joined—and the Republican Party I still believe in—was never supposed to be about division and retribution. It was supposed to be about principles. Limited government. Fiscal responsibility. Individual liberty. The rule of law. A strong national defense. Free markets. Constitutional government. A few weeks ago, I proudly endorsed James Talarico for the United States Senate. I did so knowing full well that some Republicans would disagree with me. That is their right. But I made my decision based on what I believe is best for Texas and for our country. I don’t regret it, and I am not going to apologize for it. Since making that endorsement, I have received an extraordinary amount of encouragement from friends, neighbors, elected officials, former colleagues and others across our community. Much of it has been private—which I completely understand in today’s political environment—but it has been remarkably consistent. And that tells me something. There are a lot more people in this community who are tired of the politics of division, corruption, intimidation, purity tests and personal attacks than some people in the local Republican Party seem to realize. The Brazos County GOP appears to believe that political success comes from subtraction and division—identifying Republicans who aren’t sufficiently “right-wing,” pushing them out, and then congratulating themselves for having a more ideologically pure party. I believe the opposite. You don’t build a majority by continually shrinking the tent. For years, I have watched good Republicans—people who knocked on doors, made phone calls, raised money, worked elections and devoted countless hours to the party—walk away from the local organization. Many of them still consider themselves Republicans. They simply don’t recognize the Republican Party they once worked so hard to build. I haven’t walked away. I haven’t changed my principles. And I haven’t changed parties. I have simply exercised my right—and my responsibility—to make my own judgment about who I believe should represent Texas in the United States Senate. If the Brazos County Republican Party wants to “condemn” me for doing that, they are certainly entitled to do so. But they should understand something: A public condemnation doesn’t intimidate me. It doesn’t silence me. And it certainly doesn’t make me regret my decision. If anything, it has given me one more opportunity to explain why I made it. I remain a Republican because I still believe in the principles that brought me to the party in the first place. And I intend to keep fighting for those principles—with or without the approval of the Brazos County Republican Executive Committee. After all, I didn’t get into public service to be told what to think. I got into it to think for myself. Edge appeared on The Infomaniacs in September after making his endorsement. You can hear that conversation by clicking HERE.
