» Virus muddles political conventions.

Leaders of Harris County’s parties eye online signups, postponements

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown plans for Harris County’s Democratic and Republican conventions into disarray this week and sent party officials scrambling to decide how they should select delegates for their statewide conventions later this year.

Both local parties are poised to hold their state Senate conventions Saturday, where members ordinarily would choose delegates and vote on resolutions that, if successful, would be added to the agenda at the state convention.

The parties are taking similar approaches to follow U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines discouraging gatherings of more than 10 people: Most Senate conventions appear likely to meet Saturday and adjourn almost immediately, with plans to reconvene again in at least eight weeks — the span for which the CDC has recommended that people avoid gathering.

The elongated procedure will allow convention officials to abide by state and party rules that require the meetings to take place, while avoiding human-to-human contact or prolonged exposure to other people.

Both state parties are stressing that delegates could be elected even if they do not attend their local conventions. The Texas Democratic Party is encouraging delegates to register online instead of showing up in person.

“Remember that the health and well-being of Texans is our top priority and many of our delegates fall into the most vulnerable categories for coronavirus complications,” Texas GOP Chair James Dickey said Monday on a teleconference call regarding the conventions. “The Republican Party of Texas will do our part to flatten the curve of the spread of this virus to the very best of our ability.”

The local conventions are organized by the county party in rural areas of Texas where Senate districts contain numerous counties, and by Senate district chairs in urban areas such as Harris County, which contains all or part of eight Senate districts.

The structure is intended to align with both state parties’ executive committees, the governing bodies made up of committee members from each Senate district. The executive committee members are elected at each party’s state convention.

The plan for the Harris County Republican Party largely came into focus Tuesday, after Dickey revealed new details in the Monday evening call. On the call, he said the state party intends to reschedule its convention — currently set for May 14-16 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston — for July 13-18 at the same location, contingent on an executive committee vote next month.

On the same call, Dickey urged county and Senate district chairs to postpone their meetings for at least eight weeks.

Under a plan finalized Tuesday, seven of the eight Republican conventions in Harris County Senate districts will be postponed for at least eight weeks, though the meetings still are set to gavel in only to be swiftly adjourned. The lone exception, Senate District 6, intends to meet at the pavilion outside the Baytown Community Center, instead of inside as originally planned.

The Harris County Democratic Party, meanwhile, had intended to hold a “joint” Senate convention involving seven of the eight local Senate districts. Members from those districts still are scheduled to meet at the George R. Brown Saturday for abridged conventions, where members will be allowed to register as delegates in person. The convention also will be streamed on Facebook, according to DJ Ybarra, executive director of the Harris County Democratic Party.

"The idea was to have a big convention with all the Senate districts in Harris County coming together at the GRB, breaking out into separate rooms, making it more like a state or national convention," Ybarra said. "We were going to have some speakers come in, and all of that sort of stuff.

All of that, obviously, went out the window with the health advisories and everything that's happened over the past few weeks."

Potential delegates also may sign up online for 30 days after the convention. The state party is instructing counties and Senate districts that do not vote on resolutions to send the proposed resolutions to a state committee that will determine whether to put them on the statewide convention agenda.

The Texas Democratic Party is scheduled to hold its convention June 4 to 6 in San Antonio. Abhi Rahman, a spokesman for the party, said the TDP’s digital team is preparing to hold “the biggest digital convention in the United States,” instead of rescheduling, if the city of San Antonio extends its ban on large gatherings through the convention date.