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Eric Opiela
Eric Opiela was a Republican candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner in the 2014 elections.
Biography
Opiela is a rancher and attorney. He is Chairman of the Eminent Domain Committee of the South Texans’ Property Rights Association. Opiela served as redistricting counsel to the Texas Republican Congressional Delegation. From 2008-2009, he was Executive Director of the Republican Party of Texas and served as its Associate General Counsel at the time of his candidacy.[1]
Education
- Bachelor's degree, University of Texas at Austin
- J.D., University of Texas School of Law
Elections
2014
Opiela ran for election to the office of Texas Agriculture Commissioner. Opiela lost the Republican nomination in the primary on March 4, 2014.[2]
- Primary
| Texas Agriculture Commissioner Republican Primary, 2014 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | ||
 Sid Miller |
34.6% | 411,560 | ||
| Tommy Merritt |
20.9% | 249,440 | ||
| Eric Opiela | 17.4% | 207,222 | ||
| Joe Cotten | 14.6% | 174,348 | ||
| J. Allen Carnes | 12.4% | 148,222 | ||
| Total Votes | 1,190,792 | |||
| Election results via Texas Secretary of State. | ||||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
2016 Republican National Convention
- See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
| Eric Opiela | |
| Republican National Convention, 2016 | |
| Status: | At-large delegate |
| State: | Texas |
| Bound to: | Ted Cruz |
| Delegates to the RNC 2016 | |
| Calendar and delegate rules overview • Types of delegates • Delegate rules by state • State election law and delegates • Delegates by state | |
Opiela was an at-large delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Texas. Opiela was one of 104 delegates from Texas bound by state party rules to support Ted Cruz at the convention.[3] Cruz suspended his campaign on May 3, 2016. At the time, he had approximately 546 bound delegates. For more on what happened to his delegates, see this page.
Delegate rules
At-large delegates from Texas to the national convention were selected by a state nominations committee and approved by the Texas State GOP Convention in May 2016. District-level delegates were elected by congressional districts at the state convention and then approved by the convention as a whole. At the national convention, all delegates were bound on the first ballot unless their candidate withdrew from the race or released his or her delegates. A delegate remained bound on the second ballot if his or her candidate received at least 20 percent of the total vote on the first ballot. On the third and subsequent ballots, all delegates were to become unbound.
Texas primary results
- See also: Presidential election in Texas, 2016
| Texas Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
| Jeb Bush | 1.2% | 35,420 | 0 | |
| Ben Carson | 4.2% | 117,969 | 0 | |
| Chris Christie | 0.1% | 3,448 | 0 | |
| Ted Cruz |
43.8% | 1,241,118 | 104 | |
| Carly Fiorina | 0.1% | 3,247 | 0 | |
| Lindsey Graham | 0.1% | 1,706 | 0 | |
| Elizabeth Gray | 0.2% | 5,449 | 0 | |
| Mike Huckabee | 0.2% | 6,226 | 0 | |
| John Kasich | 4.2% | 120,473 | 0 | |
| Rand Paul | 0.3% | 8,000 | 0 | |
| Marco Rubio | 17.7% | 503,055 | 3 | |
| Rick Santorum | 0.1% | 2,006 | 0 | |
| Donald Trump | 26.8% | 758,762 | 48 | |
| Other | 1% | 29,609 | 0 | |
| Totals | 2,836,488 | 155 | ||
| Source: Texas Secretary of State and CNN | ||||
Delegate allocation
Texas had 155 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Of this total, 108 were district-level delegates (three for each of the state's 36 congressional districts). District-level delegates were allocated on a proportional basis; a candidate had to win at least 20 percent of the primary vote in a district in order to be eligible to receive any of that district's delegates. If only one candidate met the 20 percent threshold in a district, he or she won all of the district's delegates. If two candidates met this threshold, the first place finisher received two of the district's delegates; the second place finisher received the remaining delegate. If no candidate won 20 percent of the vote, the top three finishers in a district each received one of the district's delegates. If a candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote in a district, he or she received all of the district's delegates.[4][5]
Of the remaining 47 delegates, 44 served at large. At-large delegates were allocated on a proportional basis; a candidate had to win at least 20 percent of the statewide primary vote in order to be eligible to receive any of the state's at-large delegates. If only one candidate broke the 20 percent threshold, the second place finisher still received a portion of the state's at-large delegates. If a candidate won more than 50 percent of the statewide vote, he or she received all of the state's at-large delegates. In addition, three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates) served as bound delegates to the Republican National Convention.[4][5]
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "Eric + Opiela + Texas + Agriculture"
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Eric Opiela, "Meet Eric," accessed December 12, 2013
- ↑ Quorum Report, "ERIC OPIELA ANNOUNCES RUN FOR AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER," June 25, 2013
- ↑ Texas GOP, "National Convention," May 19, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016
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