Tom Mechler
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The information about this individual was current as of the 2016 Republican National Convention. Please contact us with any updates. |
| Tom Mechler | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Role: | Chair |
| Location: | Amarillo, Texas |
| Affiliation: | Republican |
| Education: | •Texas A&M University •University of Pennsylvania |
| Website: | Official website |
Tom Mechler is a Republican Party activist, and the former chair of the Republican Party of Texas. Prior to his appointment as chair, Mechler served the party as treasurer, platform committee chair, state executive committee member, and county chair.[1]
Career
Tom Mechler earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University in 1980 and an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. Mechler worked for Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), a U.S.-based oil company, for ten years, including seven years in Alaska. He serves as president of Manna Services Inc., a Texas oil and gas production company and consulting firm.[1]
Mechler has been involved in Republican politics in Texas for 30 years. He served as a Republican county chair for 12 years and rose to a position on the Republican Party of Texas' State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) as a representative from Texas State Senate District 28 from 2002 to 2006. In 2005, former Governor of Texas Rick Perry (R) appointed Mechler to the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, the supervising body of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Mechler served on the TDCJ board for nine years, including five years as the board's vice chairman. Following a third-place finish in the 2010 race for chair of the Republican Party of Texas, Mechler was appointed party treasurer. He also served as the party's platform committee chair during the 2012 and 2014 state conventions.[1][2][3][4][5]
Mechler was elected chair of the Republican Party of Texas in March 2015, following the departure of his predecessor, Steve Munisteri, to serve as an advisor on Senator Rand Paul's 2016 presidential campaign. Mechler's campaign platform focused on the need to increase the party's minority outreach efforts across the state. He also highlighted a desire to rework the party platform in order to make it more accessible to the general public. In his victory remarks, Mechler called for an end to divisiveness within the party by building cohesion between establishment and tea party members.[4][6]
2016 Republican National Convention
- See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
| Tom Mechler | |
| Republican National Convention, 2016 | |
| Status: | RNC delegate |
| State: | Texas |
| Bound to: | Donald Trump |
| 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 | |
Mechler was an RNC delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Texas. Mechler was one of 48 delegates from Texas bound by state party rules to support Donald Trump at the convention.[7] As of July 13, 2016, Trump had approximately 1,542 delegates. The winner of the Republican nomination needed the support of 1,237 delegates. Trump formally won the nomination on July 19, 2016.
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.[8][9]
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.[8][9]
Top influencers by state
Influencers in American politics are power players who help get candidates elected, put through policy proposals, cause ideological changes, and affect popular perceptions. They can take on many forms: politicians, lobbyists, advisors, donors, corporations, industry groups, labor unions, single-issue organizations, nonprofits, to name a few.
In 2016, Ballotpedia identified Tom Mechler as a top influencer by state. We identified top influencers across the country through several means, including the following:
- Local knowledge of our professional staff
- Surveys of activists, thought leaders and journalists from across the country and political spectrum
- Outreach to political journalists in each state who helped refine our lists
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Tom Mechler'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Tom Mechler, "About Tom," accessed April 1, 2016
- ↑ Texas GOP, "State Chairman Tom Mechler," accessed April 1, 2016
- ↑ Texas GOP, "State Republican Executive Committee," accessed April 1, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Austin-American Statesman, "State GOP picks Tom Mechler, pledging minority outreach, as new chair," March 7, 2015
- ↑ Texas Department of Criminal Justice, "Texas Board of Criminal Justice," accessed April 1, 2016
- ↑ The Dallas Morning News, "Republican Party of Texas Chairman Munisteri leaving post to join Rand Paul's political team," January 29, 2015
- ↑ Texas GOP, "National Convention," May 19, 2016
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016
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