2026 Bylaws Committee Draft Report
- Thread starter Paul Darr
- Start date
Jessi Cowart
At-Large Representative
Thank you for sharing this @Paul Darr. I am tagging in @Anastasia Wilford because I know she serves on this committee with you.
I guess my main concern is around the February 2028 National Convention, and the fact that that will be occurring prior to our 2028 State Convention which is normally in April per the Texas Election Code. At present, our bylaws state that SLEC would elect national convention delegates if not elected at state convention, but it was my understanding that the Bylaws Committee intended to come up with an alternate proposal that would not put delegate election solely in SLEC's hands.
Did Bylaws Committee decide not to take up this issue? If so, can you share the reasoning for this?
I guess my main concern is around the February 2028 National Convention, and the fact that that will be occurring prior to our 2028 State Convention which is normally in April per the Texas Election Code. At present, our bylaws state that SLEC would elect national convention delegates if not elected at state convention, but it was my understanding that the Bylaws Committee intended to come up with an alternate proposal that would not put delegate election solely in SLEC's hands.
Did Bylaws Committee decide not to take up this issue? If so, can you share the reasoning for this?
Anastasia Wilford
Executive Director, SLEC Member
I don't know where that understanding came from, because I don't remember that being brought up in any official capacity. However, if it was considered informally at one of our working meetings, it could've just been one that I missed. What I do know is that when the committee elected 3 new members back in July 2025, we went back and reviewed all of the proposals previously passed by the committee and all other proposals that any member marked as "ready" and voted on them with our new composition, and among those it just wasn't brought up by anyone.
I've reviewed the committee's Scratchpad (the place we threw ideas to workshop them, much like how the Policy Committee worked through ideas) and didn't find a proposal about national delegate selection in the case that the national convention happens before the state convention (even going through the version history).
While the committee has issued our preliminary report, we are still free to consider other proposals, so if there's something you (or anyone) would like taken up, I would recommend emailing bylaws@lptexas.org with your proposal, particularly by March 14, 2026 as that is the deadline we set for submitting proposals to the committee per LPTexas Bylaws.
Paul Darr
SLEC Member
I had a Proposal for the Committee for conducting a special delegate selection convention. It did not have wide support in the committee.
The text of the proposal was:
V.d.10.iv Delegate Nominating Conventions
A. If the national Libertarian Party Convention is scheduled to take place earlier than the Party's Annual Convention for that same year, the SLEC shall call a Delegate Nominating Convention for the sole purpose of electing national Convention Delegates and Alternates no later than thirty (30) days prior to the date of the national Convention. No other business may be heard at this Special Delegation Nominating Convention.
B. The delegate and alternate allocations to the Delegate Nominating Convention shall use the same allocations from the immediate previous State Convention for each county and the same allocation method for counties not previously allocated delegates.
This would have replaced the existing section.
Anastasia Wilford
Executive Director, SLEC Member
Paul has corrected me that it was most recently in a version from November 13, 2025 when it was still marked as "in progress", so frankly I can't speak to why it didn't go further than that. 
Anastasia Wilford
Executive Director, SLEC Member
Following up on this, the Bylaws Committee will be considering 2 proposals regarding the election of delegates to national convention in the event that national convention happens before state. The first proposes an off year convention specifically for the purposes of selecting national delegates, and the second proposes a public application period for people to indicate interest before SLEC would vote on delegates.
There are a few other proposals we'll be considering, both those brought to us by other members and some last minute additions by committee members.
Shortly after this meeting, the Bylaws Committee will be submitting our final report ahead of convention (while reserving the right to make corrections or necessary changes should any come up).
All of our business meetings are open to the public, so feel free to join us here:
LPTexas Bylaws Business Meeting
Thursday, March 19 · 7:00 – 8:00pmTime zone: America/Chicago
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/oes-rsfc-fnd
Susan Barney
SLEC Member
I am reading the By-Laws report and have a question about #20 which is the Majority report for changing SLEC delegates. If we vote for this change of 12 Regional reps, is there no longer any connection to district or regional representation. In other words, we could have 8 reps from Harris county area since that is such a large affiliate and only 4 reps from other areas of Texas. Currently, as a SLEC rep I am connected to certain counties, but that seems to go away in this proposal, correct? I am confused because on the LNC, regional reps do still represent certain areas of the country, so what does "Regional" mean in this ByLaws change?
Anastasia Wilford
Executive Director, SLEC Member
Theoretically, we would be able to elect all 12 people from the same city, county, or even household, but that would require coordination from more than just any one county. The concern that we would be overrun by one county is understandable, but unfounded.
There are 189 people who were elected by their counties to be delegates to the 2026 State Convention.
Harris County has elected 13 delegates.
Tarrant has elected 11.
Travis has elected 12.
El Paso has elected 8.
Denton has elected 8.
Dallas has elected 12.
Bexar has elected 13.
Even if all of our largest delegations joined together to only vote for people from those delegations, they would only make up 34% of all delegates elected to the state convention. They would not be able to takeover SLEC without the help of other delegations.
However, as the senate districts are currently constructed:
Harris touches 8 districts.
Tarrant touches 5.
Travis touches 3.
El Paso touches 1.
Denton touches 2.
Dallas touches 4.
Bexar touches 4.
That's a total of 48 potential members from our largest delegations. That's 77% of the entire SLEC body.
In 2024, 15 of our senate district caucuses were attended by 4 or fewer people. It would be easier to bring in a small handful of people to sway those 15 senate districts and gain control of half the board (6 of which only had 1 or 2 people), something we saw happen in conventions prior.
It is my belief that it will be more difficult for any one delegation, campaign, or the like to amass control of SLEC by voting on our members at large rather than in district caucuses.
As to the question of what "regional" means in this proposal, I don't guess it means anything. If SLEC wanted to establish some sort of system of responsibility for different counties or regions it certainly could, but that's not prescribed for in this system which I think addresses another issue we've seen before where contentions arise when a person doesn't feel like they have access to the state party because their SLEC rep isn't responsive to their district or where, when they try to get access to the state party through communication with other reps, it creates animosity with their own reps.
I hope this answers your questions, but I'm happy to address them further or any new ones.
There are 189 people who were elected by their counties to be delegates to the 2026 State Convention.
Harris County has elected 13 delegates.
Tarrant has elected 11.
Travis has elected 12.
El Paso has elected 8.
Denton has elected 8.
Dallas has elected 12.
Bexar has elected 13.
Even if all of our largest delegations joined together to only vote for people from those delegations, they would only make up 34% of all delegates elected to the state convention. They would not be able to takeover SLEC without the help of other delegations.
However, as the senate districts are currently constructed:
Harris touches 8 districts.
Tarrant touches 5.
Travis touches 3.
El Paso touches 1.
Denton touches 2.
Dallas touches 4.
Bexar touches 4.
That's a total of 48 potential members from our largest delegations. That's 77% of the entire SLEC body.
In 2024, 15 of our senate district caucuses were attended by 4 or fewer people. It would be easier to bring in a small handful of people to sway those 15 senate districts and gain control of half the board (6 of which only had 1 or 2 people), something we saw happen in conventions prior.
It is my belief that it will be more difficult for any one delegation, campaign, or the like to amass control of SLEC by voting on our members at large rather than in district caucuses.
As to the question of what "regional" means in this proposal, I don't guess it means anything. If SLEC wanted to establish some sort of system of responsibility for different counties or regions it certainly could, but that's not prescribed for in this system which I think addresses another issue we've seen before where contentions arise when a person doesn't feel like they have access to the state party because their SLEC rep isn't responsive to their district or where, when they try to get access to the state party through communication with other reps, it creates animosity with their own reps.
I hope this answers your questions, but I'm happy to address them further or any new ones.
Susan Barney
SLEC Member
Wow, that's alot of data to chew on.
"Takeover" wasn't on my mind, but it is a concern expressed to me by members of my affiliate so I will show them this answer. My issue is that affiliates already don't feel well connected to SLEC and if we remove any regional or district representation, I think this gets worse. Also, the issue of a SLEC representatives responsibilities have come up several times in meetings this year. SLEC members are supposed to be reaching out for fundraising, etc., and how are those duties supposed to be delegated when a rep does not represent a certain area? We definitely have a problem of things falling through the cracks on SLEC and I am concerned those cracks get bigger with only 12 reps who are not representing affiliates in any way.I am generally leaning towards the Minority motion, but am still hashing things out in my brain. Thanks for the detailed response.
Anastasia Wilford
Executive Director, SLEC Member
I would contend that, with only 12 members, we're more likely to get people who are actually passionate about doing the job of being on SLEC, and that those responsibilities are more likely to get taken up by a passionate body. Looking at it, I wonder if it seems like so much slips through the cracks because we're divided into so many districts and members representing one district don't want to step on the toes of members in other districts by reaching across those lines to do the work.
It is completely understandable that we don't have 62 people who are passionate about being on SLEC, but because of that, we have people who don't stay in communication with their districts well, who don't read reports, who only show up to half the meetings, and who aren't engaged when they're there. That's no shade to the members of SLEC who aren't passionate about it, but I do think we will see a much healthier body if we trim it this far down.
As to "takeover", that's a concern I've heard from other people, so I'm sorry for attaching it to your concerns as well.
It is completely understandable that we don't have 62 people who are passionate about being on SLEC, but because of that, we have people who don't stay in communication with their districts well, who don't read reports, who only show up to half the meetings, and who aren't engaged when they're there. That's no shade to the members of SLEC who aren't passionate about it, but I do think we will see a much healthier body if we trim it this far down.
As to "takeover", that's a concern I've heard from other people, so I'm sorry for attaching it to your concerns as well.
Kyle Russell
Staff
Dallas has 15 elected delegates, that page break in the pdf makes it a bit confusing.
Anyway thank you for this analysis. I agree it's highly unlikely that any of the major metro areas take the majority of the 12 at large spots. So far Dallas county only has 2 people that have filled out the SLEC form.
I also agree that picking our best and most passionate 12 people will lead to at least the same if not more getting done then the current SLEC body. We have way too many people that never read the forums show up to the meetings and waste time with questions that could have been asked here. Then those same people just disappear in between meetings.
The cost savings alone by allowing us to have the meetings in smaller hotel conference rooms and giving us more options of even visiting smaller communities is a huge benefit of this change.
Anastasia Wilford
Executive Director, SLEC Member
Also great points, and thank you for that correction.