Listener: How do you know when Glasheen did and did not vote? David Glasheen’s voting record.

Pratt on Texas Listener Club member Michael sent an email asking this important question: “In your show this evening, you listed the primary elections that Glasheen voted, and did not vote, in. Is the information as to who votes public information? (If so, I learned something new.)”

Here is my reply:

Michael,

Yes voting is public information – that’s how campaigns, etc. know whom to target for mail, block walking, calls, etc. Primary voting records are how a political party determines who is a member of their party and eligible for precinct conventions up to national conventions.

How a person votes is secret but we do know if they voted and in what elections.

As to Mr. Glasheen who is campaigning specifically as “a real Republican and a true conservative,” he has actually not officially been a Republican in Texas since 2008.

Texas does not have advance party registration but one becomes registered, and thus eligible for participation in party conventions and business, by voting in a party’s primary, or if a non-primary party by participating in that party’s nominating convention. That registration from voting in the Republican Primary is the party’s official method of belonging to the party, without such one is not, by party rule, a member of the Republican Party.

Put another way: The Republican Party Primary Election voting list is the Party’s membership list for one year following the primary election.

David Glasheen did join the Republican Party way back in 2008 for one election cycle but never again, according to records.* Oddly though, Mr. Glasheen did vote regularly in general elections and even constitutional amendment elections going back to 2007 so access to ballots and voting situations cannot be the issue. It appears he could vote, did vote, but chose not to vote in Republican Primary elections.

That one GOP primary vote by Glasheen was way back in 2008 which was the John McCain / Mitt Romney presidential nominee fight. That means he didn’t take part in many critical local and state elections including, and I list only a few:

• The HD84 big 2010 primary or runoff for the very seat he seeks to now occupy (Frullo vs. Griffin.) That was also a big race for governor as Kay Bailey Hutchison challenged Rick Perry.

• Glasheen, according to records, skipped the 2012 Republican primary in which we had a HUGE race for U.S. Senator – the race in which Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst competed and which led to a runoff between the two. Glasheen skipped this primary and runoff despite it being critical to Texas and the nation, again according to election records.

• Our huge open state senate election (SD28) on 9 September 2014 of Charles Perry which featured 4 Republicans, a Democrat and a Libertarian candidate after Sen. Robert Duncan resigned to become Texas Tech chancellor. That same year, earlier in 2014, the primary was critical with a huge race for Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor – this was the year Dan Patrick beat incumbent David Dewhurst in a runoff for Lt. Gov. and Ken Paxton beat Dan Branch in a runoff for A.G.

• It means David Glasheen didn’t even vote in the giant TX19 race, or runoff, in 2016 in which Jodey Arrington won election to Congress.

• According to records he also sat out the 2016 race for the Republican nomination for President which was ultimately a battle between Texas’ Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.

• Glasheen then again did not participate in the 2018 Texas Republican Primary Election in which several statewide offices were decided.

• His voting record also means David Glasheen sat out our incredibly important primary just 2 years ago in 2020 in which the balance of the local Lubbock courthouse leadership was at stake. And of course, this was the Trump re-elect effort.

Meeting Trump in Florida, voting in General Elections, and claiming to be a “real Republican” is wonderful but an actual, and official, Republican would actually bother to vote in the Party’s primary elections to choose its nominees for office. And, as many paramount elections for local and state government were effectively decided in the Republican primaries, David Glasheen simply didn’t take part in the elections that mattered most to his county, city, and district.

Thanks for writing and asking,

Robert Pratt
Pratt on Texas, former Lubbock County Republican Chairman and former board member of the Texas Republican County Chairmen’s Association

*The Data: As to the voting records, to ensure accuracy not only was the GOP data center records checked, I asked for the records to be confirmed again. The double checking doesn’t stop there, the data was also check with a professional candidate research firm, often called opposition research, and those records matched.

click for full size image of voting history

None of this means there could not be an incomplete or faulty database record from the data source at Lubbock County. But if such were the case Mr. Glasheen could easily obtain the correct source data from an office just a few blocks from his and provide such to me – I did provide an opportunity before extending this story and such was not provided.

Even a missing record would apply to only one particular election; it would be highly unlikely to have missing election records for a single voter year after year and only the primary records missing but general and other election records present.