BRYAN, Texas — With the Nov. 3 election days away, the Brazos County Republican Party has formally rebuked one of its own: Bryan Mayor Pro Tem James Edge, who holds Place 3 on the Bryan City Council and is backing Democrat James Talarico for the U.S. Senate.
The party released the text of a Resolution of Condemnation on Oct. 29. Its county executive committee approved the measure on the evening of Oct. 3. The resolution says Edge did more than endorse Talarico, faulting him for agreeing to co-chair a group called Republicans for Talarico in the race against GOP nominee Ken Paxton.
Party leaders wrote that Edge’s move was hard to square with his record. He once worked for years on the district staff of former Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Flores and has raised money for the party. The resolution argues that using the Republican label to promote a Democrat misleads voters and that the name belongs to the party’s members.
County GOP Chairman Russ Ford said voters are free to choose whomever they like, but the local party will publicly challenge Republicans whose choices it sees as out of step with the base.
Edge answered that he has not switched parties or abandoned his principles and was simply choosing who he thinks should represent Texas in Washington. He warned that pushing people out will shrink the party, and he stressed that his views are his own and not those of the City of Bryan. He is scheduled to speak Friday night at a Talarico campaign event at Aggie Park on the Texas A&M campus in College Station.
Filed under: College Station TX Politics News
