The next regular meeting will be September.

Letter From the President

Dear members,

I want to thank you for electing me as your new president. I am honored and flattered by the faith you’ve placed in me and the encouragement I’ve received. 

Now onto local news. The elections are over. I know school districts in Ingram, Bandera, and Fredericksburg had elections for their Board of Trustees, Hunt voted on a bond issue, and Fredericksburg voted on the City Council, but I’m afraid I have little information about them. In the future I will endeavor to be better informed about what’s happening in Bandera and Gillespie counties and in Kerr County outside of Kerrville. I may be reaching out to members in those towns/counties for information in the future.

In Kerrville, the good news is extremist Brandon Aery was defeated for KISD Board of Trustees, District 2. Special thanks to Sarah Lewis for the work she did as incumbent Jack Steven’s campaign manager. 

More good news is Jeff Harris has defeated Barbara Dewell Ferguson for Place 2 on the city council. After the May 19^th recount, the final vote tally appears to be Harris, 1,812, Ferguson, 1,809.

The bad news is Roman Garcia won reelection to Place 1 on the city council. The *frustrating* news is Layng Guerriero lost by only 215 votes. According to a report by Kerr County Democratic Party volunteer John Harrison, of the 1,055 people who voted in the 2020 and 2022 Democratic primaries, only 512 voted in the May 6^th election, meaning 543 stayed home, with a positively DISMAL turnout by the youth vote.

John determined that when it came to canvassing efforts, 369 people (of those who his data indicated voted in past D primaries) were not canvassed by any means (face to face, email, phone, or text). Of those 369 people, 224 did not vote. Would they have gone to the polls if we had talked to them? We will never know. What I do know is that the KCDP had few volunteers to assist in canvassing. I’d say less than half a dozen people signed up to block walk, email, phone bank, or text bank.

As a KCDP volunteer myself, I’d encourage you to sign up for their newsletter if you haven’t already, so you’ll be sure to receive the calls for help often made via email. They’ve got a spiffy new website, complete with a page for volunteers, too!

Also be sure to follow the KCDP’s Facebook page. You can even find them on Twitter and Instagram.

This election brought us some victories and heartbreak. Apathy, especially amongst young voters, seems to continue to be our biggest enemy, however, I encourage you all not to give up. I’m confident that in Kerrville, Democrats made a difference in the elections of Jeff Harris and Jack Stevens, however, we need to find a way to get younger voters involved. I don’t have the answer to that dilemma, except to say we need to reach out as best we can to the younger folks we know, keeping them informed of current events so they understand why it’s important to vote in ALL elections, be they federal, state, or local. We must be more than just “ladies (and gentlemen) who lunch”, we must be vocal advocates for democracy!

Keep up the good fight, Democrats! 

Audra Arr

President, HCCTDW PS. I’d appreciate a volunteer to be Legislative Chair. I’ve enjoyed the job, but I figure you’ll get sick of hearing from me as President AND Legislative Chair, so if someone is willing to step up, I’d be grateful.