Republicans angry after Houston mayor cancels state GOP Convention

HOUSTON - Exactly a week before thousands of Republicans were set to pour into the Bayou City for the party’s controversial state convention, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced to City Council he would seek to break the contract and short-circuit the “in-person” event as a precaution against the further spread of COVID-19.

“I have instructed HFC, the Houston First Corporation, to exercise its contractual rights to cancel the State Republican Party Convention due to the pandemic. Houston is a hot spot right now in a global pandemic and we can’t have thousands of people gathering inside the George R. Brown,” said Turner adding, “simply the public health concerns outweighed anything else.”

While multiple health experts and local civic groups fiercely backed Turner’s last-minute move, Republican Party Chairman James Dickey was harshly critical of the attempted cancellation telling Fox 26, “(Mayor Turner) is seeking to deny a political party’s critical electoral function that should be equally protected under the constitution. … This is an opportunity to show how to get back to work safely and how to hold conventions safely with cutting edge technology.”

RELATED: City of Houston cancels Texas GOP convention at GRB

While most at City Hall welcomed the Mayor’s intercession, Councilman Mike Knox was not one of them

“A masterful, masterful piece of political gamesmanship,” said Knox.

Knox alleges two weeks ago Turner purposely granted the Republicans an exemption from his executive order against mass gatherings on city property and then launched a lobbying campaign to persuade the GOP to pull out – a move that would have come with close to a $500,000 cancellation fee.

When Republicans said no, Turner pulled the plug for them.

Knox calls it “manipulation”.

“You create a problem. You solve a problem and you look like a hero. Any time the people of Houston hear, 'Oh, this isn’t political,' it absolutely is. The more they say it, the more political it is,” said Knox.

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Councilman Knox says the scope of the alleged threat was rapidly diminishing because less than half of the 7,000 Republicans expected to attend were actually planning to show up.