Republican Party of Texas Vice Chair, Cat Parks
Republican Party of Texas Vice Chair
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, August 28, 2020
Republican Party Vice-Chair Cat Parks believes strongly in rugged individualism, the importance of education, and the power of the grassroots. She is passionate about creating cohesive relationships to grow the Party by harnessing the talent and conviction of “We the People” of the Lone Star State.
Small-business owner, former University coach and college adjunct instructor, cancer-survivor, certified Emergency Room nurse — her path has been diverse.
Cat is the 2020 recipient of the Steve Munisteri Award presented by Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, and former Chairman James Dickey for, “the volunteer who made the greatest impact on the Republican Party of Texas.”
Cat serves as the County Chairman of Hamilton County, a Board Member of the Texas Republican County Chairman’s Association, a Patron of the Texas Federation of Republican Women, and also serves on the Communication Task Force.
In 2019, Cat was named Chair of the Candidate Recruitment Task Force, under which she led the statewide effort to identify all Democrat incumbents for Congressional, Senate, House, Judicial, and local races from County Judge through Constable for 2020 and create a strategic plan to recruit Republican candidates.
This successful effort began with the creation of a diverse task force of Regional Directors who identified and activated conservative candidates in major metropolitan areas: DFW, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, El Paso, & the Rio Grande Valley. The group quickly identified a need for more education among candidates and campaign teams.
Cat organized the Leadership Institute Texas Tour: Campaign Schools put on by a collaborative effort among the RPT, TFRW, TRCCA, and Texans for Greg Abbott. Taught by the Leadership Institute, the effort coordinated 40+ educators from 17 states with 70+ local hosts in over 30 Texas counties to train over 1,300 conservatives across Texas. Additionally, an online resource was created for the first time for candidates to have access to 8+ hours of educational online campaign instruction, legal advice, and all
forms in one place.
Seeing a need to strengthen the judicial benches, she enlisted the help of Supreme Court Justice Jeff Boyd who generously traveled and spoke with over one hundred potential District Court candidates in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, & Hidalgo. The importance of having qualified judges who do not legislate from the bench cannot be stressed enough.
Without a doubt, Texas’ recruitment efforts have been a success. Over 3,000 Republican Candidates ran — more than double the number of Democrats. The team recruited the highest number of female and minority candidates in RPT History, and the state of Texas made national headlines by doubling the number of female Congressional candidates. Additionally, the CRTF is responsible for recruiting Jessica Lewis, the strong, principled conservative candidate who will be running against Judge Moyé, who Dallas judge who jailed salon owner Shelly Luther.
Prior to her work with the Party, Cat co-founded and organized an 800+ member grassroots organization that fought to protect agricultural property rights (private and commercial) proposed in an urban Land Development Code. After 3 years, serving as President, the group successfully altered the Code, passed resolutions to protect agricultural economy and culture, gained access to a National Preserve for the first time, and received national recognition for advocacy by the American Horse Council.
Educated at the University of Illinois, Cat holds a BA in Spanish with a minor in International Relations/Latin American Students and an RN from Parkland College. Before venturing into small-business ownership, she worked as a trauma nurse and volunteered as a Spanish Medical Interpreter.
Cat has been married to Dr. John Parks a native Texas for 11 years. Dr. Parks served in the Navy and is a retired anesthesiologist. They share a 10-year-old son, Pierce, 4 grown stepchildren — Lura, Trevor, Hunter, and Clayton, and 12 grandchildren
#TeamCat #LeadRight #IronSharpensIron #2020 #GraceAndGrit