Steve Munisteri
| Steve Munisteri | |||
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| Basic facts | |||
| Organization: | Donald Trump presidential administration | ||
| Role: | Principal deputy director of the office of public liaison | ||
| Location: | Houston, Texas | ||
| Expertise: | Texas politics and fundraising | ||
| Affiliation: | Republican | ||
| Education: | University of Texas | ||
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Steve Munisteri is a Republican political consultant. As of August 2017, he was principal deputy director of the office of public liaison in Donald Trump's presidential administration.[1] Munisteri is the former chair of the Republican Party of Texas and former senior advisor to the presidential campaign of Rand Paul.[2] In April 2016, the Republican National Committee hired Munisteri to help as state parties elected delegates for the national convention.[3]
Prior to his chairmanship, Munisteri founded his own law firm in 1982 and an oil and gas investment company in 1989. From Houston, Texas, Munisteri received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas.[4]
Career
Early career and private sector
From his time in high school, Munisteri has been involved in Texas Republican politics: he volunteered for four Ron Paul congressional campaigns and "voluntarily represented Paul in a dispute that someone had used his political mailing list without permission during Paul’s 1984 bid for the U.S. Senate."[5]
As Munisteri campaigned for the position of Chairman for the Republican Party of Texas, his website listed a number of his business ventures. In addition to starting and expanding his law firm (now called Sprott Newsom Lunceford Quattlebaum Messenger), Munisteri operated a boxing promotion company and contributed to "independently produced boxing programming" as a play-by-play announcer.[6] He was also involved in the energy sector. His company Munisteri Exploration "participated as a partner in the acquisition or drilling of 20 oil and/or gas wells over the last 20 years"; another startup, U.S. Scientific, worked "to develop new technologies for coal beneficiation."[6]
Republican Party of Texas
- See also: Republican Party of Texas
On June 13, 2010, Munisteri was elected chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. He was re-elected in June 2012 and 2014.[4] When he took over the Republican Party, Munisteri "inherited liabilities in excess of $700,000" but paid off "all liabilities to $0 by the end of November 2010."[4] According to the Republican Party's official website, "During the first four and a half years of Munisteri’s Chairmanship the Party has brought in approximately $22 million."[4] In his final newsletter as chair, Munisteri wrote of the party's voter engagement accomplishments during his tenure: "During the past five years we have been able to establish robust Hispanic, Asian American, and African American engagement programs. Utilizing our engagement personnel, some of which are spread out across the state in field offices as well as having assistance from our auxiliaries, allowed us to capture a majority of the Asian American vote last year, to split or win the Hispanic American vote, and greatly improve our support among the African American vote."[7]
Presidential election, 2016
Rand Paul 2016 Presidential Campaign
- See also: Rand Paul presidential campaign, 2016
In January 2015, Munisteri stepped down from his position in the Texas Republican Party to join Rand Paul's presidential campaign as a senior advisor.[8] Of his transition to the Paul campaign, Munisteri said: "Paul shares my vision of promoting the conservative values of individual freedom, limited government, a strong national defense and defense of the Constitution in each and every community in our country."[2]
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram described Paul's hiring of Munisteri as "a strategically astute move that gives the campaign the benefit of Munisteri’s network of Republican contacts and access to donors."[5]
Paul suspended his presidential run on February 3, 2016.[9]
Republican National Committee
- See also: Republican National Committee
In April 2016, as the prospect of a contested convention became more likely, the Republican National Committee hired Munisteri, along with former Rand Paul advisor Chris LaCivita as a strategist to assist with state selection of delegates. According to The New York Times, the two were hired to manage the process by which each state selects its delegates to the national convention. The paper commented, "Mr. LaCivita and Mr. Munisteri, a former chairman of the Texas Republican Party, adds heft and experience to the committee’s work."[3] According to the Houston Chronicle, Munisteri "said he was brought on board as a senior adviser to the national committee largely because of his experience 'keeping peace' in Texas' large contest-laden convention of 2012."[10]
Donald Trump presidential administration
- See also: Donald Trump White House staff
In March 2017, the White House announced that Munisteri would join the Trump administration as the principal deputy director of the office of public liaison.[11]
2016 Republican National Convention
- See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
| Steve Munisteri | |
| Republican National Convention, 2016 | |
| Status: | At-large delegate |
| State: | Texas |
| Bound to: | Donald Trump |
| Delegates to the RNC 2016 | |
| Calendar and delegate rules overview • Types of delegates • Delegate rules by state • State election law and delegates • Delegates by state | |
Munisteri was an at-large delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Texas. Munisteri was one of 48 delegates from Texas bound by state party rules to support Donald Trump at the convention.[12] As of July 13, 2016, Trump had approximately 1,542 delegates. The winner of the Republican nomination needed the support of 1,237 delegates. Trump formally won the nomination on July 19, 2016.
RNC Rules Committee
- See also: RNC Rules Committee, 2016
Munisteri was a member of the RNC Rules Committee, a 112-member body responsible for crafting the official rules of the Republican Party, including the rules that governed the 2016 Republican National Convention.[13]
Appointment process
The convention Rules Committee in 2016 consisted of one male and one female delegate from each state and territorial delegation. The Rules of the Republican Party required each delegation to elect from its own membership representatives to serve on the Rules Committee.
Delegate rules
At-large delegates from Texas to the national convention were selected by a state nominations committee and approved by the Texas State GOP Convention in May 2016. District-level delegates were elected by congressional districts at the state convention and then approved by the convention as a whole. At the national convention, all delegates were bound on the first ballot unless their candidate withdrew from the race or released his or her delegates. A delegate remained bound on the second ballot if his or her candidate received at least 20 percent of the total vote on the first ballot. On the third and subsequent ballots, all delegates were to become unbound.
Texas primary results
- See also: Presidential election in Texas, 2016
| Texas Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
| Jeb Bush | 1.2% | 35,420 | 0 | |
| Ben Carson | 4.2% | 117,969 | 0 | |
| Chris Christie | 0.1% | 3,448 | 0 | |
 Ted Cruz |
43.8% | 1,241,118 | 104 | |
| Carly Fiorina | 0.1% | 3,247 | 0 | |
| Lindsey Graham | 0.1% | 1,706 | 0 | |
| Elizabeth Gray | 0.2% | 5,449 | 0 | |
| Mike Huckabee | 0.2% | 6,226 | 0 | |
| John Kasich | 4.2% | 120,473 | 0 | |
| Rand Paul | 0.3% | 8,000 | 0 | |
| Marco Rubio | 17.7% | 503,055 | 3 | |
| Rick Santorum | 0.1% | 2,006 | 0 | |
| Donald Trump | 26.8% | 758,762 | 48 | |
| Other | 1% | 29,609 | 0 | |
| Totals | 2,836,488 | 155 | ||
| Source: Texas Secretary of State and CNN | ||||
Delegate allocation
Texas had 155 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Of this total, 108 were district-level delegates (three for each of the state's 36 congressional districts). District-level delegates were allocated on a proportional basis; a candidate had to win at least 20 percent of the primary vote in a district in order to be eligible to receive any of that district's delegates. If only one candidate met the 20 percent threshold in a district, he or she won all of the district's delegates. If two candidates met this threshold, the first place finisher received two of the district's delegates; the second place finisher received the remaining delegate. If no candidate won 20 percent of the vote, the top three finishers in a district each received one of the district's delegates. If a candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote in a district, he or she received all of the district's delegates.[14][15]
Of the remaining 47 delegates, 44 served at large. At-large delegates were allocated on a proportional basis; a candidate had to win at least 20 percent of the statewide primary vote in order to be eligible to receive any of the state's at-large delegates. If only one candidate broke the 20 percent threshold, the second place finisher still received a portion of the state's at-large delegates. If a candidate won more than 50 percent of the statewide vote, he or she received all of the state's at-large delegates. In addition, three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates) served as bound delegates to the Republican National Convention.[14][15]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Steve Munisteri Texas. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ The White House, "Annual Report To Congress On White House Office Personnel," July 1, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 CNN, "Texas GOP chairman sides with Rand Paul," January 29, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The New York Times, "Republicans Hire Veteran Strategists to Help With Conventions," April 7, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Republican Party of Texas, "Chairman Steve Munisteri," accessed May 13, 2015
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "Rand Paul’s Texas roots run deep," April 18, 2015
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Steve Munisteri for Chairman, "Biography," accessed May 14, 2015
- ↑ Republican Party of Texas, "Final Chairman's Report," accessed May 14, 2015
- ↑ Dallas Morning News, "Republican Party of Texas Chairman Munisteri leaving post to join Rand Paul's political team," January 29, 2015
- ↑ Politico, "Rand Paul dropping out of White House race," February 3, 2016
- ↑ Houston Chronicle, "Former Texas GOP chair hired by RNC to prep for contested convention," April 8, 2016
- ↑ The Hill, "Trump picks Giuliani's son for WH job," March 6, 2017
- ↑ Texas GOP, "National Convention," May 19, 2016
- ↑ Ballotpedia's list of 2016 RNC Rules Committee members is based on an official list from the Republican National Committee obtained by Ballotpedia on June 24, 2016
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016
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