Texas GOP Operations Director Fired After Testifying At Convention [TXPolitics 24/7 blog]

The Operations Director of the Texas Republican Party, Rachel Malone, was fired Monday by Chairman James Dickey after she testified at last week's GOP convention.

Malone, in a Facebook post, said Dickey told her Monday morning when she reported to work that her, "services are no longer needed." She described her firing as sudden.

Malone was a well-known gun rights activist before being hired for the party position last June. She is the founder of Texas Firearms Freedom, a gun rights advocacy group.

She wrote: "As I hope you know, my personal mission is to advance firearms freedom in Texas. I accepted this position with the strong hope that it would allow me to carry out that mission in bigger and better ways while I also fulfilled all of my other duties."

But in recent months, she says she had noticed many Republicans, "suggesting that gun control might be the answer after all."

She characterized the Republican Party's response to those efforts, "underwhelming."

This prompted her to put her, "delegate hat on," and testify at the convention,"on the gun-related issues that I strongly believe to be within the will of the delegates. Unfortunately, this has not sat well with some of our elected officials, who have made life difficult for the Chairman."

A witness who attended a hearing at which she testified noted that she made clear she was testifying, "as a delegate and a citizen," not as a party official.

One platform plank against which she testified would allow officials to confiscate weapons from someone exhibiting behavior that sends out "red flags" that they may commit a violent act. Another would have required guns to be properly stored.

Planks opposing these measures, both supported by Abbott, were included in the platform by delegates.

Social media has seen a strong reaction to her firing, with many accusing Governor Abbott himself of putting pressure on Dickey to fire her.

One angrily wrote that it was a "big mistake," while others said they would be watching Gov. Abbott's future positions on gun control. Libertarian Party supporters crowed that it would help their party's candidate for governor, Mark Tippetts.

Libertarian state senate candidate Tom G. Glass wrote that Malone, "got her planks into the platform - opposing and implicitly rebuking Governor Abbott. Now, for that, she has been fired from her job at the GOP."

Others, believed to be Republicans, suggested they would not support Abbott in the Fall, one suggesting they would write in Malone's name on the ballot for the office of governor.

For her part, Malone said she didn't want to see discord as a result of her firing, and viewed to stay involved in activism.