Robert Morrow (Texas politician)

Robert Partlow Morrow
Chairman of the Republican Party of Travis County (Austin), Texas
Incumbent
Assumed office June 13, 2016 (pending)
Preceded by	James Dickey
Personal details
Born	c. 1965 Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
Parent	Rosa Partlow Morrow (mother)
Residence(s)	Austin, Texas
Alma mater	Princeton University University of Texas at Austin
Occupation	Investor Co-author with Roger Stone, The Clintons' War on Women

Robert Partlow Morrow, known as Rob Morrow (born c. 1965), is the incoming chairman of the Republican Party of Travis County in the capital city of Austin, Texas. With nearly 56 percent of the 47,000 ballots cast, he unseated chairman James Dickey in the primary election held on March 1, 2016.

Background

Morrow is a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where his father was engaged in the real estate business. He graduated in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts in history from Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, and received a Master of Business Administration degree in 1990 from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a self-employed investor and author.

Morrow played basketball in high school but declined offers of athletic scholarships to attend Princeton. He then considered himself a political liberal and supported then Governor Michael Dukakis in Dukakis' unsuccessful Democratic 1988 campaign against Republican Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush. As a child, he helped his mother, Rosa Partlow Morrow (born c. 1937), first win election in 1976 from legislative district 47 to one of 133 seats on the Alabama State Democratic Executive Committee, a position which his grandfathe, William Dempsey "Billy" Partlow, Jr. (1907-1975), had formerly held until his death. Like her son, Rosa Morrow was later active in the GOP, having donated $5,000 in 2004 to the Republican National Committee.

olitical activities

Morrow garnered national media coverage for his offensive comments and his erratic behavior on social media. Esquire magazine compared Morrow to then–Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump as reflecting the "rampaging id" of the party. Morrow said that he planned to use his position "as a bully platform to educate and inform the American public about the criminals and vipers who have run both the Republican and Democratic parties". He remarked that he would out the sexuality of conservatives with a record of anti-gay activism: "I love exposing these sexual hypocrites in the Republican Party". On March 8, a week after his election, a meeting of the Travis County party voted to disavow him. Morrow responded, "I'm going to do what I'm going to do."

Morrow claims that the late U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas was involved in the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, Johnson's predecessor in office and former running-mate on the 1960 Democratic national ticket, which defeated the Nixon-Lodge slate nationally and in Texas. Morrow owns four hundred books on the assassination and considers himself an expert on the topic. He called the 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Rodham Clinton an "angry bull dyke". He called Republican former Governor Rick Perry "a raging bisexual adulterer." He claims that "much of the Bush family should be in jail.”

Governor Greg Abbott, Perry's successor, unable to prevent Morrow from being seated as county chairman, said that he does not consider Morrow a spokesman for the party. Vice chairman Matt Mackowiak (born c. 1979) called Morrow's election "a coup" and has sought to prevent him from becoming chairman. Morrow said that the leadership which opposes him can "go [expletive deleted] themselves." Mackowiak also called Morrow "a conspiracy theorist to the extreme" and termed his election as chairman a "disaster" to the party. The chairman principally recruits, trains, and encourages volunteers for the general election and usually shuns political positions for the sake of getting out the vote for the slate of nominees. Travis County is a Democratic stronghold in Texas, but some Republicans have won local offices there in recent years.

Morrow cannot be removed from office except for conviction of a felony. Otherwise, Mackowiak said that he will try to form an alternate Republican organization that will bypass Morrow and with critical establishment support function as the real Republican Party in Travis County for the two years of Morrow's term.

Dickey attributed his defeat as chairman to voters uninformed about the two candidates and their positions and prospects. A similar situation of concern developed when the Democrat District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg of Travis County did not resign in 2013 after her arrest for driving while intoxicated.

In 2015, Morrow co-authored with Roger Stone, and foreword by Kathleen Willey, The Clintons' War on Women, a study of former U.S. President Bill Clinton's philandering and the alleged cover-up of scandals by his wife, Hillary Clinton. Morrow calls himself "a truth seeker and a truth teller. Even if it's the ugly truth." In a 2008 article on Morrow, the St. Petersburg Times described him as "devot[ing] his life to hating the Clintons and spreading wild, unsubstantiated allegations about them".

Morrow first backed U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas for the 2016 nomination. When Cruz withdrew from the race, Morrow switched his support to party frontrunner Donald Trump of New York City, for whom Stone had earlier been an advisor and still supports. Morrow decried U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont as a "coward” and a “loser” for not challenging what Morrow calls "the Hillary Clinton crime family." He strongly opposed Jeb Bush's presidential candidacy in 2016 and though he admits to having voted for George W. Bush twice for both governor and President, he said that he now deeply regrets those decisions. Considered a libertarian, Morrow has formerly supported Ron Paul and Gary Johnson in their unsuccessful presidential bids. Johnson is running again against Trump and Hillary Clinton. Morrow supports abortion and restrictions on immigration. He opposes same-sex marriage.