Grayson County GOP holds Red River Roll Call rally in Sherman ahead of November election

A GvilleTX Newsroom report

The Red River Roll Call, a rally the Grayson County Republican Party advertised as a major event for Texas Republicans, was held Monday night, July 27, at Kidd-Key Auditorium in Sherman, according to the county party's event notice and a post from organizer Shelley Luther thanking attendees afterward. The statewide candidates promoted on the bill are running in races that will go before voters across Texas, including in Grayson County, in the Nov. 3 general election.

The county party's announcement placed the rally at the Sherman Municipal Building's Kidd-Key Auditorium. Event records published by the organizers listed Ken Paxton, Mayes Middleton, Dawn Buckingham, Wayne Christian and Bo French among the statewide Republican officials and nominees promoted for the evening. Those records confirm who was billed to appear. They do not provide a transcript of what any speaker said from the stage.

Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, wrote in a Facebook post the day before the rally that he would be in Sherman with supporters coming together around shared values and a vision for Texas. Official runoff results published by the Texas Secretary of State show that Paxton, Middleton and French had each secured statewide Republican nominations before the event took place.

"Tonight was one for the record books," Luther wrote on Facebook after the rally ended, thanking every person who joined her in Sherman.

The gathering came a little more than three months before Election Day. The Texas Secretary of State lists Oct. 5 as the deadline to register to vote in the November election and Oct. 19 as the first day of early voting, with the general election following on Nov. 3.

The Grayson County GOP describes its local organizing in terms of residents' voice and vote, and it promoted the rally directly to people in its community. Public records reviewed for this report support voter turnout as part of the event's purpose. They do not document a question-and-answer session with voters or identify specific concerns raised from the floor.

The host county voted heavily Republican in its last general election. Grayson County's official 2024 results summary shows the Trump-Vance ticket carried the county with 50,556 votes, or 76.55 percent, and shows Luther winning the Texas House District 62 race with 47,492 votes, or 75.56 percent.

Kidd-Key Auditorium has served as Sherman's municipal auditorium since 1938, when the city acquired the former Kidd-Key Women's College property, according to the city's official history. The same city records say Sherman was founded in 1846 by the Grayson County commissioners.