“The Republican Assembly is the conscience of the Republican Party.”
— PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN
The roots of the Tarrant County Republican Assembly reach back to 1980, when conservative organizers in North Texas looked to the influential California Republican Assembly as a blueprint for building an effective grassroots network. Following the creation of the Texas Republican Assembly (TXRA) and its Dallas counterpart, a dedicated group of Reagan-era activists—led by Steve Hollern, Jane Berberich, and Doraline Daeley—officially founded the TCRA in 1982. In those early years, the organization focused on advancing constitutional governance, free enterprise, and conservative principles across Tarrant County through community education and hosting prominent conservative speakers.
When Steve Hollern was elected Chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party in 1988, TCRA entered a decade of consolidation. Rather than dividing time and resources across separate entities, speaker events and major conservative programming were channeled directly through the county party. During this ten-year chapter, the standalone assembly remained paused while its leaders worked at the helm of countywide party building.
By late 1998, as Hollern concluded his tenure as county chairman, momentum was building to relaunch TCRA under the framework established by the newly formed National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA). Shifting from purely educational events to actively vetting and endorsing principled candidates in Republican primaries, the assembly adopted modern bylaws and made its public return in January 1999 at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden auditorium, with keynote speaker State Representative Tom Craddick.
Around that same time, TCRA leadership took a pivotal role in unifying conservative assemblies across the state. Joining forces with Dallas and Houston leaders, TCRA helped resolve duplicate state charters through the Austin Unity Agreement. Steve Hollern was soon elected President of the Texas Republican Assembly, and TCRA members anchored the Texas delegation at national conventions. That tradition of regional and statewide leadership continued through the decades, including the 2011 election of TCRA leader Bob Gill to the TXRA presidency.
Today, TCRA remains an active force in Tarrant County politics—hosting candidate debates, running rigorous vetting conventions, publishing trusted voter scorecards, and defending the constitutional principles of limited government, lower taxes, and individual liberty.
Milestones & Timeline
| Year / Period | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1980 | Ray VanBuskirk, Richard Steenson, Tom Carter, and others establish the Texas Republican Assembly (TXRA) and Dallas County Republican Assembly (DCRA), modeled after the California Republican Assembly (CRA). |
| 1982 | Steve Hollern, Jane Berberich, Doraline Daeley, and about a dozen activists officially found the Tarrant County Republican Assembly (TCRA) with an educational, non-endorsement focus. |
| 1988–1998 | Steve Hollern serves as Chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party; TCRA pauses independent operations to channel programming directly through the county party. |
| 1996 | The National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA) is established, pioneering active candidate vetting and primary endorsements nationwide. |
| Summer–Fall 1998 | Hollern and a reorganized board draft new bylaws adopting the NFRA candidate vetting and primary endorsement model. |
| Late 1998 | North Texas and Houston assemblies sign the Austin Unity Agreement to merge all regional chapters into a single unified TXRA state charter. |
| January 1999 | TCRA officially relaunches at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden auditorium with keynote speaker Rep. Tom Craddick. |
| 1999 | Steve Hollern is elected President of TXRA; TCRA members lead the Texas delegation to the NFRA convention in Kansas City. |
| 2011 | TCRA leader Bob Gill is elected TXRA President at the state convention in Austin. |
| 2000s–Present | TCRA continues regular monthly operations as a premier grassroots auxiliary—vetting candidates, publishing scorecards, and driving constitutional conservative policy in Tarrant County. |
TCRA members at an endorsing convention.
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