Susan Weddington

Susan Baker Weddington
Chairwoman of the Republican Party of Texas
In office 1997–2003
Preceded by	Tom Pauken
Succeeded by	Tina Benkiser
Personal details
Born	(1951-04-06) April 6, 1951 City missing, Michigan, USA
Spouse(s)	(1) Joe Daniel Caldwell, Sr. (divorced) (2) George Robert "Bob" Weddington (married 1983)
Children	From first marriage: Sean Ernest Caldwell Two grandchildren
Residence	Fredericksburg Gillespie County, Texas Formerly: San Antonio, Texas
Alma mater	Alamo Heights High School Trinity University
Occupation	Businesswoman
Religion	Christian

No relation to the Texas attorney Sarah Weddington

Susan Baker Weddington (born April 6, 1951) is a retired businesswoman from Fredericksburg in Gillespie County in the Texas Hill Country, who from 1997 to 2003 was the state chairwoman of the Republican Party of Texas during the administrations of Governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry. She is a former long-term resident of San Antonio, Texas.

Background

A native of Michigan, Weddington moved to San Antonio before she was eighteen months of age and hence considers herself a native Texan. She is one of two children of the late Louis C. Baker and the former Elaine Baird (1919-2011). She has a brother, David Baker.Weddington graduated in 1969 from Alamo Heights High School in Alamo Heights and thereafter from Trinity University in San Antonio, from which she received a bachelor's degree in communications and was for a time an instructor of photojournalism.

Political life

Weddington was formerly employed by the firm Kinetic Concepts owned by her fellow San Antonio Republican James R. Leininger, who has been a major donor to Governor Perry, other Republican candidates, and conservative causes. A Christian conservative activist, Weddington became interested in politics as the mother of a teenaged son visiting the Texas State Capitol in Austin. Her particular interests at the time were education and product liability laws, which had caused her problems in her own business. In 1990, Weddington placed a black wreath that read “Death to the Family” at the door of the campaign headquarters in Austin for the successful Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Ann Richards, the departing state treasurer who that year defeated Republican oilman Clayton W. Williams, Jr., of Midland. At the state Republican convention that year, Weddington participated in a prayer rally and called upon the Almighty to "watch over the caucus rooms and the convention hall."

In 1997, Weddington was unanimously elected state chairwoman by the 62-member Republican State Executive Committee to succeed Tom Pauken of Dallas, who resigned after three years in the position to run, unsuccessfully as it developed for state attorney general. She was Pauken's choice as his successor. For part of her tenure, the vice chairman was the conservative author and activist David Barton. The post ultimately went to John Cornyn, now the senior U.S. senator from Texas. Chairwoman Weddington held strength from both the religious conservative wing of her party and the fiscal conservatives as well. Chuck Anderson, then the executive director of the Texas Christian Coalition, described Weddington as "very, very well respected by members of the party from all ideological stripes." In 2000, Republicans held 1,600 of the approximately 4,000 elected offices in Texas but all statewide offices. Weddington said that she was determined to bring the party to long-term majority status, with particular emphasis on the Texas State Legislature.

In 2002, Weddington broke with tradition as state chair when she became involved in a heated Republican primary for the Texas State Senate. One of her predecessors, Fred Meyer of Dallas, had pointedly refused to become involved in such primary races but stood with the general election nominees regardless of policy positions. Weddington supported conservative State Representative John Shields of San Antonio in his unsuccessful challenge to incumbent Jeff Wentworth for the District 25 state Senate seat. A strong abortion supporter, Wentworth, nevertheless won once more but was unseated a decade later in the 2012 Republican primary by conservative challenger Donna Campbell, a physician from New Braunfels."

When she stepped down as state chairwoman in 2003, her party had gained a firm footing on major political offices in Texas. Weddington for six years then headed the OneStar Foundation, a non-profit organization formed by Governor Perry to connects such organizations with resources and expertise to accomplish their missions and to promote volunteerism. She was succeeded as chairwoman by another woman, Tina Benkiser, a lawyer from Houston.

Retirement

Weddington retired in 2009, and Perry named Elizabeth Seale as her successor at the OneStar Foundation.In the 2010 Republican primary for governor, Weddington came out of retirement to endorse Rick Perry, who defeated two female challengers, including U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, in the Republican gubernatorial primary for his last term in office.

Weddington resides near Fredericksburg with her second husband, George Robert "Bob" Weddington (born December 1932), whom she married on April 1, 1983. She has a son, Sean Ernest Caldwell (born c. 1971) from her first marriage to Joe Daniel Caldwell, Sr. (born c. 1949), of San Antonio, and two grandchildren.

References

Preceded by Tom Pauken

Republican Party of Texas State Chair Susan Baker Weddington 1997–2003

Succeeded by Tina Benkiser