Mark Dorazio

Mark Evan Dorazio
Chairman of the Republican Party of Bexar County, Texas
Incumbent
Assumed office  December 4,  2017
Preceded by	Robert Stovall
Born	January 4, 1959
Spouse(s)	Monica Dorazio Son Russell Luke Dorazio
Residence	San Antonio, Texas
Occupation	Businessman
Religion	Christian

Mark Evan Dorazio (born January 4, 1959) is a businessman from San Antonio, Texas, who is the interim chairman of the Republican Party in Bexar County. He assumed the position in December 2017, when the incumbent Robert Stovall resigned to run in the March 6, 2018, primary for the District 21 seat being vacated by the long-term Republican incumebent Lamar Smith.

Dorazio is considered more conservative than Stovall, who as chairman was  a staunch defender of Texas House Speaker Joe Straus and District 122 state Representative Lyle Larson, two RINO party figures from San Antonio often at odds with the grassroots. Straus prevented the state House of Representatives from taking a vote in 2017 on the bill pushed by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to forbid transgendered men from entering women's restrooms on the grounds that the legislation would discourage business expansion in Texas. However, in 2015, the staunchly pro-life Stovall became an early and ardent supporter of the Donald Trump presidential campaign.

Stovall proposed Dwight Parscale as his successor, but Pascale finished last in a three-candidate race before the county executive committee. Former chairman Kurt Nelson ran second to Dorazio. Parscale is the father of Brad Parscale, owner of the local web design and social media firm that ran Donald Trump’s social media during the 2016 presidential  campaign.  But Dwight Parscale was unknown to the precinct chairs because has not been involved to any great extent with the local party. But Pascale said that he could raise “$500,000 to $1 million” for local party coffers.

Before he became chairman, Dorazio and his wife, Monica, had each contributed $500 to the candidacy of Hollywood Park Mayor Chris Falls, an insurgent seeking to topple Larson in the March 6 primary. Dorazio as chairman said that he will support the winner of the primary, either Falls or Larson, in the November 6 general election. Larson has been a persistent intra-party critic of Governor Greg Abbott. Straus, meanwhile, is vacating his District 121 seat and did not run for another office in 2018.

A week after Dorazio became county chairman, the county executive committee pushed through a resolution to censure Straus for his RINO positions even though Straus had already announced that he would not seek to remain a House member in 2019. Dorazio's backers were largely the grassroots leaders who bucked Straus and Larson. However, Dorzaio soon found himself in partial agreement with another Bexar County RINO, current justice of the peace in Precinct 3 and a former state senator until his defeat in 2014 by the more conservative Donna Campbell. The party rejected the candidacy of Wentworth's only primary opponent, Russ Latham, after it was found that sixty-five of Latham's petition signers did not reside in Bexar County.

Dorazio is not a candidate for a full-term as party chairman in the March 6 primary but is the Precinct 3091 chairman. Cynthia Brehm, who lost a 2015 bid for mayor of San Antonio and a 2017 race for the District 8 seat on the city council, is one of four candidates seeking the chairmanship. She is also self-identified as a conservative. Other candidates are Dwight Pascale, who lost the interim election to Dorazio, JoAnn Ponce Gonzalez, and Andres Holliday.