Skip to content

Candidate Profile: Stirling Morris for Collin County Democratic Party Chair

Meet your candidates! It’s an election year, and here at Plano Profile we strive to connect our community; part of that is helping educate the community and giving candidates a platform to address the community.
self
Photo Courtesy of Stirling Morris

Meet your candidates!

It’s an election year, and here at Plano Profile we strive to connect our community; part of that is helping educate the community and giving candidates a platform to address the community.

All of the following opinions are that of the candidate, not Plano Profile. Any and all candidates have the opportunity to fill out our questionnaire to be published on our website, contact us at [email protected] for more information.

Meet Stirling Morris who is running for Collin County Democratic Party Chair.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

For over 16 years, I’ve worked on projects across the U.S. in the Construction Industry to help build the world around us. I’ve served on industry nonprofit boards and executive steering committees. I understand what it takes to be Project Team member as well as the importance of being a champion for progress and change.

Always a lifelong progressive, my activism started in 2013. Working with both the Collin County Democratic Party and Battleground Texas, I rolled up my sleeves to support the Wendy Davis campaign. Since then, I’ve served on the Collin County Democratic Party’s Communications, Technology, and Events Committees, and I was an active, engaged supporter for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign in 2016.

I’ve worked tirelessly to engage voters for the past few years alone. In addition to my recent, openly progressive Democratic candidacy for Plano City Council, for which I was endorsed by both the Texas Democratic Party and Collin County Democratic Party, I continue to assist other progressive candidates.

Why are you running for office?

I’m ready to roll up my sleeves to make the necessary changes that will provide a vision of the future for Collin County Democratic Party. I’m ready to unify our party with the needs of all Collin County citizens. I’m ready to educate Collin County voters, keep them informed, and encourage them to actively support the CCDP. I’m ready to empower candidates with the necessary tools and resources to run and win.

And I’m ready to do what no other Collin County Democratic Party Chair has done in decades: I’m ready to get Democratic Party candidates running for partisan office elected in 2018 and beyond.

Read more: Candidate Profile: Sharon Hirsch for Texas House District 66

What makes you the most qualified person for this position?

Understanding that our priority, as citizens and as the Collin County Democratic Party​, is to improve the world we live in is vital to party growth. Getting Democrats elected will be the result of that work. We need to create a Vision that exemplifies the diversity of Collin County while growing future Democratic leaders along the way. And we need to remind each other to always look forward.

What issues are your top priorities? Name three.

We need to increase voter turnout, align ourselves with our community thus creating unity, and establish continuous improvement programs to educate voter and empower candidates with the tools and resources they need to run and to win. Fundraising and growing the party and its efforts will be the organic outcome of those priorities.

What changes would you implement and how?

We have to assess and revamp our existing infrastructure. From there, we’ll develop Short and Long Term Goals, incorporate those into an Infrastructure Redevelopment Initiative, and then implement that into a Strategic Development Plan that doesn’t exist today.
Building upon our Field Organization effort, we will restructure committee focus, create training initiatives for Volunteers, expand Coordinated Campaign work, and implement a Public Relations plan improving our Marketing and Community Outreach.

Long term goals are to utilize a new Strategic Development Plan as a living document and embrace continuous improvement practices. Minimally, this includes a focus on every county judicial seat currently ignored, developing new Fundraising and Donor Relation efforts, and hiring a new an Executive Director.

Read more: Candidate Profile: Lorie Burch for U.S. House of Representatives, Texas District 3

What factors in your life have shaped your beliefs?

As a native Texan, I’ve seen a lot of growth and change in our great state. Inspired to fill the hearts and minds of the next generation with my passion for innovation, I became a public school teacher. And although my path in life has ultimately taken me in a different direction, I still incorporate that sense of lifelong learning and continuous improvement in everything I do.

What do you believe should be the function of government?  

I’m a firm believer that government should always be, as Abraham Lincoln put it,  “…of the people, by the people and for the people.” As citizens, we should all feel empowered to add our voices to the government, and that often starts locally. Not everyone comes from politics, but everyone should have an opportunity to add their voice to the conversation.