The race for Montgomery County’s open Precinct 1 commissioner seat just got a lot more interesting with the announcement that pastor and Conroe ISD school board member Dale Inman will run for the position.
“The citizens of Montgomery County deserve strong, capable servant leadership,” Inman told Texas Scorecard.
Inman, a longtime Republican activist, is expected to be a strong contender for the position. As a precinct chair, he co-authored a resolution calling for the resignation of then-Speaker Joe Straus and voted for a change to the Montgomery County Republican Party bylaws that decentralized power and opened up the party to the grassroots. He has served on the MCRP Steering Committee and led the local GOP to a resounding win in the last election as chairman of the 2018 Victory Committee.
In 2018, Inman was elected to the Conroe ISD school board, where he gained a reputation as the lone “no” vote against the district’s higher spending. He was the only director who did not vote for the $807 million bond that failed in 2018, and during the most recent budget, he helped push the district to adopt a tax rate below the effective rate, giving residents a tax cut for the first time in years.
When asked about his top priorities, Inman cited zero-based budgeting, increasing transparency, and managing Precinct 1’s explosive growth. Inman told Texas Scorecard that Montgomery County should be adopting the effective rate or lower every year. “The effective rate should be the standard every year. It should be the ceiling, not the floor we’re trying to reach.”
Inman resides in Conroe with his wife Kelley, the daughter of former Houston Oilers linebacker and current Administrative Judge Olen Underwood, and their two daughters. Dale is the senior pastor at Autumn Creek Baptist Church and ministers to inmates through Texas’ Rehabilitation Programs Division. He builds houses as a side job. Inman also has extensive disaster relief experience, having volunteered with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief on efforts from Florida to Lebanon.
Inman’s entrance into the race brings the field of candidates to three. In 2020’s March 3 Republican Primary, he will face feed store owner Robert Walker, the cousin and handpicked successor of current Precinct 1 Commissioner Mike Meador; and Billy Graff, a pastor who runs IConnect Ministries, a disaster relief nonprofit.
The winner of the primary is almost certain to be the next commissioner in this heavily Republican area.
