M. Trey Newton – running for county commissioner in Precinct 2 in the March 2026 Republican Primary against Justin Martin and Kevin Pounds – grew up in Austin but asked folks not hold that against him.
“That’s how I got my early start in politics. Literally, I tell people I was stuffing mail at age 6. I think my first word was ‘redistricting,’” Newton said.
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“My father worked for John Tower,” Newton said of the former U.S. Senator.
His dad, Norman, was also the founder and longtime executive director of the Associated Republicans of Texas, Newton said.
“Got out of Austin – went to Texas Tech. Didn’t finish up at Tech because there were some health issues in my family and I had to go back and help them in Austin,” Newton said.
“My wife went to Texas Tech – graduated law school. As soon as we could get back to Lubbock, we did. My son, he just graduated from Tech with his master’s in physics,” Newton said.
His younger son just enlisted in the Army.
“I teach martial arts. … My hobby is hitting people and having them hit me,” Newton said.
Early in his career, he went to work at the state Capitol as a staffer for the House Energy Resources Committee. He later worked as chief of staff for the Texas Railroad Commissioner and assistant chief of staff for the Texas Comptroller. He worked as deputy land commissioner.
“Those are state agencies … that have budgets in hundreds of millions of dollars. And essentially, I’m going to take that experience and try to help with the county government because we’ve got some issues here,” Newton said.
He’s also got experience as a political consultant – for example as an advisor to both George P. Bush and Carole Keeton (Strayhorn) Rylander when they were successful candidates for statewide office.
He owns Guidepost Strategic Partners, a political consulting firm.
“We do opinion polls. We analyze voter data. … We help with fundraising plans, direct mail, text messaging, digital ad placement – I mean – pretty much soup to nuts,” Newton said.
But for Newton, this experience is brand new.
“I never, ever expected to run for office. … I’ve been running campaigns for years. So going from being a coach to going on the field is something different,” Newton said.
“The neat part is just actually getting around and meeting folks and, that which I don’t get to normally do when I’m running campaigns,” Newton added.
Why Newton is running
“Lubbock is really a special place. It’s home. And the last thing I want Lubbock to do is turn into another Austin, San Antonio, something like that,” he said.
“The first thing is the Expo Center. That’s a very serious problem, and the fact that more people aren’t concerned about it is a little concerning to me,” Newton said.
Commissioners voted 4-1 in favor of next steps for the Expo Center, which LubbockLights.com covered here.
“I’ve got some experience in public-private partnerships and budgeting, zero-based budgeting, and I just want to try to help out,” Newton said.
He mentioned zero-based budgeting multiple times.
“The short version is you start every new year fresh. You start from zero. And you don’t base your budget on what the budget was in previous year. You re-justify every mission – everything that you’re doing,” Newton said.
The county budget has been growing too fast – even if population growth and inflation are factored in, he said.
His priority is the budget.
“Just seeing what’s going on at Commissioners Court – the budget. I want to take some of that experience to help things out and try to help with the budget and the whole process,” Newton said.
“There’s ways for government to be efficient, just like families. … The government doesn’t just get magic and make more money. It’s taxpayer dollars,” Newton said.
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