 Early in the 2014 campaign, Emmett, who had no intraparty rival, donated $90,000 from his own campaign funds to engineer-turned-lawyer Paul Simpson, who in the primary unseated Jared Woodfill, the 12-year chairman of the Harris County Republican Party.Woodfill carried the backing of former chairman Gary M. Polland, State Senator Dan Patrick, the new lieutenant governor, and Paul Bettencourt, the former Harris County tax assessor-collector and Patrick's successor in the District 7 seat in the state Senate.Emmett, however, claims that Woodfill in 2012 took personal credit for the establishment of "victory centers" when the sites were the work of Emmett and the state Republican party.