I’ve been in politics since 1988. Over the years, I’ve done everything from precinct caucus chair to statewide leader of the Texas Republican Party. I’ve seen the political game. I understand the interactions between campaign consultants, party officials and grassroots activists. I’ve lived it. But what I experienced at a closed-door meeting in Milwaukee on Monday was something new.
I was elected by Republicans from Texas to be one of two Republican National Committee members. I have been elected to this committee at five previous national conventions. I was sent to the national convention to defend those areas because I had heard there was a coordinated effort to remove or weaken the traditional pro-life and pro-family platforms in our existing platform. Together with pro-family leaders from around the country, we began coordinating efforts in advance of the committee meeting to keep those platforms strong.
Our party must always abide by its own duly established rules, including those calling for transparency, and must not break or ignore them for any candidate.
We knew that the Trump campaign had attempted to recruit hand-picked delegates to platform committees in some states, had sabotaged other selected delegates, and at times had campaign officials organize unauthorized parallel conventions that did not follow Republican guidelines or rules to achieve their goals. In many cases, these delegates were more loyal to the campaign than to the campaign process. It soon became clear that the campaign had a clear majority.
All 112 Platform Committee representatives were supposed to attend an orientation meeting on Sunday night, where the chairman was supposed to give us a first draft of the platform to review that night so that we could begin subcommittee work the next day. But this time, that didn’t happen. We were not given a platform to review, and all committee business was adjourned.
According to party rules, national policy deliberations have traditionally been streamed live, usually on C-Span, for global viewing. That wasn’t the case this time.
The next morning, each delegate entering the room to begin work on their speech was asked to place their cellphones and smartwatches in sealed Faraday bags that only RNC or campaign staff could open. In fact, when one delegate later removed his or her computer to take notes, eight staff members and two security guards arrived and physically took the computer away. However, RNC and campaign staff were allowed to keep and use the cellphones and devices.
At least 50 RNC staffers were lined along the walls, pacing the delegates as if we were grade-schoolers in after-school class, making sure no one was using hidden phones or computers.
The RNC skipped the normal subcommittee meetings and went straight to reviewing platform language that no one had ever been allowed to see before. Of course, we had lots of questions and objections, but the chairs quickly shut them down. Delegate Tony Perkins of Louisiana and State Senator Jim Dotson of Arkansas both tried to speak and ask questions, but the chairs quickly shut them down and the elected delegates voted it down.
Whenever voting was taking place, campaign staffers were in the front row walking around holding signs that read “Vote Yes,” instructing the campaign’s elected delegates on how to vote on each issue. One first-time delegate asked the person sitting next to him why he did this, and the answer was, “They think you’re not as smart as you think you are.”
Our traditional values side never voted more than 29 times against the campaign’s heavy-handed tactics. The intimidation was too strong. In fact, as the votes were being taken, staffers took photos of the delegates who voted against the campaign and the RNC’s heavy-handed tactics.
Ironically, the platform was passed with less than an hour of actual voting and debate time – none of the content developed during the campaign was changed or even considered.To understand this, in the last four conventions, we have spent an entire week crafting our platform from the grassroots level, starting with subcommittee meetings and then having the full committee approve and present the final product.
This election cycle process – down to every move, every moment, and every vote – was completely coordinated and executed by the campaign and RNC staff. This was brilliantly executed as a political heavy-handed move by the campaign and RNC leadership, but at the same time it completely destroyed the transparent grassroots process that was the hallmark of the Republican platform development process.
When the meeting closed, more than 20 participants held an informalPlatform Minority Report” It reads as follows:
The Declaration is the heritage of all Americans, slave and free, male and female, poor and rich, always true and striving to be true. For Republicans, from the party’s inception, the words of the Declaration have taken shape in two overarching moral propositions: the rejection and abolition of slavery and polygamy, which our first platform of 1856 called “the twin relics of barbarism.” We recognize with sober reflection how great the price Americans paid to fulfill the promises of that platform, and how long it took for those goals to be achieved.
Today we see the vitality of a more recent but similar set of commitments, most notably the Republican Party’s promise to protect the right to life of every human being from conception until natural death, which was included in the 1976 Platform, 120 years after the first Congress in Philadelphia. Our commitment to the Human Life Amendment and our call for extending the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment to the unborn child have been repeated in every subsequent platform, and with this Statement of Principles we now expand upon them. At no time, and for no reason prompted by the exigencies of the political situation, can we or should we abandon the lofty principles which, by the grace of God, created this party and which have sustained it for three centuries.
I will be actively engaged from now until November, but I also believe that looking beyond the next election, we must work to preserve and advance the enduring ideals that will ensure life and prosperity for future generations. Further, I believe that the ends do not justify the means, even if they are for our own good.
To be clear, I am not criticizing this year’s platform, but the process. While the pro-life, pro-family, and pro-Israel positions have been noticeably weakened, there are still many aspects of the 57-point platform that I enthusiastically support. This includes Donald Trump’s plans for fighting crime, increasing energy production, securing the border, defederalizing education, protecting women’s sports, and many other issues that Republicans and decent Americans consider important.
If Republicans remain silent now, they may miss out on having a say in the party platform in the future.
The long-term danger of this platform-writing process is that it sets a precedent for future Republican presidential candidates to make their platforms their personal campaign issues. While every campaign should have an issue and publish a platform, the Republican Party’s platform has historically been a statement of the beliefs and principles of Republicans, not of any particular candidate. This tradition dates back to 1856, when the platform was first written. Our principles should always transcend and outlive any individual candidate’s term in office.
To ensure grassroots influence in the future, average Republicans must contact their state Republican National Committee members and advocate for restoring the process. Our party should always follow its own formally established rules, including those that call for transparency. We should respect our candidates and not break or ignore the rules.
Going forward, state Republicans across the country will reaffirm their commitment to pro-life, pro-family, and pro-Israel principles through their state party platforms: By expressing your thoughts The Republican National Committee leadership must be informed of the process and platform. If Republicans remain silent now, they may lose an opportunity to have a say in the party platform in the future.
But the choices in the November election remain stark. Former President Trump was by far the leading candidate on family issues and demonstrated his support for these issues during his four years in office, including through his judicial nominations. only There are two genders, parents’ rights over their children outweigh the rights of government officials, the US Department of Education is unconstitutional and must be abolished, the weaponization of government must be stopped, etc.
President Trump has said all of this 2024 Election Pledges — A book that every American should read.
Then read Joe Biden and the Democratic Party platform. Their latest platform is: 2020; the campaign is expected to be announced by the end of August.
Then make your choice, vote, and ask your friends to vote too.
