Dem
51
GOP
49
The headline is not a typo and no, we didn't mean "Democrats in Disarray," at least not for this item. No, actually Republicans are (also) in disarray and are fighting with each other. In particular, while Ronna Romney McDaniel and the RNC get a lot of publicity, the real heavy lifting is done by the state parties, not the national parties. And many of the Republican state parties are being torn apart due to infighting between Trumpists and actual conservatives.
This situation didn't develop organically. No, Steve Bannon and others have developed the precinct strategy, which is focused on taking over the state parties by replacing all the officers with Trumpists. Well, the non-Trumpists didn't go gentle into that good night, so the factions are at war.
In Arizona, for example, the Arizona Republican Party is broke and begging the RNC for money, which the RNC doesn't seem to want to provide, at least not until the state party gets its act together. In January, Jeff DeWit was elected state chair after the disastrous reign of MAGA firebrand and fake elector Kelli Ward, who will soon be indicted fake elector Kelli Ward. Ward decamped to a boat in the Caribbean and DeWit is trying to clean up the mess she left behind. His main approach is to beg McDaniel for money, but she is adamant about not paying the state party's legal bills, which are a big part of the problem. Another hot issue is a lawsuit party treasurer Elijah Norton filed against Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) for defamation.
Even lower down there are problems. Maricopa County Republicans stripped Karrin Taylor Robson, who lost the 2022 gubernatorial primary to pretend-governor Kari Lake, of her position as precinct committee member. Robson's sin was not being Trumpy enough.
In Michigan, it's amateur hour, every hour. Chair Kristina Karamo, a MAGA champion who was a failed AG candidate in 2022, is fighting with the non-Trumpists. She said: "I'm not your milquetoast Republican. So people who want a stuffy, disconnected, elitist party, I'm not their girl, and I'm not going to ask them for anything." But she made a mess of the party's finances. Some people, even her own supporters, are calling for her ouster.
The pressure led Karamo to call an emergency meeting in late October. At the meeting she revealed that as of April, the Party had $265,000 in the bank and $640,000 in debts. Records show that as of August, the Party had only $35,000 in the bank and an unknown amount of debt. One of the members of the budget committee, Jessica Barefield, just resigned. Karamo said she hasn't taken a paycheck since July. When party members began questioning her leadership, she said: "I get stabbed in the back by a lot of opportunists."
Oh, then there is spreadsheetgate. The spreadsheet in question ranked attendees of a Republican conference on a four-point scale, ranging from "patriot" to "RINO." Nobody seems to be able to track down the person who did the rankings. Strange. Maybe some AI program?
Now Georgia. The Georgia Republican Party agreed to pay the legal bills for the 2020 fake electors. The bills are long overdue. The party held an auction to try to raise money to pay the bills. The guy running the auction said: "I know I'm going to get in trouble for this, but our general has not lifted a finger to help the Georgia GOP." The "general" is Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA), who fell out with the state party over the fake electors scheme. His response was to ask the state legislature to create a new type of political committee, with no contribution limits, so he can solicit donations and use the committee as a slush fund to bypass the official Georgia Republican Party, with which he is at war. Kemp is a conservative, but has fought with Trump and regards the state Party as being held hostage by extremists.
These are merely three states where the state parties are engaged in auto-immolation. Nevada and several others are just as bad. And remember, the state parties are the ones who arrange for boots on the ground in the months before the election. The RNC can provide money if it wants to, but the state parties do the actual work. (V)