This time last week, I was honestly excited about the CRNC convention. I was just told officially I was going to be a delegate and would help Virginia elect our chosen daughter as CRNC chair. That was an exciting thing to do, even if it would take long hours on a Saturday over a Zoom call. It became increasingly clear over the next couple of days however, that this was going to be anything but fun.
The story that was told to me was that the reason some state federations lost delegates was due to a failure to fill out or turn in an important form of paperwork. With all of the information at my disposal now, I no longer feel like I was told the full story. The email leaked yesterday seems to confirm to me a major suspicion: that the now-former chairman of the CRNC conspired late in the game to use a favorable loophole to allow his chosen successor to succeed.
It disappoints me how this has all transpired, and I feel guilty myself to an extent because of how I allowed it to happen. The amount of states that were disqualified was way more than it ever should have been. The fact this loophole was used only against federations that supported the Ignite ticket shows a clear plan – to get enough Ignite states defederated so that the Amplify ticket would win. There is clear and obvious collusion between the two parties in that regard.
Where the CRNC Needs to Go
There is simply nowhere else to go but the RNC stepping into CRNC business. The need for more main party control over the college branch is now clearly necessary, and I do believe that means redoing the election or calling a special session of state chairs. The main reasoning I have for redoing the election is the quick degeneration of platforms on a basis of a colluded scheme between the Amplify ticket and the then leadership at the CRNC. The most blatantly example of this came in Arkansas disqualification, which I’ll elaborate later in the article. The reasoning behind that was weak and should have never happened. I myself asked to vote aye to allow Arkansas delegates. I was denied by my chair, who said that Virginia needed to vote in a bloc.
That incident in of itself has continued to leave a bad taste in my mouth and is a big reason as to why I’m speaking out. That’s because I do care about College Republicans, and I do care about what we do at state levels. I believe most of the state level organizations are doing fantastic work, but the national organization needs fixing. And what happened on Saturday, if it is allowed to stay that way, will end this great organization. The collusion that occurred was to allow Courtney Hope Britt to win on Saturday. To me, that is the worst way to run a group. If you seem set to lose, I believe you lose with honor. Not use a loophole to rig the game for yourself.
I am disappointed that this event has also tarnished the reputation of my home branch of Virginia. I care deeply about the state and its elections, as I hope has been shown by my work in them so far. Both for the CRFV and this website. I hope that the divide that has been made can be healed. The real issue is the current and former leadership of the CRNC. They need to answer for the events on Saturday, and Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel needs to step in and take control of the situation. If she doesn’t, the best organizing branch of college-age Republicans will fall, and I cannot stand back and see that happen.
The Issue with Arkansas
As I alluded to, Arkansas situation was different than others who were disqualified. While Arkansas had completed their paperwork, accusations of fraud within their leadership elections is what disqualified them. The issue I have is that there was no evidence of fraud in their elections. If we are accusing a federation of fraud without proof, isn’t that exactly like what we as College Republicans have been begging older Republicans to stop doing in regards to 2020?
It was disgraceful that Arkansas lost its delegates Saturday – especially over weak accusations of fraud. Them keeping their delegates may not have changed the final result, but they deserved their vote.
If the RNC Doesn’t Get Involved
The Declaration of Independence of our nation says that “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards for their future security.” And at the end of the day, this was a usurpation – one by Chandler Thornton, in a very real sense, to cover up what I would argue are some shady financial disclosures, which you can watch here. If the RNC decides to leave us well enough alone, I support New York, Arkansas, Texas, and any other state federation disenfranchised in their right of self determination.
As I believed with the issue regarding Orthodox Jewish voters in the Virginia convention, RNC intervention is necessary, or else it will be a catastrophic failure for all involved. For College Republicans to be united again, I ask Chairwoman McDaniel to step in and take over. As it used to be, the RNC must watch over the CRNC as a guiding hand.