Letter to State Central Committee
Dear State Central Committee members:
I only had some of your emails, so I was not able to write the whole SCC.
As you meet tomorrow at the Advance, I think you all need to have a serious, serious discussion on the structure of the SCC and even what the RPV and the House and Senate caucuses and local units and districts are doing wrong given the drubbing we got at the hand of the Democrats.
Sorry, but blaming this on Trump hatred and “we’ll come back” is not going to work. Republicans were losing statewide BEFORE Trump arrived on the scene, and the party leaders ignored my pleas for better outreach to non-white voting groups.
I grew up in New Jersey and lived in Maryland before moving to Virginia in 2002 and the GOP in these now very Blue states are incapable of winning major elections — and with the Democrats consolidating their power by giving favored treatment to unions (potentially getting rid of right to wok and the Dillon Rule), they have the potential to have their clutches on all of us.
I come to you as a concerned Virginia Republican and former office holder, and I have been very active in helping recruit and mentor candidates.
Sorry, but many of YOU are part of the problem because you look too narrowly at what the RPV and SCC should do.
Consultants should not have any leadership role on the SCC. I was a candidate for State Senate in Fairfax County in 2023 and saw how the consultants for the Spirit PAC and House and Senate caucuses — like with sears this year — walked away with gobs of money, while the rest of us went down the drain — and with that, gov. Youngkin’s agenda.
I wish the SCC would NOT pick a replacement for Mark Peake by a decision among the 79 of you. Indeed the Party plan states:
SECTION C. Vacancies 1. A vacancy in the office of State Chairman shall be filled by the State Central Committee until the next regular State Convention, which shall then elect a State Chairman to fill the remaining unexpired portion of the term of the vacating State Chairman.
I don’t think this precludes you at this meeting or in January to amend the plan to allow for a vote by rank-and-file Republicans, who can pay a $35 fee to vote. You can do a firehouse primary or see if there is a means to have secure online voting. A broad vote will generate more emails and people to get engaged with the GOP. I don’t think not having a chair until March is going to hurt anybody.
I recognize this is much more difficult for the candidates for RPV chairman, and I am sure lots of you LOVE getting buttonholed for ego purposes. Read my critique here: https://www.baconsrebellion.com/scott-pios-95-theses/
But if you really love Virginia and want it to have a future as a two -party state, do not get into the rut of just doing the same old thing over and over again.
Please put aside your egos and be willing to do what is best for All of Virginia, not just the Red areas.
Throw the vote for chairman to the Republican rank and file instead of making this a closed-doors decision by 79 people, many of who were not even elected to their positions because they were appointed by YOU all.
We will never win a statewide election again unless a very wealth guy like Glenn Youngkin comes along again as long as the RPV sticks with an aged party plan, refuses to add representation from black, Latino, Muslim, Hindu/Sikh, Jews, gays and other GOP groups, and allows political consultants to rule and ignoring the many elected office holders out there — including on the municipal and county level — and acts like this is an exclusive clique, you only have yourselves to blame for continued defeat
It’s time to end the Good old Boys and Girls network and put PERFORMANCE ahead of Self PROFIT and PERSONALITY.
All too many of you vote for people like Mark Peake who was a nice man, but had state senate duties, without even thinking what he could or could not do to finish Rich Anderson’s term.
I welcome your feedback. Good luck at the Advance and make it into more than just a networking hob knobbing event, like the musicians playing for the passengers jumping off the Titanic in the movie.
Thank you!
Hon. Kenneth Reid
Former Leesburg Town Councilmember and Loudoun County Supervisor, 2006 to 2017
Member, Loudoun County Republican Committee, 2003 to 2017; and since 2023Author, The Six Secrets to Winning Any Local Election & Navigating Elected Office Once You Win, www.KenReid.org
15 comments
Of course, before Youngkin can succeed Noem, he’ll have to shoot a puppy or two.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/26/trump-kristi-noem-shot-dog-and-goat-book
White House officials have grown frustrated with Kristi Noem’s leadership of the Department of Homeland Security, leading to calls for a new secretary to more aggressively support key parts of the president’s deportation agenda, two sources familiar with the situation told MS NOW.
President Trump is considering removing Noem as secretary as early as January, according to a White House official, a current federal official and two former Homeland Security officials.
Noem is on “very thin ice,” a White House official told MS NOW, adding she will likely be replaced early next year. The White House official added that Stephen Miller, President Trump’s deputy chief of staff, is leading the charge to remove Noem.
Frustrations from Miller and other senior White House officials are two-fold. Noem isn’t moving fast enough to build out more detention centers with the money approved in Trump’s big summer spending bill, the White House official and a federal official said. The bill directed $170 billion toward immigration enforcement, with some $75 billion going to ICE alone. That massive cash infusion included $45 billion specifically for detention facilities.
Multiple governors have also called Trump personally and voiced frustration with Noem’s handling of FEMA and disaster relief funds, the White House official told MS NOW.
” Frustrations from Miller and other senior White House officials are two-fold. Noem isn’t moving fast enough to build out more detention centers . . . ”
Hitler didn’t think the SS was killing gypsies, homosexuals, and Jews fast enough, so, he ordered extermination camps and gas chambers.
Trump has learned his lesson well.
When President Donald Trump’s administration last month awarded a contract worth up to $1.2 billion to build and operate what it says will become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex, it didn’t turn to a large government contractor or even a firm that specializes in private prisons.
Instead, it handed the project on a military base to Acquisition Logistics LLC, a small business that has no listed experience running a correction facility and had never won a federal contract worth more than $16 million. The company also lacks a functioning website and lists as its address a modest home in suburban Virginia owned by a 77-year-old retired Navy flight officer named Ken A. Wagner.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/mystery-surrounds-1-2-billion-army-contract-to-build-huge-detention-tent-camp-in-texas-desert
The fact is that Youngkin will soon (40 days) be out of the job of Virginia governor – thank god, as Youngkin was a DISASTER! – and will be looking for some way to stay relevant politically in the Trump/MAGA GOP, with an eye on the 2028 presidential race obviously. Since Youngkin won’t hold elective office, and apparently isn’t going to run against Sen. Mark Warner next year, that means Youngkin’s pretty much desperate for ANYTHING, even if it yet again requires him to do heinous shit. But sad to say, with Youngkin and his ilk, ALL they care about is money and power for themselves, regardless of the harm they do to the country, to people’s lives, etc. It’s truly despicable, but…nope, not surprising, sad to say, because that’s how the Youngkins of the world roll.
Histrionic liberal nut job! Glenn Youngkin retired from Carlyle Group and socked at least $20 million of his own money into a campaign for governor , facing a multi-candidate nominating process, and spent four years devoted to Virgina — not himself. and what “harm” did he do to Virginia given it has a surplus — vs. Democrat run s tates which have deficits — a good jobs picture, yada yada yada?
“spent four years devoted to Virginia”?
He spent his first year chasing around the country campaigning for 15 Trump-supported candidates and all 15 LOST.
His governorship was so successful that voters rejected his entire administration by historic margins.
Is Trump about to fire DHS Secretary Noem and replace her with a soon-to-be-former VA governor?
I don’t think Noem is in trouble, is she? But youngkin would be a great addition to the cabinet, if there were an opening. he also knows a lot about China and international trade. Could be very helpful there, as he was in Trump 1.0. I still hope he runs for US Senate against warner
He knows so much about China and international trade that when he was assigned the China portfolio at Carlyle, he lasted a year and they fired him.
It really shouldn’t be just those who can afford a $35 filing fee. There are many Republicans who are unable or unwilling to spend $35 to vote for the party chairman. I am a widow, living on what is left of my husband’s retirement. As a former member of both the 8th and 10th district committees, I would dearly love to be able to be included in those allowed to vote, but I really am afraid to spend that extra $35 at this time.
The problem is that many have a high “RC” factor – Resistance to Change. Nevertheless, the GOP list of successes is few, and manly based upon a superstar. We need better leaders.
The RNC didn’t ‘create’ the tea party any more than it created the MAGA movement. RNC and RPV embraced those movements. And, that Black President (Obama) and Bernie Sanders have created a socialist cult in this nation that is far more “cancerous” . Democrats need to purge themselves of the Mamdani AOC Aftyn Behn types.
The RPV will continue to wander in the electoral wilderness for years to come because of the Tea Party. Formed by the RNC after the election of a Black President, the Tea Party was NOT a grassroots phenomena — it was planned, funded, and controlled by several deep-pocketed billionaires who wanted to take over a political party. Which is what they have done — except the Tea Party has morphed into the Trump Cult and you will not purge yourself of this cancer for a generation.
Wrong (again!). The anti-tax crowd existed long before Obama was elected. But Obama’s socialist leanings galvanized the movement. As an original tea partier (of the 21st century), I recall going to rallies when everyone at the rally just talked about taxation and rising socialism in America. The movement grew, Obama gave it rocket fuel, and others then glommed onto it’s poularity and diluted the original anti-tax message. A simple google search will demonstrated to those that can’t make simple online queries that the movement and the name Tea Party started before Obama entered the national stage.
Thanks, Dave. I said something similar in resposne to the person who made that post