August 31, 2024
Last week I spent August 23-25 in Milwaukee attending the Republican National Committee Summer Meeting. This email will report on some of my takeaways.
But First, What Is The Republican National Committee And Who Attends Its Meetings?
The Republican National Committee’s main function is to assist the Republican Party of the United States. It helps to promote the Republican political platform and the “party brand” or image. It helps coordinate fundraising and election strategy. It is also responsible for organizing and running the Republican National Convention.
The RNC is comprised of every Republican State Committee Chair, State National Committeeman, and State National Committeewoman from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States territories of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, America Samoa, and the Marieta Islands. All told, this makes for 168 members of the RNC who serve as a vital liaison between the state party leadership and the national party.
There are typically three annual gatherings of the RNC where members meet. These meetings are the Winter Meeting (typically held in January), the Spring Training, (typically held in April or May) and the Summer Meeting (typically held in late July or in early August). The Winter and Summer Meeting focus on committee business. The Spring Training is focused on educational sessions and allows members to share best practices.
The Republican Presidential Candidate Debates
A highlight of the RNC Summer Meeting was attending the Fox News Republican Presidential candidate debates sponsored by the RNC. Eight candidates attended the debates. To qualify, each candidate had to raise $40,000 from 200 separate qualified donors.
Also, each candidate had to poll at 1% in three national polls or 1% in two national polls and 1% in one poll conducted in one of the four early voting states, i.e., Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, or Nevada. No pollster employed by presidential campaign was counted.
All candidates signed a pledge that they will support the Republican nominee for president. If they break pledge, then the RNC will not invite them to another debate. You probably saw that Asa Hutchinson was the only candidate who said at the debate that he would not support Trump if he were convicted of a crime and received the nomination.
The next debate is September 27, 2024 at Ronald Regan library in California. To qualify, a candidate must have raised $50,000 and must poll at 3%. The requirements to qualify for future debates will continue to grow. The RNC is hoping to hold a third debate sometime in October.
2024 Republican National Convention
Republicans will flock to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from July 15-18, 2024, for our national convention to formally select our party’s next presidential nominee. Idaho will be sending 32 delegates. At the Summer Meeting, the RNC selected Houston, Texas as the location for the 2028 Republican National Convention.
We spoke to some Republican Presidential Candidates about coming in advance of the Idaho 2024 caucus. They were well aware that Idaho has the fifth contest in the nation with 32 delegates up for grabs:
- January 15, 2024, Iowa (40 delegates)
- January __, 2024 New Hampshire (SOS yet to set a date—22 delegates)
- February 8, 2024, Nevada (26 delegates)
- February 24, 2024 South Carolina (50 delegates)
- March 2, 2024 Idaho (32 delegates)
RNC Resolutions Passed At Summer Meeting
A total of eight resolutions were submitted at the Summer Meeting and six of them passed. These resolutions do the following:
- Honor Robert “Mike” Duncan for his service to the Republican Party;
- Urge a “Return to Excellence” in American voting and elections;
- Support an Emergency Declaration for the Southern Border;
- Protect children from unsafe sex trait modification and experimentation;
- Place the vital national interest of the United States first in dealing with communist China; and
- Urge congress to address foreign nationals owning land near U.S. military bases and enforce reciprocal bans
If you want to read any of these resolutions in full, you can click here to access them. Resolutions as Adopted by the Resolutions Committee. No rules or amendments to RNC rules were passed.
Also, some people think resolutions are a nothing burger because they are not “rules.” Please take a look at this article that was published on August 31, 2024 in headlineusa.com. The article features a resolution to abolish the FBI passed by our central committee at our June meeting and says our resolution “sets a model for states to follow.” Click here to read article Idaho GOP Endorses Abolishing the FBI, Setting Model for States to Follow.
RNC Bank Your Vote Initiative
As you may be aware, during the 2020 presidential election and 2022 midterm elections, Democrats “harvested” ballots as a deliberate way of gathering votes. In fact, in Wisconsin, Democrats banked about 40% of their votes before election day whereas Republicans banked about 25% of their votes before election day. To the extent “banking votes” in advance of election day is legal, it makes a lot of sense.
First, an early banked vote is a vote cast. Sometimes people have the best of intentions to vote on election day. But for some reason or another, they don’t actually make it to the polls. If a Republican votes before election day, that Republican vote is “banked” irrespective of subsequent unforeseen circumstances that might prevent that same voter from voting on election day.
Second, in 2022, Democrats spent $600 million more than Republicans in the midterm elections. Once a Republican vote is “banked,” then Republicans don’t need to spend any additional money getting that voter to the polls on election day. This means no money spent on mailers or phone calls. By saving money, Republicans will have additional time and money to seek out independents and other voters to support Republican candidates.
For all these reasons, the RNC has developed a “Bank Your Vote Initiative.” You can click here Bankyourvote.com to learn more. The RNC understands that many Republicans are worried that early voting either in person, by ballot harvesting, or by absentee ballots threatens election integrity. However, the RNC believes that early voting is here to stay and that we as Republicans must afford ourselves of every legal opportunity to compete with the Democrats.
The RNC has a legal team of over 100 lawyers right now in 19 states helping to make sure that early voting is fair and legal. The RNC believes that the “Bank Your Vote Initiative” can and will make a big difference in 2024. I encourage you to find out more at Bankyourvote.com.
Factcheckbiden.com
The RNC also has a website called Factcheckbiden.com where you can learn about facts showing how Joe Biden and the Democrats have failed America. You might find the information useful in writing an article or for preparing for a radio or podcast interview.
Sincerely,
Bryan D. Smith
Idaho National Committeeman
