By Nate Leupp, Chairman of the Fourth Congressional District

It’s been a little over a week since the First Quarter Executive Committee Meeting of the South Carolina Republican Party and many of you have questions about what is going on with the Precinct Reorganization and County Convention. There has been a lot of false information disseminated that is causing confusion. The correct information will be coming from the SCGOP. I am able to give you the information that we learned from the State EC meeting.

Let me start by saying that it is the duty of each county party’s executive committeeman to attend the quarterly meetings in Columbia and report back to his/her county what happens. It is not, nor ever has been, the job of the SCGOP to later contact each of the individual 46 counties and reiterate what was clearly stated or go over events that happened. Unfortunately, Greenville’s EC has done a poor job in relaying correct information and things that happen during the quarterly meetings.

I’ve written before about Greenville’s EC being in the room where the reconvening of the State Convention was discussed, a motion was made, debated, and then unanimously approved but he walked out of that room unable to recall any of that—even after the audio was released. It seems like something similar may have happened after this last meeting or that the information he shared fell on deaf ears. He recently wrote that a false statement was made to the State Committee that Greenville has cancelled their monthly EC meetings and will now go eight months without the regularly scheduled business meetings. The last one was October, 2022 and the next one will be June, 2023. If you’re like me, you’re using your fingers to count, and the answer is indeed eight. If there has been a regularly scheduled business meeting or one is scheduled between 10/22 and 6/23, please let me know and I will correct my statement.

The purpose of this email is not to have those loyal to MYSCGOP believe any information I give. Frankly, I hope that they refuse and continue to follow the false information being sent out by the MYSCGOP. This email is for anyone who wants to know to the best of my knowledge what really will be happening the next few months. I’m confident that in a few months, everyone will know without question who was disseminating correct information and who was responsible for the fake news.

One significant announcement at the meeting was that Chairman Drew McKissick was elected as the co-chair for the Republican National Committee. This is an incredible thing for our State, especially as the Presidential Preference Primary approaches. He will remain our State Chairman and announced he is running for another term. Chairman McKissick did share with us that he created an email account and used that to sign up for MYSCGOP emails. This is a common practice to monitor the sharing of email lists. Over a period, that email account started receiving emails for other political groups (which he listed on a PowerPoint slide.) That email account then started receiving emails from the Democrat running for SC Governor, meaning that one of those groups who received that email address shared it with the Democrats, likely after a primary defeat. I don’t know how allegations of photoshopping even originated because everyone in the room paying attention should have been able to follow exactly what was being said.

The chairman of the Rules Committee presented a recommendation to the State Executive Committee that “The rules committee recommends that the State Executive Committee vote to take over the Reorganization and County Convention in Greenville County. The reorganization and county convention will be run by the SCGOP staff and governed under the rules of the South Carolina Republican Party.”

During the debate, a county chairwoman made the point that if Greenville’s current leadership “had been doing things properly, ethically, and with integrity, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now” in answering the chairman from Anderson’s claim that there is no reason for the SCGOP to intervene in Greenville.

I reminded the body of two specific instances that the Executive Committee has found Greenville to be in violation of rules and that they have refused to follow specific directives in correcting both. The first was that Walt Horin after “exhaustive research” was found not to meet both Greenville and the SCGOP’s rule and not qualified to hold the position. Walt Horin was improperly elected to the position responsible for running ReOrg. Every member should be asking for Walt Horin to release his public voting record. The second was that the State EC found Greenville to be in violation for improperly targeting and removing executive committeemen and directed that they be reinstated. Both directives were clear but ignored. I also brought up arguably the most egregious violation any organization can make which is not allowing a member to bring motions before the body and following the clear process given in rules of order. Greenville has invented a “motions committee” which is a clear violation of the process required in rules of order.

Another chair reminded the body that Greenville violated state law and state rules in the overturning of an election. As you may recall, an incumbent protested the election results giving specific examples of “irregularities” but when each example was investigated, not a single one was found to be an irregularity. One example was a couple that was not allowed to vote but they were found not to even live in the district. The SCGOP Executive Committee had to make a special trip to Columbia, heard indisputable evidence for each allegation, and overturned the radical decision.

The 2023 Precinct Reorganization and Convention will be run by the SCGOP. It will not be “overseeing” or “co-hosting.” Tabitha Bone who headed up the very successful VICTORY campaign in the Upstate will be in charge under the SCGOP. The SCGOP has not released the dates for ReOrg, Makeup, or the Convention, but my understanding is that they will not be what the MYSCGOP has published. I also believe that precinct presidents will be running their individual precinct meetings but do not need to secure individual locations at this time.

It was made clear during the discussion that the ReOrg and Convention will be run according to SCGOP rules (as the higher body) and that there will be no convention or ballot fees this cycle. The SCGOP will be covering all the costs associated with ReOrg and the Convention. This takes out any possible allegations associated with the fees. If someone tells you that you must pay any fee, please report that to the SCGOP.

I believe that Tabitha will be contacting the precinct presidents soon and giving them all the information that they will need to run a successful precinct reorganization. Until then, members should ignore information from other sources.

Nate Leupp | Chairman | Fourth Congressional District, SCGOP

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