Virginia GOP abandons controversial campaign pledge
Two days prior to the Iowa Caucus, Virginia GOP leaders announced that they will no longer require a party loyalty pledge during the primary in March.
According to Virginia political blog, The Blue Elephant, the party’s State Central Committee (SCC) met Saturday and voted unanimously to repeal the pledge it had adopted in September 2015. Controversy erupted around the pledge which required voters to certify, “I am a republican,” Most notably from front runner, Donald Trump.
“It begins, The Republican Party of Virginia, controlled by the RNC, is working hard to disallow independent, unaffiliated and new voters. BAD!,” Trump said in a tweet in December.
“If they don’t stop excluding people the party is doomed. Hillary and the Democrats love this. The Republican Party in Virginia keeps losing. They really need to be smart and win for a change,” Trump said.
In January, The Washington Post reported that Three African American Pastors had filed a lawsuit against the Virginia Board of elections. In their statement to the court
In the lawsuit, the pastors claimed that the poll imposes “the burden of fear and backlash.” that amounted to a literacy test.
The African American Pastors had not acted on behalf of the trump campaign, and claimed that the pledge would discourage minority voters.
“While my campaign is not involved, I fully support Dr. Steve Parson and his fellow plaintiffs. He is representing millions of disenfranchised people in America who have felt left out of the political process for years, and that has to stop,” Trump said.
“Hillary Clinton’s campaign is imploding and Democrats are poised to potentially nominate an admitted socialist, John Whitbeck, Republican Party of Virginia chairman said in a statement, “Now more than ever, Virginia will determine the future of Country, as voters will look to the Republican Party as the future of the Presidency.”
supporting the decision, Whitbeck called for party unity.
“In light of this, we must put this issue to rest once and for all and move forward with the business of winning the White House in 2016,” Whitbeck said.
Virginia Republican party officials in a press release claim that the decision to retract the made was not made because of the lawsuit, but because of editing made by the state board of elections.
“The SCC originally had approved the statement in September 2015, but the Democrat-controlled State Board of Elections altered and adopted a form.”
The original 47 word statement had been edited down to 9 words.
Corey Stewart (R – At Large), chairman of both the Prince William Board of county supervisors and Trump’s Virginia campaign told the Washington Post that the party’s decision may have come to late.
“They’ve already printed the absentee ballots,” said Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large), chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors and of Trump’s Virginia campaign.
Staff Writer, Andrew Crider
Andrew is a junior economics major who has written for student newspapers since he was in high school. Andrew is interested in political history, aviation, photography and running. He has a tendency to refer to his peers, coworkers and bosses as “ma’am” or “sir,” but is getting better about referring to his friends at the CT by their first names instead. // Facebook
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