Horry County GOP censures SC Republican Party leader (called fellow Republicans 'lepers')

Save for a staunch dedication to former President Donald Trump, there’s not much Horry County Republicans agree on these days.

But Monday night, following a lengthy and often raucous meeting of the Horry County GOP on the campus of the Horry Georgetown Technical College, the local party voted to censure South Carolina GOP leader Drew McKissick, a significant rebuke of a key party leader as the Republican Party navigates a post-Trump political landscape.

The vote to censure McKissick — which follows comments the state party chairman made about the Greenville County Republican Party last week — is also significant for South Caroilna, as the GOP here works to solidify its dedication to Trump after emerging from a messy leadership election in which McKissick beat back a challenge from pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood. The South Carolina GOP was remarkably successful in 2020 — flipping a Democratic congressional seat, shoring up majorities in the state legislature and securing victories for Sen. Lindsey Graham and Trump — but Trump’s loss nationally has fueled factions in the party that blame one another for not being pro-Trump enough or not being conservative enough.

When the people do something the Ruling Oligarchy doesn’t like, they have mechanisms to ignore or go around them.

From the article:

In his email to state leaders, McKissick said that rather than support the official Greenville County Republican Party, the South Carolina party would instead support “auxiliary” groups to advance conservative electoral causes in the region.

“The State Party is working with concerned Republicans in Greenville to create a new auxiliary organization that we will help build and promote to focus on being a positive, productive force for our Party in that area,” McKissick wrote. “Greenville is far too important an area for our state-wide ticket for us not to help them take on such a project. We will put the full force of the state party behind these promotional efforts.”

here is what nate sent out before everyone resigned

Greenville Republicans,

The Special Committee has released its findings and “found no evidence to support any allegation that anything wrong, improper, or irregular was done in any fashion related to the Election Runner voting procedures” and “no irregular operations or voting irregularities of any type were found by the Special Committee.” Those who were involved at any level of the election already knew this and are thankful that the unfounded allegations can finally be put to rest.

The Special Committee’s conclusion is correct that the “interpretation of the governing Rules has included a default to inclusion and increased participation in the Party” and voters after the initial Precinct Reorganization (ReOrg) meeting “have always been permitted to sign up to attend the county convention.” Those with an understanding of our process and how other counties across SC run ReOrg have always understood this. A 3rd party training first-time participants did not understand this and misled those they were training and then cried foul. Our rules allow this, it has been done in past cycles, and is done in counties across South Carolina. As the Committee noted, there has never been an organized attempt to take over the Republican Party at this level from those who have never participated in the GCGOP, and this was met with an organized push by active Party members to register Republicans. “We didn’t know we could do that” does not constitute any wrong-doing or rule violations.

The Special Committee properly concluded that SCGOP Rule 4C(5) was not followed. I agree with this conclusion as far as delegates who did not want their information shared, but the special committee did not include important information on this issue. As far as the home addresses not being shared, the opinion of the SCGOP’s legal counsel was correct and not in violation of this rule, meeting SCGOP RULE 2A. I will address this below.

The fact remains that Delegates could be registered any time after the March 22nd Precinct Reorganization event up until 5 days prior to the convention. All delegates were 1. Confirmed registered voters in Greenville County. 2. Ink signed a GCGOP Form 1. 3. The GCGOP received payment of a $20 convention fee for each delegate and 4. There was nothing “wrong, improper, or irregular” in our election. Simply put, no matter how you slice it, the results would have been the same. Those who refuse to accept the outcome of the election must admit that they want to exclude registered voters who wanted to participate and refuse to allow them to cast a vote and have it count. This in un-Republican, and un-American.

Now that this report is finished, I hope that those claiming to be Republicans in Greenville County will join those who have been working hard and fighting the real enemy—the liberal agenda as promoted by the Democrats.

To our new members—we welcome you to join our organization. We have existed for many years, have a stated purpose, and have been true to that purpose. The problems we are seeing nationwide are not the issues we have in Greenville County. To our long-time members—be inclusive of our new members. Many have joined for the right reasons. They want to work to help keep Greenville Conservative and work hard for our conservative agenda.

The only winner when our new members are led to attack those who have been working many years for our Conservative Republican values—Democrats. Some believe that is the goal, but I have already heard from many of our new members that have learned they are being deceived. I have faith that many more will learn as well.

Nate Leupp | Chairman | Fourth Congressional District, GOP

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