2024 WAGOP State Convention Report
Educate. Advocate. Mitigate. Activate!
As advertised, the WAGOP State Convention was one for the ages, as over 2,000 delegates, guests, and volunteers gathered to help endorse 2024 State and Federal Candidates April 18 - 20 in Spokane.
Thursday evening, the WAGOP State Committee re-elected incumbent Marlene Pfeifer (Kittitas County GOP Chair) as RNC National Committeewoman and Matthew Patrick Thomas (King County Chair) as RNC National Committeeman to fill the soon-to-be-vacated seat by outgoing National Committeeman Jeff Kent.
Friday morning, the massive turnout overwhelmed check-in security, delaying the convention by over an hour with long lines of people wrapping around the convention center building. This, in turn, delayed the Credentials Committee report, which delayed and changed the morning agenda, allowing many of the statewide candidates to give their speeches.
This included the candidates for US Senate, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Commissioner of Public Lands, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and State Auditor.
OF NOTE: Public Lands Commissioner Candidate Jaime Herrera Beutler (who voted to impeach Donald Trump while she was a Congresswoman in Jan 2021) was loudly booed, and hundreds of delegates stood and turned their backs to her in protest as she attempted to give her speech.
OF IMPORTANCE: Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) Candidate David Spring explained why he did not sign the WAGOP ‘Candidate Pledge.’ The partisan pledge gave candidates the option to support other ‘Republican’ candidates in the race if they were not endorsed, and requires candidates to state they are a Republican. The problem being is that OSPI is a ‘Nonpartisan’ race. This violates RCW 29.52.231, and Spring did not want to break state law. All the other OSPI candidates signed the pledge.
Additionally, Spring was frustrated as, unlike the other OSPI candidates, he was not given access to the list of the convention delegates until Thursday, which delayed his announcement to the voting constituents until after midnight (early Friday morning via email), hurting Spring’s chances for endorsement.
However, it was even worse for Secretary of State candidate and State Senator Phil Fortunato, as unlike the other SoS candidates, he NEVER received access to the list of convention delegates to get his message out! Making matters worse, the Candidate Committee report that went out to all the delegates stated that Fortunato’s campaign had not raised any money in the race. In reality, his campaign had raised $29,400 in the last week. The provided WAGOP Committee report was from April 12th and was not updated for the Convention. This could have easily cost him the endorsement for SoS.
It is unfortunate that Senator Fortunato signed a pledge agreement in good faith, with reasonable expectations of fairness, and it was not reciprocated!
After the Credentials and Rules and Order of Business Committee Reports were adopted, the Chair of the Candidate Committee, Lisa Evans, announced that gubernatorial candidate Semi Bird failed to pass the WAGOP Candidate committee vetting (due to a misdemeanor over 30 years ago).
The problem was that Bird failed to disclose this on the required paperwork submitted to the committee. Evans said committee members decided “out of respect” for delegates and the process the best move would be not to endorse anyone for governor at the convention. “What this does allow for is for you to vote for the candidate of your choice in the primary,” she said, setting off loud boos, shouts, and chants of “USA” from Bird’s supporters among the record-setting 1,830 + convention delegates.
The grassroots delegates vehemently opposed this ruling by WAGOP leadership, with several minutes of very loud boos heard from even outside the building. This led to much-heated debate and an eventual suspension of the rules (requiring a 2/3 vote), allowing the delegates an important and successful vote to overturn the Candidate Committee’s decision.
The Bird campaign celebrated, but Dave Reichert’s campaign chose to go to the media and say they no longer were seeking the WAGOP endorsement and then blamed GOP leaders who, according to Reichert, “changed rules, broke rules, and twisted the process to accomplish their desired outcome."
Despite assurances from party officials that Bird would be disqualified, Reichert said he was stunned when he learned Bird would still be able to wrack up a key endorsement from officials within the GOP party leadership.
WAGOP Chairman Jim Walsh did an incredible job chairing the three-day convention, showing excellent leadership and saying, “Let’s help our friends in the media understand that this is not chaos. This is a live and real political convention.”
Things calmed down by Friday afternoon and the ten congressional breakout meetings allowed congressional candidates to deliver speeches and answer questions from delegate constituents to receive their votes for endorsement. Afterward, speeches and voting took place to elect RNC National Convention delegates and alternates. Three delegates, three alternate delegates, and one Presidential Elector were successfully elected in each of the ten meetings: 30 Delegates, 30 Alternates, and 10 Presidential Electors were chosen.
The Friday night dinner had about 1,200 in attendance, which included remarks from WAGOP Chair Jim Walsh, a well-deserved award given to outgoing LD 4 State Senator Mike Padden, and an incredibly inspiring Keynote Speech by Moms for Liberty founder, Tina Descovich.
Saturday morning, Semi Bird lit up the convention with an amazing and electrifying speech, greeted by thunderous applause and many standing ovations. In his speech, Bird explained that there was a stretch of his life when he made many bad decisions fueled by anger against his alcoholic father. This led to Semi stealing his dad’s identity and getting a $1,800 bank loan without paying it back. Semi admitted to being a sinner but became a changed man after he met his wife later in the 1990s.
Soon after, WAGOP endorsement results were announced as follows: US Senate: Garcia 73% - Governor: Bird 72% - AG: Pete Serrano 100% - Auditor; Matt Hawkins 100% - SoS: Dale Whitaker 64% - OSPI: David Olson 57% - Lands Commissioner: Sue Kuehl Pederson 86%.
U.S. Congress: : CD 1: Jeb Brewer, CD 3: Joe Kent, CD 4: Jerrod Sessler, CD 5: Brian Dansel, CD 6: Drew MacEwen, CD 7: Cliff Moon, CD 8: Carmen Goers, CD 10: Nirav Sheth.
Then, over 140 RNC National Convention delegates and alternate delegate candidates gave speeches to the crowd of about 2,000. The140 + candidates were vying for 10 “Statewide “At-Large” RNC National Convention delegates and 10 RNC National Convention alternate delegate positions. The day’s events were live-streamed on TVW and Facebook.
The Trump for President Campaign passed out a slate of vetted and endorsed candidates by Donald Trump. Many on the slate ended up getting elected, including me (after about 3 hours of hand-counting all the paper ballots). Eventually, 10 Statewide ‘At-large’ Delegates and 10 Statewide ‘At-large’ Alternate Delegates were chosen (see bottom of article for full list). A big congratulations to them all!
I thank the many good volunteers who participated in this process, including all the convention grassroots delegates who voted. I am humbled and grateful to have been elected as an RNC National Convention delegate. This will be my second RNC National Convention, as I was also elected in 2016. Thank you so much for making a statement across the country that Election Integrity and exposing and eliminating corruption are vitally important in Washington State!
Also of great significance: The 2024 WAGOP Platform was debated and adopted (including Resolutions) on Saturday afternoon. A big thank you to Julianna McMahan, who chaired the Platform Committee, and all the 39 GOP county committee members who spent many days in meetings to write the platform and submit resolutions.
Here is the 2024 WAGOP Platform Index - listed in order of sequence:
Preamble
Civil and Religious Liberty
Limited Government
Rule of Law and Justice
Election Integrity
National Security
National Sovereignty
Border Security and Immigration
Sound Fiscal Policy
Economic Opportunity
Support for Families
Quality Educations
Quality Healthcare
Property Rights
Protection of Agriculture and Natural Resource
Energy
Environment
Efficient Transportation Priorities
Preserving the Initiative Process
Because of time limits, Saturday’s proceedings forced creative floor debates, allowing the RNC National Committeeman (Jeff Kent) and RNC National Committeewoman (Marlene Pfeifer) to be elected as the two remaining “At Large” Presidential Electors, giving the Republican Party a total of 12 for the state.
Other Presidential Electors Included: CD 1 Art Coday, CD 2 Charlie Crabtree, CD 3 Don Benton, CD 4 Lutz Harfst, CD 5 Kieth Slater, CD 6 Peggy Hutt, CD 7 Eric Brown, CD 8 Sharon Hanek, CD 9 Ingrid Fuhriman, CD 10 Loren Dean.
BELOW IS THE FINAL LIST OF ALTERNATES AND DELEGATES ELECTED TO THE RNC NATIONAL CONVENTION (order listed by total votes received).
1st CD
1. Luis Valdes
2. Debra Blodgett
3. Lynn Trinh
Alternates
Jeff Poppe, 2. Leninn Chacon, 3. Dianne Osmialowski
2nd CD
1. Judy Billings
2. Peter Zieve
3. Jason Reimer
Alternates
Tim Hazelo, 2. Rochelle Henshaw, 3. Colleen Gertz
3rd CD
1. Matt Bumala
2. Christy Tseu
3. Marilyn Roggenkamp
Alternates
Dixie McFadden, 2. Corey Gorman, 3. Austin Merle
4th CD
1. Chris Hollingsworth
2. Nina Kapitula
3. Luke Throop
Alternates
Kari Hale, 2. Victor Lombardi, 3. Jennifer Walker
5th CD
1. Carolyn Hall
2. Robert Linebarger
3. Lyle Dach
Alternates
Lawanda Hatch, 2. Todd Snarr, 3. Donna Russell
6th CD
1. Shannon Beddo
2. Sandy Lytle
3. Braden Sisk
Alternates
Antara Croft, 2. Mike Hill, 3. Mike Jones
7th CD
Paul Glumaz
Jolie Lansdowne
Whitney Mason
Alternates
Lisa Miller, 2. Cherry Coday, 3. Mathew Patrick Thomas
8th CD
1. Robyn Balcom
2. Dave Tegeler
3. Pamel Randolph
Alternates
Rick Hunt, 2. Shari Newton, 3. Amber Krabach
9th CD
1. Kerry French
2. Brad Corner
3. Jane Jin
Alternates
Curt Maier, 2. Mary EllenMullen, 3. Terry Arnold
10th CD
1. Brenda Milewski
2. Ramdas Vaidyanathan
3. Jerry Green
Alternates
ShellyGarofalo, 2. WallyEmberson-Nash, 3. NicholeWeber
Statewide At-Large
1. Larry Sundquist
2. Apollo Fuhriman
3. Eileen Sobjack
4. Cary Snow
5. Bill Bruch
6. Dale Haagen
7. Georgene Faires
8. Mike Werner
9. Wes Martin
10. Robert Hogg
Alternates:
Tahsa Mae, 2. Ryan Campbell, 3. Jock Pring, 4. Hossein Khorram, 5. John Tawresey, 6. Denise Green, 7. Ellen Campion, 8. Dale Fonk, 9. Susan Hutchinson, 10. Jennifer Flores
Bill Bruch
Bill Bruch is the WA State GOP Election Integrity Chairman, WAGOP Executive Board Member, 4-Term Skagit County GOP Chairman, Citizen Journalist, Blogger, Business Owner, “2021 Citizen Activist of the Year” award by the Olympic Conference, 2020 WA State House Representative Candidate, Former Council Member, and WA State 2016/24 RNC National Convention Delegate.
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Agreed! Jim Walsh was the corner stone of patience during the Convention! Thank you Jim.