SDGOP Chairman drops the hammer: “If that makes you uncomfortable, you are able to resign your position with the party.”

@SoDakCampaigns

Big update from the South Dakota Republican Party.

Last night, I’m hearing around 11:30ish, the Chairman of the Republican Party, backed by the State Party executive board, sent a nice note out to SDGOP Central Committee Members.

The message to a few of them? Knock it off:

Chairman Wiik pointed out that there are bylaws that talk about people running as indys. And if members of the Central Committee want to support a non-Republican candidate:

Justin McNeal is not a Republican candidate for anything. Nothing against him personally, but he didn’t get enough signatures to appear on the ballot as a Republican. Congressman Johnson did. Dusty Johnson is our Republican Party recognized candidate for Congress. If you support anyone else, you are not supporting the Republican in this race. If that makes you uncomfortable, you are able to resign your position with the party and work on McNeal’s campaign, but we cannot allow you as a member of the Central Committee to support a non-Republican candidate.

Boom! and then the other shoe dropped, as the chair also recognized that Yankton County was dabbling in areas it was not supposed to be dabbing in:

..we have first hand reports of county parties supporting one side of a primary amongst Republicans. Simply stated, that violates a century of tradition in our party, and I cannot allow it. We are fighting a ballot measure that threatens to open our primaries. Unless we lose that battle, Republican voters choose our nominee. We can offer forums, meet and greets, and countless ways to inform our voters, but the final decision belongs to the voters, not the party. Please do not endorse in primaries either financially or by resolution.

Chairman’s Wiik’s Update letter puts significant pressure on the county groups (and auxiliaries) to rein in some of their more troubling bad actors who have been actively straying outside of their lane and campaigning against Republicans.

So, if someone like Minnehaha County GOP Vice Chair Jennifer Foss who has been lending aid to the Independent hopeful doesn’t like it,  the State Party Chairman and Executive Board are actively encouraging her to find the door, and to not let it knock her in the rear-end on her way out.

Keep on reading. I’m sure there’s more to come.

27 thoughts on “SDGOP Chairman drops the hammer: “If that makes you uncomfortable, you are able to resign your position with the party.””

  1. Jennifer Foss is also working for and openly supporting candidates in contested Republican primaries. Sounds like she needs to make a choice — her personal opinions or what’s good for the party as a whole.

  2. All election-denying, conspiracy-believing, holier-than-thou, RINOs can get the hell out of the party and make their own.

    1. i wouldn’t call them RINOs because that’s what the “real” republicans call the actual Real Republicans, us. it muddies the waters. let’s call them “real” republicans because that’s how they refer to themselves to differentiate themselves from us.

  3. The Conservatives with Common Sense knew this was coming. Several old fellows were talking about it just the other day.

    BuwahahahaHAHAHA! Be like grudznick and send Ms. Hunhoff some cash to really plaster the town in her primary!

    1. With Mr. H and his out of state name callers gone affairs have gone to hell in a handbasket with the party once called Republicans of the Dakota to the South.

  5. 20 short years ago, we all worked together to help elect John Thune. Fresh off the sting of losing by 524 votes to Tim Johnson, we worked together, stayed on message and won. It was the first of three victories to take back the Congressional Delegation with Republican values that were superior to “Prairie Populism” talking points.
    There have always been differences in our party. Historically, I am most familiar with the Pro Life issue, but that did not divide us into separate camps – we stayed together, despite our differences on that very important issue. And believe me that took some resolve.
    Chairman Wiik was right to send this message. He is dedicated to Republican victories and I appreciate his leadership!

    2. 20 years ago Thune deceived us as to who he was.He is the biggest political mistake I have made.

    4. Amen. Too many of the people that were enticed to join something big (like PRE) are too young to remember names like Daschle and Tim Johnson. It wasn’t that long ago. The SDGOP has done a great job with water carrying for years. I hate to see it upended by a few Democrat acting ‘Republicans’. Apparently, PRE has vowed to change their antics but the group of ‘I’m more Republican than you’ still exists and they’re venomous. You don’t hear them talking about all the work they’ve done on Roe v Wade or how they tried to work against the Democrats’ Medicaid Expansion. You only hear them bash other good Republicans.

    1. It sounds like the far right is cracking.

      Minnehaha was never going to survive Foss and Tornow. The reason was because they took out staunch conservatives like Stalzer and Milstead. The conservatives fractured their base. They have driven people like Milstead and Stalzer to the more establishment side.

      That’s how these people work. Short term energy and emotion. Very little lasting impact.

      In February they will all be ousted.

  7. First: the registered Republicans in the affected counties need to attend their national convention delegate selection county meetings even if they don’t want to go to Milwaukee themselves. They need to show up and vote for the sane people who do.
    Even if the sanerest people present don’t want to go to Milwaukee, if they are willing to attend the regional caucuses in Pierre, and vote for other sane people, that is good enough.

    This needs to be done so that the delegation from South Dakota does not show up in Milwaukee and do things (like facepalms, when our votes are announced) and embarrass us. These people need to stay home.

  10. Interesting…especially since there’s a Deustsch for Senate sign on Wiik property..

    1. It has already been established that INDIVIDUAL members of a county party may endorse a candidate in a contested primary. Even a sitting governor, as an individual, may endorse a candidate in a contested primary, but a line is drawn on yard signs in front of 119 N Washington Avenue.
      It is necessary to allow that, as in many counties, the candidates, or their spouses, are also serving as members of their counties’ central committees.

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