The following is a transcript from the Pro America Report with Ryan Hite.
Hey, everybody. Welcome on into the Pro America Report. This is Ryan Hite here, filling in today for Mr. Ed Martin. Glad to be with you. Thanks for letting me join in on the fun today. Oh, and what a fun day it is.
We are cruising in to the Republican convention next week. Got a lot of stuff going on on that front. There’s a lot of information flying around and I tell you what, you can keep up with what Ed is saying. Make sure you are subscribed over at proamericareport.com. That’s proamericareport.com. There is where you will find Ed’s writing. You’ll be able to find the archives of the Pro America Report, all the podcasts, all the segments, standalones. The guests, if we’ve got links and resources and you can subscribe to the all important WYNK e-mail that comes out three weekday mornings every week. Very short and concise. But it tells you what you need to know. All of that you can find over at proamericareport.com. Don’t miss out. Don’t be left behind. Go to Pro America Report. Dot com and keep up with that, especially as we dive into this all important next week and I say all important because it it is the Republican convention. But there is so much that happens around that there’s so much that is going on on the sidelines of that, so much happening inside the party structure and and it’s, you know, what, it’s really important, but it’s not always known these things that are on the side.
And what I want to tell you today, what really what what you need to know today there was a big grassroots victory today, in the Credentials Committee and appeal was made for the state of Missouri. We’re going to get into that here and I and I want to tie it to a very important principle that Phyllis Schlafly always held up. And I know, you know, you’ve heard Ed and I talk and not endlessly, but but very frequently about our old boss Phyllis Schlafly. Absolutely an incredible figure in the modern conservative movement. She was a rock star when it came to grassroots activism, and understanding what it meant to not only be right to have the right convictions on the issues, but to be effective. To be a well oiled machine, ready to go and make change and see victory happen. Not just be right and she had a great balance of that, a wonderful balance that is absolutely something we could all stand to learn from today. And and here’s the victory. And then again, like I said, what you need to know is there was a grassroots victory in the credentials Committee, The Credentials Committee of the RNC. So here’s what happened. We talked about this briefly. I I think I’ve brought it up on the program here on the Pro America Report, but.
There was a kerfuffle. The Big K word, a kerfuffle that went down at the Missouri State convention this year. Now, most states operate the same way. But long story short, what Missouri does in order to similarly, you know, the platform and the deciding of delegates and electors, etcetera, and so on, that happens at the National Convention, that happens at the state levels.
In Missouri, we have caucuses that start all the way down at the local level, either the Township or the committee, the county, depending on what size it is, and there’s a gathering of people there. They vote to elect a slate that goes through basically delegates to the next level, to the Congressional District.
And we have 8 congressional districts here in Missouri. Then there are 8 Congressional District caucuses, and then those folks decide who’s going to the state convention and the state convention. Several 100 people gathered together every four years here in Missouri. And that is where, just like the Republican National Convention that’s happening in Milwaukee next week, happened in Cleveland in 2016. We were out there with Phyllis.
Definitely they decide several key important things, and it’s not just nominees. You know, for this and that and the other, yes, the Missouri State convention elects the electors that go to the Electoral College process to officially cast the Missouri votes for Donald Trump.
There are also decisions made over who the state or I’m sorry, the National committee man and committee woman are that sit on the Republican National Committee from the state of Missouri, two of them.
But they make decisions about the Republican Party of Missouri’s state platform and all sorts of stuff. And we’ve talked about that this week.
Ed was on the platform committee as a staff member, as a policy, a deputy policy Director so the state level has a similar goal and a similar set of responsibilities, just like the national level Republican Committee, or I’m sorry. Republican Convention has the state convention does well.
One of the key functions is to elect a set of delegates and alternates 54 total. 27 delegates, 27 alternates from Missouri that are supposed to go to the Republican convention this year. That then are there on the floor cast their votes for Donald Trump. They’re a part of the committees. They’re a part of the process. But here’s what happened.
In the state of Missouri at the state Convention just several weeks ago, there was a huge knock down drag out brawl. Politically speaking, a parliamentary will say that a parliamentary brawl between organized grassroots conservative factions and the state party leadership. Now. The organized grassroots folks won. They had a clear majority, and despite a lot of procedural hang ups and and, you know, maneuvers made hours of delay, really, that’s what it is, hours of delay. Despite that, the grassroots had overwhelming numbers. They voted in their own chairman over the convention. This isn’t the chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, mind you. This is the convention chairman that oversees the proceedings that day. They got their own in and they voted through a slate of electors. I think it was. The the name is the Truly Trump grassroots, truly Trump grassroots Slate, 54 people, 27 alternates and 27 delegates. They voted on new national committeeman and committeewoman. They voted on a bunch of different positions, the electors.
And then they started working on the platform and our state platform had not been changed in a long time. Just like the GOP platform nationally really hadn’t been touched since 2016. A similar effect at the state level, they started to pass good amendment after amendment and and really get into the meat of the Missouri State Republican platform.
And a series of very slick procedural moves got the whole convention stopped and closed without a platform being voted on.
Now we have some swamp issues we’re dealing with here in Missouri. And make no mistake, this is the case the the nation over. You look at each state party, there are probably issues, maybe bigger, maybe smaller. That need to be fixed. That, just like we deal with in DC, just like we deal with at the national level, there is a swamp, there is a faction of people who like their leadership positions rather than selflessly putting forward the values of our conservative movement.
First, I’m gonna go ahead and say that I’m not naming names, but I’m definitely going to go that far.
So Despite that being shut down, the slate of Trump electors from the Trump delegates and alternates from the state of Missouri was passed earlier in the day. Well, here’s what happened.
A group of people who weren’t happy with that came back around. They went to the RNC’s credentialing committee. They filed a contest against the slate and somehow they had the ear of someone. The slate of delegates and alternates from the state of Missouri was overturned. It got thrown back to the party and they told the Missouri Republican Party, the RNC said, you have until 5:00 PM on Friday, July the 5th, to submit a new slate of delegates and alternates. A new list of 54 people. Now what should they have done? They should have just sent back the list and said, here’s the list. It’s the same 54 that was done correctly. Here you go, but they didn’t. Instead 16 people, the executive committee of the State Committee of the Republican Party of Jury met together and chose 54 new people.
Now there were some concessions. Here’s a few grassroots folks. Here’s some of the folks on the party side this and that and the other.
But it was not done honestly. It was not done in good faith because the Convention had a clear and voted upon will to send this list of 54 grassroots delegates and alternates. Shame on the Executive committee of Missouri for not honoring that. That was clear, and it was clearly voted upon by the Missouri State Convention.
Well, they have been in a knock down drag out fight the last week and a half since this move was made. And since the Missouri Republican Party sent their own list of 54, the grassroots folks fought and fought. They sent appeals to the Republican credential committee at the Milwaukee RNC functions this week, and guess what? They won today.
This morning on Friday.
The grassroots folks from the state of Missouri fighting for the original slate of 54 people, delegates and alternates that grassroots group won a unanimous appeal from the RNC Credentialing Committee.
The original slate of 54 delegates and alternates will be on the floor voting for Donald Trump, casting our Missouri votes next week. This is so exciting to me, not just because the right thing was done by Missouri’s state convention. The will of the people, the will of the grassroots of the state of Missouri. But this to me, is a victory of Phyllis Schlafly epic proportions because you know what?
The grassroots didn’t just show up unorganized, but with all the right values ready to kind of be raucous. And you know, rough and tumble, they showed up with a plan. The grassroots showed up organized. They showed up with appeals. They were ready to go with a public relations campaign. The moment that their duly elected slate was overturned the grassroots was ready to rumble man, and they brought the heat. They brought the strategy, they brought the organization, and they were rewarded today with the unanimous victory at the RNC Credentials Committee, good for the Credentials Committee of the RNC. Good for the grassroots folks in Missouri.
Let this be a lesson to us all. We have to walk into every situation organized and armed to the teeth with all the tools we need to fight, just like Phyllis Schlafly told us to.
You can’t just be right. You have to fight and win. And Missouri Grassroots did. Congratulations and good for them.
We got a big show coming up. Don’t leave anytime soon. We’re going to come back the other side of the break with some great guests. You’re here on the Pro America Report. Stick around, we’ll be right back.
