by Rob Tolp
The NCGOP 2023 Convention kicked off in epic fashion on Thursday evening with a “Fireside Chat” between NCGOP Chairman Michael Whatley and award winning investigative journalist John Solomon. Before starting his own media company, Just The News, Mr. Solomon worked for the Associated Press, The Hill, and other media organizations - in addition to being a regular Fox News contributor. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his accurate, informative, and hard-hitting stories. During the discussion, the topic regarding the differences between how media organizations operate today compared to decades ago, even as recently as prior to the Obama administration were highlighted. Mr Solomon remarked regarding the contrast between news media’s approach prior and after the Obama administration when he said “There was a general sense that we would keep our finger off the scale, that we would be neutral, and I think during the Obama years was the first time I noticed, maybe the Obama campaign of 07’ or 08’, there was sort of a fandom within the news media and that kept spiraling with social media”.
Other than the biggest names in politics who would speak during the special dinners and lunches, there were other lesser known names but no less important for North Carolina Conservatives, such as Clarence Henderson of the Frederick Douglas Foundation, Eduardo Andrade, Chairman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly of NC (RNHANC), and others.
Macon County’s own Congressman Chuck Edwards addressed the NCGOP Delegates during the morning of the 1st business session. He currently serves on the House Oversight Committee. Congressman Edwards said the House is “bringing transparency to the Biden Family”, referring to the recent revelations of the financial deals and bribes which both Hunter and Joe Biden took while Joe Biden was serving as Vice President, which the FBI has had in their possession since 2017, including 17 audio recordings that the Ukrainian businessman with whom Joe and Hunter were working, kept in his possession as an “insurance policy”.
In addition to interviews conducted with and videos of speeches by the keynote speakers, Macon Patriot also interviewed other delegates attending from different parts of North Carolina. When interviewing a couple of delegates after the DeSantis dinner, Lydia from Burke County had this to say about the Convention
“We’ve been coming for years... it’s almost like a family reunion... it’s always upbeat and fun.”
When asked what impressed Lydia most about the DeSantis speech she noted,
“Actually, all of his accomplishments... he talked for 20 to 30 straight minutes about all the accomplishments they have done in Florida.”
While the convention was certainly not short on energy and excitement, it also, unfortunately, was not without drama and what many consider a serious mishap and failure in leadership. During this convention, the Rules Committee with the approval of the delegates passed a change to the rules that would not allow amendments from the floor to any proposed items on the agenda (without a motion to suspend the rules with a 2/3 majority vote, or the motion submitted 10 days in advance of the Convention) as the first major item of contention. The worst, however, in the eyes of most of the delegates, regardless of which candidates they supported for NC Chair and Vice Chair, was the idea of the NCGOP leadership to use an electronic voting app on everyone’s phone to cast votes for each of those positions for the next term. They also had several kiosks in the hall delegates could use to vote. The electronic system was an abject failure of epic proportions. The app crashed and kicked out delegates from the app and would not let them log back in for a very long time. The bandwidth available in the Convention Hall Wi-Fi could not handle the over 1850 delegates who were in attendance, nor could the app, and some claimed that the electronic system was never tested in advance to see if it could handle that level of traffic simultaneously, but the Macon Patriot has not been able to verify that claim at the time this article was being written. The amount of time it took to vote would have been faster in the opinion of many present if paper ballots were issued and hand-counted afterward. The voting for Chair took so long, many who paid extra to get into the VIP Reception for the Trump Dinner, either had to leave the voting session or missed their VIP engagement altogether. The Chair of the Convention mentioned to the delegates that any who missed it would be refunded their money. The voting took so long that many would have missed part of the Trump Dinner as well, so they left the convention hall after the voting system finally worked for them to cast their vote. So many people left, that there was not a quorum present to vote for the Vice Chairman position and that office was never filled by the end of the Convention. No one with whom the Macon Patriot spoke believed that any of this was done purposefully, but all with whom we spoke believed that this was a serious error in leadership. Some delegates approached the microphones to call for a vote of no confidence in the vote for Chairman after it was announced by multiple delegates that they had screenshots of guests who were not qualified to vote, who were able to vote. Others claimed they had screenshots and confirmation that votes were cast from the State of Florida and Wisconsin. Multiple Counties had more votes counted than they had delegates present. Some remarked that the Whatley leadership team preached “election integrity” in the elections across the State of NC, but could not secure the elections of their own party at the Convention. The Patriot will note that the effort to secure our elections in the 2022 election cycle was very good and had great results across the State. At the time of the writing of this article, it is unclear whether challenger John Kane will file any legal action regarding the election for NCGOP Chairman at the Convention.
Another item of importance during the submissions from the Resolution Committee for adoption by the delegates passed, after the Rules were suspended to allow the amendment, adding a 4th item on the Party Platform Accountability Resolution to officially censure Senator Thom Tillis for his support of a LGBTQ piece of legislation and support of, in the words of some delegates, anti-2nd Amendment red flag law legislation. The motion to amend the Resolution passed with a 2/3rd majority vote and the Resolution passed by the same margin, needing only a simple majority to pass, after which a nearly deafening applause began to fill the room.
Finally, the pinnacle of the Convention for most attendees was the speech by President Donald J. Trump at the Trump dinner, or “supper” as we say in the South, on Saturday evening. Trump was in rare form, knowing that his indictments were coming down the following Tuesday and he wasted no time calling out the Biden Administration, FBI, 51 Intelligence officials, Bill Barr, and others regarding the Russian Collusion hoax, the baseless impeachments, the indictments by NYC attorneys, and the upcoming charges based on the Mara- Lago raid of his home. Trump focussed mainly on his promises regarding what he will do if re-elected to the White House, taking only a couple of jabs at his opponent, Ron DeSantis. There were moments of serious issues which he said he will address if re-elected, interspersed with humor that had the crowd, laughing hysterically at times. The mainstream media were present and true to form, President Trump wasted no time in calling them out for their fake reports during Covid and during his Presidency. Among some of the campaign promises Trump made, he said he would by executive order, end the money and support going to the war in Ukraine to “prevent WWIII” if the conflict is still ongoing when he takes office. He said he would “cancel every open borders policy of the Biden administration”. Trump promised he would enact concealed carry reciprocity legislation in all of the States, and several other key issues concerning Republican voters like banning men from women's sports, among others. All in all, the Convention appeared to bolster Republicans in their resolve to engage in the political process across the State to secure NC State elections, expand majorities in the State House and Senate, and most of all, put a Republican back in the Governor’s mansion. Primary season will be upon North Carolinians soon. The Convention clearly energized the GOP base in NC for 2024.