Florida County Republican Executive Committees and Resolutions
The State Republican Leadership is Now on the Record Regarding Resolutions
As we continue to encourage Florida counties to continue to pass Resolutions on issues important for the health of the Republican Party and to protect Florida citizens, we received the following note from a reader who is a member of the Pinellas County REC:
“At our Pinellas REC on April 10th, 2023, Republican Party Of Florida Chairman Christian Zeigler spoke. One of our members asked how he feels about (REC) resolutions. He said he believes they bog down the system. I like Christian, but couldn't disagree with him more. If your readers also disagree with his stance, they should send your article to him and ask him to reconsider. Thanks for having the backs of We the People.”
There you have it. The Republican Party of Florida Chairman doesn’t support Resolutions.
Why Florida rank and file Republicans have embraced Resolutions
The Republican Party of Florida has been silent on a number of issues facing our Party and our state. And that list of issues is starting to stack up since the 2020 Presidential election.
Had the Republican Party of Florida publicly supported the 2021 Election Integrity Bill, SB900 banning Zuckbucks, even though eleven Florida county Supervisors of Elections took over $17 million from the Zuckerberg-funded political non-profit, The Center for Tech and Civic Life, a resolution would have likely been unnecessary.
The Foundation for Government Accountability, based in Naples, Florida, published a white paper highlighting how Florida was affected by the Zuckerberg money:
Republican Party members might have more confidence in the RPOF if the RPOF leadership would have spoken in support of the bill. Instead, they were silent as David Ramba, a lobbyist for the organization, Florida Supervisors of Elections urged lawmakers not to pass the election integrity measure.
Ramba is the Leon County Republican State Committeeman.
If the Republican Party of Florida had publicly denounced the Capitol Police being installed in Tampa, Florida to harass MAGA conservatives and had called for Governor DeSantis to remove them from our state, there would be no need for the “Ban the Capitol Police from Florida Resolution” which recently passed unanimously in Hillsborough County. But because the RPOF was silent, America First Republicans viewed the resolution necessary to call attention to this issue and took action.
In 2022 a resolution called “Audit the 2020 Election” made its way around Florida counties. The Republican Party of Florida never called for an audit of any county SOE office….instead, their RPOF talking point was: “Florida is the gold standard for election integrity.”
The RPOF silently ignored reported and documented election issues of:
Private funding of Election Officials or Government Agencies
Inaccurate Voter Registration Lists
Signature Verification Procedure Requirements
Improper Absentee Ballot Management
Verification of Citizenship Violations
Maintenance of Voter Information by Third Party Vendors
The RPOF not issuing support for voter integrity issues of those listed above alarmed Republican Party members which became the catalyst of county resolutions to bring the issues to light.
COVID19 VACCINE
If the Republican Party of Florida had taken a public stand against the COVID19 vaccines once it became clear that the vaccines had serious side effects including death, the recent “Ban the Jab” Resolutions wouldn’t have been necessary. But because the RPOF has been silent on the vaccines, rank and file Republicans are doing the work on the grassroots level to bring this issue to light.
One of the many reasons why resolutions work is that through this action, Republican Board members are put on the spot and forced to go on the record either denouncing the issue or supporting the issue within the resolution. And knowing where these elected members stand is imperative moving forward. We have gotten into this predicament largely because we believed what Republican leadership and candidates said, rather than what they do….and a lot of what they do can be hidden from our view. Getting them “on the record” reveals where they stand and gives us vital information to judge whether they should be in leadership positions or not come the next election.
Passing resolutions gets local and sometimes national media coverage. When other counties or states see America First Republican resolutions passed, it encourages them to do the same. It shows Republicans in our own counties that they should join the local Party because the local Party is willing to take a stand. It will increase the number of America First Republicans within the Party. And that is what the Party needs.
How to Make a Resolution
Formal steps to a resolution:
Writing the resolution:
Title of resolution should reflect the intent/decision.
Resolution format begins with WHEREAS statements (as many times as needed), followed by RESOLVED statement(s). Both WHEREAS and RESOLVED always capitalized and bolded.
single space in 12pt Calibri Font
County Model Constitution (ARTICLES VII:12A; but verify with your county Model Constitution as it may be different) states that resolutions shall be submitted to the Chairman at least 15 days prior to the executive committee meeting.
The proposed resolution shall be referred to the Executive Board for a review of its form (It is in this step that the Republican Establishment can derail the resolution to keep it from coming to a floor vote. The Executive Board only has authority to review the resolution form, NOT CONTENT).
2/3 vote of the executive board is required to be placed on the agenda.
Resolutions put on the agenda would be read during new business.
Floor Discussion and Debate (it is during the Floor Discussion that your resolution supporters should already be prepared to speak, unified and focusing on different points of the resolution).
Vote – requires 2/3 of a quorum present meeting (another Republican Establishment tactic is to wait to discuss the resolution until close to the meeting’s end. The goal is to wait until enough members leave out of frustration of the meeting dragging on and no longer having quorum to hold a vote).
After the Resolution is Submitted to your County Chair, Your Group is Going to Whip the Vote
You have two weeks - 15 days. You not only want support, you need support for your resolution.
Whipping the vote within an REC is best done by keeping a spreadsheet of all the members and their contact information.
On the spreadsheet, highlight their names in the following format:
Green - Most likely agreeing with America First Republican issues; they will likely support the resolution and might even volunteer to speak during discussion of the resolution if they understand its value.
Yellow - They possibly could align with AF Republican issues or their positions are currently unknown. These are essentially “swing voters.” You want to swing them to our side…. or highlight them with the Reds.
Red - Republican Establishment who will never align with us. Don’t bother calling them, don’t bother talking to them. You have seen and identified the enemy within the Party.
Moving forward, every resolution needs to have the votes whipped prior to the meeting. The organizers putting the resolution forward should have a good idea if the resolution will pass before the vote is held. As you meet and call members for support of the resolution, you will develop relationships (outside of the REC meetings) with the new members who don’t have a wealth of knowledge or experience with the REC.
They need to be mentored. They need to trust the judgment of the America First mentor because the there will be a time a “hard ask” will be presented and they will need to trust their AF mentor’s judgment. Until these new members know what we know, they need to look to the mentors for guidance.
It’s a lot of work. But the payoff is that your REC will become member-driven and will have the potential to change the RPOF from the current “top down” organization it has become, holding the power to cram the same recycled candidates, repeating the same talking points down our throats.
Mentoring Newly Active Republicans
America First Republicans are naturals when it comes to meeting and mentoring newly active Republicans who join the county Party. Mostly outsiders ourselves, we know what it’s like to be a 2018 Republican Primary DeSantis supporter in a room full of Republican Establishment Adam Putnam supporters…..vicious.
All we wanted to do was find other Republicans who were pushing back against the Establishment like we saw in 2016. When we met “our people” we were just so grateful to find them. And with gratitude, came graciousness. And out of that graciousness, came mentoring.
These new members want to find other members who will be welcoming instead of hostile. The new members will need support, education and a different perspective because they had no idea that the Republican Party was so divided until the sat through their first REC meeting. They had no idea that the Republican Establishment had declared war —not on the Left —but on the MAGA Republicans. These are the people who need to find you… America First Republicans.
The Republican Establishment has made it clear that they attempt to stop MAGA / AF Republicans from joining their county GOP. They’ve made it clear they would be happier if precincts had vacancies than have them filled with a bunch of “crazy Trump supporters.”
The Florida Republican Establishment let the mask slip in February of 2021 when they began labeling MAGA Republicans “insurrectionists” and started turning away registered Republicans at the door of the local GOP meetings, stating they needed to find a TEA Party group to join which would better suit their ideology.
The Republican Establishment isn’t mentoring ANYBODY who wants to “Make America Great Again.” The Republican Establishment isn’t going to invest in new members - they barely let them join at all. County RECs all over Florida canceled their July meeting - the crucial four weeks prior to the August Republican Primary because they did not want a “Get Out the Vote” effort. They are fine with the Republican Establishment status quo and membership either stagnating or falling back down to pre-Trump membership numbers.
You’re not though. That is why you are likely reading Florida News Report - you are DONE with the Republican Establishment status quo. And because you are, you see the value in increasing our tribe of America First Republicans within the Party. That is why mentoring new members or even recruiting new members will come much easier for you. You are motivated by a clear understanding that if we don’t get involved, if we don’t push back, if we stay home and just scream at our screens, we will lose our Party to the Establishment without even putting up a fight. We will lose our Country and our kids’ futures if we stay on the sidelines and we just cannot do that. So mentoring newly active Republicans is a clear way to accomplish multiple goals. We must gain control of the county RECs and the resolutions help do that because what the Board does in response to these resolutions shows their true allegiance. If Board members are America First, they will see the value of the resolutions — they may disagree with minor wording —but not the process of a resolution. If they are AF Republicans, they will follow the RPOF Rules and Procedures and their county Model Constitution. The Republican Establishment however will make excuses, break the rules, violate the Model Constitution to keep the resolution from advancing. They will side with the RPOF leadership and remind members that the sole goal of the county REC is to get Republicans elected. And if that were really true, don’t you think the RECs would have the greatest “Get Out the Vote” effort during the August Republican Primary (instead of canceling the July meeting) - when we are deciding between a Republican who actually believes in the Party platform or the candidate du jour of the Republican Establishment? If getting Republicans elected was the sole goal of the county RECs, electing the most “Republican” candidate would be the most important goal. But it’s not. And canceling the pivotal July meetings across the state proves that point.
Why AF Republicans Must Lead the Way
The only MAGA the Florida Republican Establishment believes in is:
M: Make
A: America First Republicans
G: Go
A: Away
We are the only ones, as American First Republicans, who can be trusted to drive the Party forward, not the Republican Establishment. We no longer believe the Republican Establishment has our best interest at heart. We no longer believe they are honoring the Party platform. The Republican Establishment has revealed themselves by their INACTION that they are being controlled by outside forces.
And that has destroyed our faith and trust in them.
Both the membership mentoring and County REC resolutions are the keys to restoring the Party to what it was intended to be.
And as long as the Republican Party of Florida leadership remains quiet on the issues that are directly affecting their members, resolutions will be necessary to represent us and our interests.