Young Republicans Convention scheduled for December 14th

Here's a follow-up to the recent controversy over the Oklahoma Young Republicans state convention. Rick Loughery, Young Republican National Federation Chairman, sent this out the other day to notify delegates of the newly-scheduled convention being overseen by the YRNF to avoid the sort of irregularities that led to the dissolution of the original convention:

Dear Oklahoma Young Republicans:

2019 Oklahoma Young Republicans State Convention will be held on Saturday, December 14th.  The convention will be held at 2:30pm at the Hilton Garden Inn Oklahoma City North Quail Springs located at 3201 NW 137th St, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  I have appointed the Young Republican National Federation's Southern Regional Vice Chairman, Hayden Padgett, as the presiding officer for this state convention.  While the YRNF is overseeing this convention as part of its dispute resolution procedure, our goal is to adhere to the OKYR Bylaws as much as possible (state bylaws attached) - but, most importantly, to oversee the election of state officers and ensure OKYR is prepared to help us bring home Republican victories in 2020.

Delegates: this convention is open to delegates to the OKYR state convention only.  Delegates must check-in at the registration table prior to being seated at the convention.  Those members who were named as a delegate for the September 2019 state convention are currently listed to be delegates to this convention (see attached list).  If a chapter wishes to make any changes to their delegation or any other requests for changes, please inform YRNF Secretary Desiree Brown no later than December 7th. 

I look forward to seeing you at the state convention on December 14th!

Sincerely,
Rick Loughery
YRNF Chairman

National Young Republicans schedule new state convention for Oklahoma YRs

Back in September, the Oklahoma Young Republicans met for their state convention, intending to elect a new slate of officers. The convention broke down in chaos as two factions met an impasse over credentialing. One side simply walked out, while the other side carried on with business.

Following this, the Young Republican National Federation requested that the OKYRs hold a new convention with oversight by the YRNF to ensure no irregularities occur.

Sources indicate that outgoing chairman John Roberts failed to schedule a new convention as requested by the YRNF, so the YRNF voted at their fall meeting to essentially take over the duties of the Oklahoma YR chair in the interim. They have now set a date for a convention re-do to take place in Oklahoma City:

Dear Oklahoma Young Republicans:

The 2019 Oklahoma Young Republican's State Convention will be held on Saturday, December 14th in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  A specific location and time will be sent out in the near future.

In response to issues from the attempted state convention in September, the Young Republican National Federation has agreed to mediate the dispute by hosting the 2019 Oklahoma YR state convention to ensure leadership is duly elected prior to the new year as required by the rules.

Please plan to attend the state convention on Saturday, December 14th!

Best,
Rick Loughery
YRNF Chairman

Details will be coming when announced by the YRNF.

Young Republicans Convention: new Chairman comments on results

Last night, the Oklahoma Young Republicans met in Oklahoma City for their state convention. Lines were drawn early in the convention, and chaos ensued, ultimately leading to the more liberal faction vacating the premises without taking action on the agenda and the conservative wing taking up the convention business outside.

You can view first-hand video of the "parking lot" conclusion at this link. Delegates who stuck around and went through the agenda action items elected a new slate of OKYR officers. Luke Harshaw, chosen as the new chairman by the delegates, issued the following press release about the evening's events:

OKLAHOMA YOUNG REPUBLICANS ELECT NEW OFFICERS IN PARKING LOT CONVENTION

(OKLAHOMA CITY, OK) - In a makeshift continuation of Friday evening's scheduled Oklahoma Young Republicans state convention, a new slate of officers were elected by acclamation. Among the slate of officers chosen to lead the youth organization were Senator Nathan Dahm, who will serve as vice chairman for the 1st Congressional District, and Senator Joseph Silk who will serve as vice chairman for the 2nd Congressional District.

Republicans between from ages of 18 to 40 traveled from across the state to Oklahoma City for a biannual convention to elect new leadership for the organization, but the convention was nearly cut short when one attendee pointed out that John Roberts, the outgoing Oklahoma Young Republicans chairman, was attempting to unlawfully limit voting rights for delegates from certain counties.

This sparked what has been described by attendees as a "civil war", as a majority of convention-goers stopped the chairman from proceeding with his attempt to limit delegate votes from certain counties, and the chairman began to shut down the convention, telling delegates to leave the building without an official adjournment.

Despite multiple attendees leaving the event, a majority of the convention's delegates stayed in the parking lot of the Credit Union House and continued business after electing a new presiding chairman and selecting a new parliamentarian and secretary for the convention. The remaining delegates proposed a "unity slate" of candidates for each of the elected positions within the organization and elected by unanimous vote a diverse group including lawmakers, business professionals, and college students.

Andrew Lopez, former chairman of the Canadian County Republican Party said about the convention, "It was great to see the grassroots coalescing this evening to advance the Oklahoma Young Republicans. I believe that this is a new era of the Oklahoma Young Republicans that will move together in unity under the platform of the Republican Party."

Following Friday night's convention, newly elected Oklahoma Young Republicans chairman Luke Harshaw released the following statement:

"The Oklahoma Young Republicans are more ready than ever to hit the ground running, working in unity with Republican groups across our state. We intend to organize the Young Republicans into the strongest force for conservative principles in our state, building infrastructure in every county to engage the youth vote for 2020 and beyond. Our newly elected officers are eager to engage voters and once again earn Oklahoma's title as the reddest state in the nation."

BREAKING: OK Young Republican Convention breaks down in chaos, parking lot conclusion

I'm still gathering the details, but the Oklahoma Young Republicans State Convention went through chaos and mayhem, ending up with a conclusion in the parking lot after the liberal faction vacated the convention.

Here's video of the convention outside, after the liberal wing of the YRs left, courtesy of Jarrin Jackson:

I'll update with more details as I find them.

UPDATE: click here to read comments from Luke Harshaw, the new chairman elected by the delegates who remained at the convention.

Kevin Stitt campaigning in Muskogee on Tuesday

GOP gubernatorial candidate Kevin Stitt will be swinging through Muskogee on Tuesday for a meet and greet with the Muskogee High School Young Republican Club. The event will be from 7pm to 8pm at the MHS Fine Arts Building.

Muskogee County Young Republicans meeting on Thursday

From the Muskogee County Young Republicans:

We are having our inaugural meeting of the newly reformed YR Chapter here in Muskogee County. We have a lot to do, including the election of a full slate of officers, setting a permanent day of each month for meetings, and setting an overall agenda for the rest of the election year. We will also hear from candidates in the area running for office, and from some officers in the state YRs on how they can provide help for the chapter going forward. It will be at the Golden Corral in their private functions room. Hope to see all of you there.

When: Thursday, June 9th, at 8:00pm
Where: Golden Corral (423 S. Shawnee Ave., Muskogee, OK 74401)
Who: Any registered Republican under the age of 40 can be a member

'Operation Secret Ballot': the 1966 GOP Election Reform Project

Operation Secret Ballot: The 1966 GOP Election Reform Project

by Paul Hollrah (h/t to Mike McCarville at the McCarville Report)

On Tuesday evening, September 10, 1963, I attended my first meeting of the Tulsa County Young Republicans.   It was the first political meeting I’d ever attended, and as a result of attending that one meeting, and the things I learned there, my life was changed forever.

The guest speaker that evening was a man named Walter Hall, the Ballot Security Officer for the Oklahoma Republican State Committee.  In his speech Hall described in shocking detail the widespread election fraud practiced by Oklahoma Democrats in every election.  He began by saying that forty-four of Oklahoma’s seventy-seven counties had not provided a secret ballot for voters since statehood in 1907, and that local Democrats regularly used every conceivable illegal device to intimidate voters and to fraudulently control the outcome of elections.

Although state law required that one of the three election officials in every precinct must be a member of the minority party, Oklahoma Democrats systematically appointed bogus Republicans to the minority positions.  Consequently, in many precincts in those forty-four counties, all of the election officials were, in fact, Democrats.

When voters entered the polls on Election Day they found three Democrats seated behind a table.  After signing the entry log they were handed a paper ballot and a pencil, and since there were no facilities for marking ballots in secret, they were obliged to place their ballot on the table and to mark their ballot while the three election officials looked on.  If the election officials saw a voter mark his ballot for even a single Republican candidate, a number of things could happen. In many Oklahoma counties the welfare rolls were divided up by precincts and kept on the tables in the polling places on Election Day.  If a welfare recipient was so unwise as to vote for a Republican, his/her name was removed from the welfare rolls the instant the pencil marked the ballot.  If the errant voter was a state or county employee, he ran the risk of being unemployed the same day.  And if he was a property owner, he often found his property tax assessment doubled or tripled overnight.

In some counties the election officials were so brazen as to keep a trash can next to the ballot box, and any ballot with a Republican vote on it went directly into the trash can.  The only ballots in the ballot box were straight Democratic tickets.In some counties they were a bit more subtle and used a technique that Walter Hall referred to as the “lead-under-the-thumbnail” trick.  That technique involved breaking the lead from a pencil and tucking it lengthwise under a thumbnail.When the election official took a completed ballot from a voter, and the ballot contained a vote for a Republican candidate, the official merely scraped the lead across the face of the ballot, folded the ballot in the normal fashion, and placed it in the ballot box.

When the ballot boxes were opened and the ballots were removed, state law required that all ballots with “extraneous” markings be classified as “mutilated” ballots and not counted in the final tally.In other counties, election officials would allow a thumbnail to grow very long over a period of months preceding an election.  On the day of the election they would file a sharp edge on the thumbnail so that, when they took a ballot containing a Republican vote from a voter and prepared to fold it, they merely flicked the sharp nail through the edge of the paper.  Ballots with small rips and tears were considered to be “mutilated” and were discarded along with those having extraneous markings.

I was absolutely appalled at the speaker’s endless recounting of official corruption in the state’s electoral process.  It was hard for me to believe that such corrupt practices could be standard practice in the greatest democracy on Earth, in the twentieth century, but there was no reason to doubt the truth of what he said.Having been an interested observer of the Democratic Party for many years, and having learned much more about it through many friendly debates with my in-laws, I was all but convinced that the party was just another large-scale criminal conspiracy, masquerading as a political party.  After hearing Walter Hall’s presentation that evening I was absolutely certain of it.

Read the rest of this fascinating story below the jump...

Emerge46: the OKGOP's new outreach program

Today, the Oklahoma Republican Party announced the launch of a brand-new outreach program, called "Emerge46". The press release is below:

OKGOP Announces Launch of Emerge46

(Oklahoma City)- There is one voting bloc adding 4 million eligible voters nationally every year. By 2020 — the first presidential election in which this voting bloc will have all reached voting age — about 90 million of them will be eligible voters, close to 40 percent of America’s total eligible voters.

Meet the youth vote, the Millennial Generation. In an effort to better reach this generation of voters in the 46th state in the union, the Oklahoma Republican Party today announced the launch of Emerge46.

The program is aimed at those in college, starting a career or starting a family. The program will connect emerging generation voters with College Republican and or Young Republican clubs and activities. The OKGOP will be a financial supporter of these organizations, and will provide them with training and tools to help further conservative Oklahoma candidates and causes.

Congressman James Lankford and Lt. Governor Todd Lamb, two of Oklahoma's youngest and brightest conservative statesmen, will serve as Co-Chairs. Also serving on the board will be Stephanie Milligan, state President of the Oklahoma Federation of Young Republicans and Megan Yarber, President of the Oklahoma Federation of College Republicans.

"I’m very passionate about the emerging generation, as I’m part of it, and I believe it’s time for us to step up to the plate and begin making the case for the Republican brand," said Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Matt Pinnell, the youngest state GOP Chairman in the country. "The emerging generation is winnable and must be fought for."

Lt. Governor Todd Lamb commended the announcement: "My focus has been on creating an environment in which our young people can work and thrive in a prosperous Oklahoma. I am pleased that the Oklahoma Republican Party is reaching out to this emerging generation to solicit their involvement and ideas in our political process."

Congressman James Lankford stated: "As someone who has worked with the next generation for many years, I applaud the Oklahoma Republican Party's commitment to members of this emerging generation.  This is the moment to engage a group of people who want to make a difference in our world."

For more information, please visit the Emerge46 website at www.Emerge46.com.

Young Republicans Meeting Tonight

The Muskogee County Young Republicans club will hold their monthly meeting at Flair's Grille, at 5:30pm on October 20th (that's tonight). Guest speaker will be Tulsa talk show host Chris Medlock.

Medlock was a Tulsa City Councilman, representing Tulsa 's District 2 for three years. He ran for mayor in 2006, narrowly losing in the Republican primary to the incumbent mayor. He now hosts the 'Chris Medlock Show', which runs from 2-4pm , Monday through Friday, on Tulsa talk radio station 1170 KFAQ.

The Cherokee County Young Republicans club will also be meeting with the Muskogee County Young Republicans. All Republicans from the ages of 18-40, who reside in Muskogee or Cherokee counties, are invited. If you don't fall under that age range, still come.

For more information, please call MCYRS President Jordan Stevens (918-360-2703) or visit www.muskogeerepublicans.org/mcyrs.php