A smaller faction of local Republicans held a Saturday fundraiser featuring opponents of the main local party's endorsed candidates.
For about nine years, the seven-board member Lower Columbia Republicans United has been separated from the official county party as its own political action group, showing polarized party views seen nationally are also playing out at home.
Lower Columbia Republicans United’s fundraiser included Republican 3rd District hopeful Leslie Lewallen, while Cowlitz County Republicans endorse Trump-backed Joe Kent.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Dave Reichert was a speaker, but the main local party backs his Republican opponent Semi Bird.
While members of Republicans United still have conservative viewpoints, they say the official local party limits nuanced opinions. The divide isn’t just about former President Donald Trump or issues like COVID-19, but what Republicans United Board member Carol Bales calls “a diversity of conservative thought.”
Members of both groups say the two should work together to unite the party and elect more Republicans.
Libertarian leaning?
The political divide isn’t just seen at home.
A 2023 Gallup poll shows the majority of respondents — 63% — believe Republican and Democrats are representing America so poorly, “a third major party is needed” — the highest figure since Gallup first starting asking the question in 2003.
At home, the newer Republican group is small. The only formal members of Lower Columbia Republicans United are the seven board members, and last year the group brought in just under $10,000 in funds for campaign efforts while the Cowlitz County Republican Central Committee brought in $55,000.
Still, without Saturday’s dinner, Bales said the Republican speakers likely wouldn’t appear in the county since the local Republican party is endorsing other candidates.
Bales said people can feel ostracized at Cowlitz County Republican meetings when sharing differing viewpoints.
This includes the party’s focus on limiting government spending on social services like Meals on Wheels — a program Cowlitz County Commissioner Arne Mortensen and former Cowlitz County Republican chairman has regularly voted against.
County Commissioner Dennis Weber, a Republicans United board member and Meals on Wheels supporter, said the main party leans more Libertarian — which tends to focus on small government. He said he believes government should provide essential services, but should be reigned in to prevent overspending.
Cowlitz County Republican Chairwoman Christy Tseu didn’t say the party aligns with Libertarianism, but said overall she thinks government is too large, and can only assume most conservatives feel the same way.
Republicans United Chairman Roger Peters said this push further to the right is creating less electable candidates.
“We have a big-tent concept because that will help you win elections,” Peters said. “You don’t want to violate your core principles but they seem to have an inability to put themselves in other people’s shoes.”
The split
The groundwork for Lower Columbia Republicans United’s inception was laid in 2014.
Former Longview Mayor Ramona Leber helped found Republicans United to focus on election strategies; she felt the Cowlitz County GOP was getting bogged down on smaller issues. For instance, the party endorsed then-3rd District candidate Michael Delavar and he argued preventing felons from owning guns violated their Second Amendment rights.
More recently, the county party’s hardline stance against COVID-19 shutdowns and vaccine mandates had reinforced the existing split.
“They seem to be endorsing candidates based on their stances on particular policy issues, as opposed to supporting candidates who would be good in office,” Leber said.
Peters said as the six Republicans United members were considering their split in late 2014, he got a call from Sue Hutchinson, the current chair of Washington’s state Republican Party. Hutchinson shared some of the group’s worries about the Libertarian-leaning Liberty Caucus gaining more influence in the Republican Party.
Cowlitz County Republicans Treasurer Steve Ferrell explained the group’s vetting process for candidates. A committee meets with Republican candidates or friendly candidates in the officially nonpartisan local races and asks candidates about their knowledge of the U.S. Constitution and the Washington Constitution, as well as the specific duties of each elected role.
What are the differences?
Last summer a similar Republican split occurred in Lewis County, partially driven by doubts about Trump, but also how the Lewis County party turned on fellow Republicans. Conservative Coalition of Lewis County Founding Board Member Frank Corbin was at Saturday’s dinner.
“We can never replace the party, but hopefully we can bring some changes,” Corbin said.
Lower Columbia Republicans United isn’t as black and white as the Lewis County group, said Weber, who couldn’t generalize the group as being against Trump or against certain issues.
While the county party’s headquarters includes a Trump cardboard cutout and Trump flags — and Tseu describes the county as “ultra MAGA” — not all Lower Columbia Republicans United members are fans.
Weber said he has never voted for the former President, but approved of his simplification of taxes and increasing employment. He also called the Jan. 6 Capitol attack as a “dereliction of duties” for Trump, charged with defending the Constitution, and therefore Congress and the Supreme Court.
Mostly, Republicans United is more interested in being open to different views, said Bales, who added their group doesn’t use terms like RINO, which stands for Republican in Name Only.
Of course, Lower Columbia Republicans United does not have the reach of the official Republican Party. The county GOP has three members who attend the Washington State Republican Party events and vote on party decisions and directions, Ferrell said. Being an official group gives the county party easier access to the fundraising tools and voter outreach lists.
And the candidates the groups back differ.
Lower Columbia Republicans United hasn’t released its 2024 endorsements yet, but in the 2022 elections, the group successfully backed Sheriff Brad Thurman in his re-election campaign against Rob Gibbs, who the county party endorsed.
On the flip side, the Cowlitz County GOP could point to their candidate Rick Dahl defeating Lower Columbia Republicans United-endorsed John Jabusch in the county commissioner race or the slate of Longview City Council candidates the main party endorsed last year.
The endorsement of independent Jabusch is something Cowlitz County Republicans would never do, said Tseu, because backing a non-Republican violates the group’s bylaws.
Uniting
Tseu said she wants to see the groups align so Kent’s 2022 loss to Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, doesn’t happen again.
The dinner crowd was also a reminder the Republican groups overlap. Thurman, a Lower Columbia Republicans United board member, is still a precinct committee officer for the party and Leber had been an officer until 2022. Erik Halvorson attended the Lower Columbia Republicans United candidate training workshop last May and was supported by both groups during his Longview City Council campaign.
Tseu, Ferrell and a handful of other leaders of the county Republican Party also attended Saturday’s fundraising dinner. Tseu said she wanted to hear Reichert, who has since overtaken Bird in polls for the race.
Weber said the two groups should compliment each other. Despite some minor disagreements with fellow commissioners Mortensen and Dahl, the three vote together most of the time because they are all conservative and share similar views, he added.
Peters likes to cite a quote commonly attributed to Ronald Reagan.
“The person who agrees with you 80% of the time is a friend and an ally — not a 20% traitor,” he said.
