By Andrew Hayes
One thing that should unite all conservatives is that we are all advocates and supporters of the free market. For real conservatives, it ia a given that there is nothing that the state can do better than the free market, war being the single exception – given that war is nothing more than death and destruction on a grand scale. While there may be some difficulties, it is a given that the DMV would operate much more smoothly if it was done by Wal-Mart. In either case, the point is that we all appreciate the way the market works and should strive for free market solutions at every turn.
I think it should start with our attitude towards our own, especially in our primaries. I’ve heard Leon Ferris (Stephens County Chair) say (paraphrased) that our job as a party isn’t to get involved in primaries, that is for the people to decide.. (as if our party primaries are decided by the people at large and not by our party). Our only job is to support whichever Republican wins the primary and make sure we beat whichever democrat was dumb enough to run against us! This is a nice idea, and if we had only good candidates file to run as Republicans, then, this would be great. The glaring problem with this is of course that there are plenty of those who are democrats in their politics and would run as democrats if they lived in a swing state, but because Oklahoma is a red state, they run as Republicans. And our party doesn’t seem to have the brains, backbone and/or will to smoke them out! Or is it more nefarious than that? My current race against Tom Cole is a case in point. But I’m not writing this to campaign so you can find more about that if you message me on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/344121947985419/
Difficulties arise whenever there are multiple good candidates in the primary. It’s a good problem to have, but still a problem, and so we should deal with it. Playing neutral is one option, but this comes at the expense of allowing bad incumbents to essentially go unopposed by the party leaving it to grassroots challengers who could be out spent by large margins!
Here’s the reality:
“If the Republican party wants candidates and office holders who will fight for the constitution and the Republican party platform, the Republican party had better stand up and fight for those candidates!”
But when there are multiple candidates worth fighting for, and the party, or party officers or county chairs only pick one, this can cause division and strife where there shouldn’t be any. And why would county chairs, state officers, and grassroots organizations only pick one candidate? Because they aren’t thinking the way an advocate of the free market does, this isn’t a criticism, the state is not a free market. It is the opposite. Government is one size fits all, there are winners and there are losers, and in fact only one primary candidate will advance to the general election. And this is how it should be, it is politics. But that doesn’t mean we have to treat it this way! If a friend asks you where’s a good place to eat? You might rattle off a dozen different restaurants. They are all good, and you have endorsed all that you recommend. It will be up to your friend to decide which one they chose. But when it comes to politics, in our primary, we sometimes make the mistake of only supporting one anti-RINO candidate. The Republican Party should create a level playing field for ALL of the anti-RINO candidates. And those candidates need that. I can tell you first hand, that this isn’t easy. People lie about you, twist your words, attack you, and a time or two I’ve been confused as Bondar and been cussed out before I ever said a word. Then the people that you had expected to support you instead endorse one of your opponents or ignore you altogether. These things discourage good candidates from running.
Everyone assumes Oklahoma is deep red, very conservative, and that the Republican party is strong in Oklahoma. I assumed that until I went and looked at the candidates list on the Oklahoma election board’s website: https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/elections/candidate-filing-archives/2024-candidate-filing-archives/2024listbook.pdf
I found that of the 25 senate seats that are up for election this year 12 of those seats had no Republican challenger. Two of those seats were held by Democrats. In the state house it’s even worse! There are 69 of the 101 seats that won’t have an election for the Republican nomination. Thirteen of those seats are held by Democrats.
Looking at these numbers is cause for concern. Our party isn’t nearly as conservative and isn’t nearly as strong as I thought or as any of us would like it to be! It ties back to the idea of who is there that is going to go in single handedly and fix the problem? Isn’t that what the party and the grassroots organizations are for? To help them?
The Republican party gets stronger through debate, we get better candidates and better representation through competition, another principle of the free market. I’ll tell you again from first hand experience I have learned things from Paul Bondar and Nick Hankins, and they would both tell you they have learned from me. Going through a primary election prepares candidates for the general election and makes them better. But if the party either ignores them, or endorses the other candidate, then what is the point? We need to think like the free market advocates that we are. Establish standards, and endorse whatever Republican candidates meet or surpass those standards in a race, even if all the candidates in a race do so.
We should also use those standards in the reverse. Let’s establish a minimum standard, such as if a candidate (especially an incumbent), falls below a certain threshold, they should receive a bad review from the party and party officers. It is the Republican party after all. If you are only going to vote in accordance with the party platform on 30% of the issues, you should be denounced by the party!
Expecting county chairs, or state officers of the party to remain entirely neutral is a recipe for mediocracy at best, and disaster at worst. It is the job of the county chair to find and promote good candidates for office. But the current culture of the party tends to frown on this. And state officers aren’t supposed to endorse anyone at all (according to the way some read the rules). The County chairs should be able to endorse candidates, and if he is the only worthy candidate in the Republican primary, help him beat the RINO! We might even redefine politics. Suppose there are two good candidates and one RINO in a house race. What the party should do is coordinate with those two candidates and send out two sided mailers. One side with candidate A’s info and the other with Candidate B’s info. This is to say that the party should be equally promoting the two good candidates and thereby root out the RINOs!
DEO VINDICE
Andrew Hayes
Lawton, OK
Editor’s note: Andrew Hayes has written about his experience and observations while running for Congress in CD4 against Tom Cole, the incumbent, along with three other candidates. It is worth pointing out that OKGrassroots published a legislative survey recently ranking our existing representatives and their voting record against our Republican Party Platform. We gave candidates the opportunity to take the platform survey we published also. Those scores, for all who chose to take the survey, are published here. We invite discussion and additional op-ed pieces on this topic. Please e-mail submissions to hello@okgrassroots.com
