by Rollin Reisinger
This is our time for choosing.
For over two centuries, America’s climb from its humble beginnings upward toward the stars has been driven by a shared desire amongst its people to seize upon the blessings of opportunity, and build, through hard work, a better America to pass on to the next generation.
Our gaze remains fixed on the future, for we know that, absent a diligent commitment towards relentless self-improvement, we’re also but one generation away from failure, should our efforts falter or our desire to preserve and expand our blessings be any less resolute than the generations which blazed the trail upon which we now travel.
Few have articulated our need for continual long-term diligence with greater clarity than Conservative President Ronald Reagan, who once famously remarked:
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same…”
In that one concise and immortal statement, President Reagan encapsulated how our hopes drive our ambitions, and how our ambitions drive the course we chart into tomorrow.
This fundamental optimism is the heart of the American dream: that each generation may leave to its successors, a better America than was left to them. Many of us see this as a great responsibility; as our end of the bargain, which we must uphold as repayment for the blessings left to us.
For many of us, this commitment to a better future defines us and drives us as conservatives and as Republicans – it’s at the heart of why we advocate for our conservative beliefs and our Republican principles.
To leave to the next generation of Americans a stronger nation than was left to us, we must also leave to the next generation of Republican standard bearers a stronger party than that which we joined ourselves – for only then can we be confident in the course of our nation’s future.
Each of us was brought into the fold of politics through our own individual journey from a November voter to a year-round Republican standard bearer. Despite the individual differences, our stories do share several key similarities.
For most of us, the choice to hoist the Republican standard high was not an instant decision, for few undertake that transformation overnight. For most, that transformation is gradual, from an observer, to an interested observer, to an occasional participant, to a rank-and-file Republican, and finally, to a leader within the party.
Though times may change, the course to political involvement for our next generation of Republican leaders will not be substantially different, and knowing that, we must do all we can to welcome to our party as many future Republican leaders as possible, with all the hospitality we received from those who passed the torch onto us.
I would ask convention supporters this: would you be where you are in politics today had that very first involvement been a difficult affair, requiring a month or more of planning to travel to a far-off event? Would you even have known where to join? When? Would you be here today if the path to involvement were not gradual and welcoming?
For some, the answer will be yes, and for others, the answer will be no; for that reason, we should choose a nominating method for which everyone’s answer will be a resounding: “most certainly!”
A presidential primary is a unique event indeed, as it allows for the broadest possible base of future Republican leaders to begin their political involvement, bit by bit. As growth-oriented Republicans, we should celebrate the budding involvement of all future Republicans, no matter who they may favor for the nomination.
As November voters transition towards primary participants, and as they explore the broad field before them, many will undertake that first but crucial step towards grassroots political activism. Upon choosing one Republican of the many, most can’t help but engage a friend or family member. Most will share their choice with others, and ask for their support too.
From that tiny spark of activism our future leaders will be made.
We all remember that first moment where we went beyond our civic duty as a voter to advocate to others – and, from that moment, every single one of our political careers was born.
As is often said, every journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.
To grow our party, and build it up for the generations to come, we must welcome as many fellow Republicans as we can to take that first step, as a primary participant, and welcome them to take many more alongside us.
The diversity within our Republican field is without precedent; we should fully expect turnout in a 2016 primary to far surpass the 664,093 Republicans who voted in our last hotly-contested presidential primary in 2000.
What should we expect this year? 800,000? One million?
In that pool of nearly a million Virginia Republicans will be our next generation of leaders, our next generation of volunteers, and our next generation of candidates. As the leaders of today, it is up to us to welcome them to our party, and involve them, as soon as possible.
That’s nearly one million Republicans each unit committee needs to invite to their next community-oriented summer barbecue.
That’s nearly one million Republicans each unit committee needs to solicit as future members and volunteers.
That’s nearly one million Republicans who we want at our town halls, our meet the candidate events, our fundraisers, and our galas.
That’s nearly one million Republicans we want on our side, as our allies, bearing that same standard and lightening our own burden when the going gets tough in the very hardest-fought elections.
That’s nearly one million Republicans we would be proud to call our friends.
By contrast, supporters of a presidential nominating convention have claimed it may energize as many as 25,000 delegates. In that estimate is contained two key problems:
First, the optimistic claim of 25,000 could turn out to be far less, leaving us with fewer supporters.
Secondly, and most importantly, of those 25,000 delegates, the vast majority are already involved and engaged as party insiders – very few of those will be the fresh blood we need to grow our party.
How many fresh faces will we see as they embark upon a new path of Republican involvement? A few thousand?
Grassroots politics happens at the neighborhood level, and if we are to lead a grassroots revolution in Virginia politics, we must go beyond the “precinct captain” strategy of campaigns past, to embrace a model centered around neighborhood coordinators and Republican advocates on each and every street.
Growing our party from the grassroots up requires we reach far broader and far wider than the usual faces we’ve all come to know. It requires we reach beyond our own circles, beyond our own email lists, and far beyond those who would ever hear of our convention into the millions of Virginia Republicans who wouldn’t know where to register, when to register, or even the very nature of a nominating convention itself.
We cannot engage new, future Republican leaders and encourage them to become active in the party if we’re only inviting those who are already involved. We can’t bring in new members by filing the same delegates as in years past.
A presidential nominating convention goes against everything we supported when we elected, by acclimation, John Whitbeck as our party chairman, affirming in the strongest possible terms that his platform of growing our Republican Party far beyond its present bounds was exactly what we felt our party needed most.
As one generation of Republican leaders seeks to grow our party for the benefit of the generation to come, it must also make provision within our party’s plans for the future for the involvement of that next generation for which that future is planned.
In my travels across Virginia, in a journey of well over a hundred thousand miles in furtherance of our Republican ideals, I am humbled to have been the guest of a large majority of our Republican unit committees. This journey has given me a broad perspective on grassroots Republican politics across our commonwealth.
Unit committees all across Virginia share my concern with growing our party as we look towards a more Republican future, for despite our best hopes, the vast majority of Republican meetings and functions suffer a deficit of participants under the age of 35.
While this problem is not unique to the Republican Party, our improvement-centered focus must remain upon ourselves. We alone are responsible for cultivating our own next generation of standard bearers; we cannot take any comfort that Democrats also fall short of their own goals.
The concerns of Republican leaders across our Commonwealth are the same: it’s tough to get younger Republicans interested in party functions in an increasingly busy world. Many have tried, but despite their best efforts, participation among their children, their grandchildren, or other millennials they know remains elusive.
Many of today’s millennials lack the time, the money, or the motivation to throw themselves headfirst into Republican Politics by attending a convention. We should not expect 2016 to be any different than the many events and functions past.
If we forego a presidential primary in 2016 in favor of a convention instead, the result will be predictable: millennials will not be engaged. We will have, in a desire to jockey for advantage in the present, undertaken a course we know full well will not welcome enough of the Republican standard bearers of the future.
While convention supporters would note that millennials are not excluded as a matter of rule, they cannot ignore our wealth of experience that, comparatively speaking, many, many fewer millennials attend conventions than participate in presidential primaries.
There is no escaping that fact: embarking on the course of a nominating convention will signal to Virginia’s conservative millennials that the Republican Party does not value their input by knowingly and willingly undertaking a more exclusionary method of nomination.
Will our Republican Party be one of the grassroots, as we look forward to a future of greater citizen participation in politics driven by technology which fosters that involvement, or will we cling to the smoke-filled back rooms of the past, where people the broader electorate do not know choose nominees at meetings at times and in places not known outside the party structure?
Virginia has not held a broadly-energizing Republican presidential primary since the year 2000, and we may not have another until 2024. Can we truly afford to go 24 years without a way for grassroots Republicans to go above and beyond their November duty by joining with us to select our nominee?
Can we afford to go 24 years without a presidential primary voter list, to be used as the data backbone for all of our party building efforts in each and every county and city across our Commonwealth?
Can we survive as a viable party for the generation of Republicans to come if we fail to do all we can to build the strength and the reach of our party in the present?
Can we afford for this generation to become the “lost generation” of Virginia Republican politics?
When you cast that important vote tomorrow, I humbly ask for your help in growing our Republican party for the generation to come, and leaving to the next generation an organization whose growing strength will be necessary and essential in preserving and expanding the opportunity and the freedom which so boldly define the American experience.
Please reject the calls for exclusion in furtherance of factional advantages in the present, for our biggest fights are those which are yet to come.
All Republican roads to the White House in 2016 lead through Virginia. For Virginia’s Republican leaders, this is indeed our time for choosing, and the choice made tomorrow may very well impact the next occupant of the White House, the next President of the United States of America.
Please choose carefully and wisely, for history may be written tomorrow.
I sincerely hope our next President will be a Republican President. I sincerely hope that, at our sides, we’ll have the largest grassroots base possible as we undertake the monumentally-important challenge of winning back this battleground state, our home, the Commonwealth of Virginia.
For those reasons, I humbly ask for your vote in support of a presidential primary in Virginia in 2016.
Rollin Reisinger is a proud Virginia Republican and veteran of many Virginia Republican campaigns across the Commonwealth
