As results were coming in from the hotly contested South Carolina Republican Primary last night, an email was sent to Virginia Republicans from current RPV Chairman John Whitbeck, stating that former State Senate candidate Vince Haley had dropped out of the race for Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia. This came slightly more than a month after Mr. Haley, the former Newt Gingrich staffer and last minute candidate for Chairman, jumped into the race.
In a statement, Haley explained that his primary reason for entering the race was his opposition to the “loyalty oath” issue, and with it’s recession, the underlying reason for his campaign was over. He also stated that he “entered the race to make the case for a Republican party that keeps its promises.”
These claims are difficult to take at face value, however, given the almost complete lack of discussion of the loyalty oath in his announcement on January 15 and that, despite ending his Chairman’s bid, Haley’s statement still characterized RPV as a “Virginia Republican party that is failing to keep its promises,” while launching into a litany of issues that Republicans, at both the state and federal level, are mishandling.
Given that Haley’s announcement was met with skepticism from the mainstream of the party, and an odd silence from his apparent handlers in the Conservative Fellowship, it’s not surprising that after a month of doing little more than writing a single announcement email, Mr. Haley chose to drop out.
Many first learned of Haley’s statement not even from Haley himself, but in Whitbeck’s email declaring victory in his now-unopposed race.
In a typical plea for party unity, Whitbeck stated:
“But there is hope for America as long as we stand together because as we know, a Republican cannot win the White House without winning Virginia. And with the success the RPV has had the past several months, we are well on our way to a win in our Commonwealth. We have already had a great 2015 rebuilding the RPV into a strong, well-funded and united State Party. Now with almost two months of 2016 behind us, we will continue to strengthen the RPV to be ready to help GOP nominee onward to victory in November.”
While the definition of “success” is subjective, Whitbeck does deserve credit for working hard to right RPV’s finances, even if that has not yet been completed, as well as his hard work to ensure a presidential preference primary rather than a convention to select Virginia’s GOP choice for President. The latter choice came at significant cost to him, as he lost the support of Russ Moulton and the much of his original support base.
With Chairman Whitbeck and RNC National Committeeman Morton Blackwell both running unopposed, the only race contested races at the RPV Convention in Harrisonburg will be for RNC National Committeewoman and delegates to the Republican National Convention. As noted before, Suzanne Obenshain is facing Virginia political neophyte Cynthia Dunbar.
Given the potential for a brokered convention in Cleveland and the slates of candidates being run by the Trump, Cruz and establishment campaigns, it is likely that the races for convention delegate will be very contentious. Rumors abound that both Trump and Cruz putting forth slates of delegates in fears of a convention floor fight. Politico reported earlier in the week that multiple campaigns were prepping for this very scenario. It will be interesting to see what effect this will have on the statewide convention and district conventions.
