GOP Grassroots Takeover Grows, but Not Fast Enough, Movement Founder Says

Dan Schultz, lawyer and advocate for filling GOP precinct positions. Dan Schultz/Youtube

The movement to have conservatives take control of the GOP by picking up local party positions has moved the needle since gaining more attention over the past year. But it hasn’t been enough, according to the man spearheading the initiative.

The strategy works by filling Republican Party positions on the lowest, precinct level. About half of such positions have been vacant, based on rough estimates. These lowest-level party members, often called “precinct committeemen” or “precinct delegates” then elect members of the higher-rung committees who then elect yet higher party echelons, all the way to the national leadership, the Republican National Committee (RNC).

President Donald Trump endorsed the initiative earlier this year.

“If members of our Great movement start getting involved (that means YOU becoming a precinct committeeman for your voting precinct), we can take back our great Country from the ground up,” he said in a Feb. 27 statement on his website.

The “precinct strategy,” however, requires not just a burst of enthusiasm, but a modicum of continuous commitment, noted Daniel Schultz, Arizona-based lawyer and pioneer of the strategy.

He’s estimated that about quarter of the existing positions are filled with actual conservatives and a quarter with “RINOs” (Republicans-in-name-only). Filling the vacancies thus tips the balance toward conservatives who will then over time get elected to the higher and higher party positions.

“The good news is that there have been great successes in some places around the country,” Schultz told The Epoch Times.

Some local committees went from a fraction of seats occupied to a near full house.

In Nevada’s two largest counties, Clark and Washoe, for instance, “conservatives now greatly outnumber the non-conservatives,” he said.

“It’s all by word of mouth and friends asking friends: ‘Hey follow my lead, come into the party. Let’s change the party, change it to make it more conservative,’” he said.

“By being in it you change the complexion of it. And you also are in the best position to get out the vote for the best conservative candidates in the primary elections.”

A voter fills in her ballot during primary voting at Central Elementary School in Kent, Ohio, on May 3, 2022. Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Precinct members can not only flash their credentials when knocking on doors and holding events, but they also get access to the GOP get-out-the-vote software, which allows them to easily find and approach registered Republicans in their area.

Another success story is the new communications platform for precinct committee members built by a Nevada volunteer and launched last year. It’s linked from Schultz’s website, PrecinctStrategy.com, and offers a secure discussion forum for committee members as well as those interested in becoming one.

The forum has over 11,000 members, about 2,000 of whom joined the week following Trump’s endorsement of the initiative.

Schultz is aiming for about 300,000. If achieved, it would mean all the committees would be at full strength and about 75 percent of all party voting members would be actual conservatives, he’s estimated.

To fill a vacancy can be as easy as filling out a document and getting appointed by the local GOP chair. One is required to attend meetings perhaps twice a month and, in rare cases, pay dues. To continue in the position upon the expiration of the appointed term, one needs to get elected—a relatively simple process as there is seldom more than one person running for each seat.

Getting on the Ballot

Schultz’s county of Maricopa went from less than 37 percent of slots filled to more than 70 percent before this year’s primaries. The number is about drop again however.

“Many of those people didn’t not follow through and get on the ballot for the 2022 primary election,” he said.

That means the county will go down to about 40 percent slots filled after the primary.

Getting on the ballot for precinct committeeman in Arizona takes filling out a form and collecting some signatures—no more than 10. Even that has proven too much for some people, he’s found.

He spoke to a committeeman who wasn’t even aware he needed to get on the ballot to continue in his position. When informed what he needed to do, “he decided he wasn’t interested after all,” Schultz said. “Because, you know, that was too much work.”

Such a lack of initiative has left Schultz concerned about the future.

“That’s why we’re going to lose our republic,” he lamented. “Everybody’s saying, ‘Somebody else is going to do it for me.’ And then, after we’ve lost the republic, everybody’s going to ask themselves, ‘Why didn’t somebody do something?’”

He believes that failure of some areas to fill the grassroots party positions contributes to the unwillingness of some state and local officials to address burning issues among conservatives, such as election integrity.

“The people haven’t demonstrated that they could be effective in taking me out in the next primary,“ he summed up the message the officials may be getting from the public. ”Why should I stick my neck out and fight for election integrity?”

Hitting the Streets

States and counties often have different procedures for committee member elections. Some states require candidates to get on the primary ballot. Others hold private caucus meetings. State party bylaws would spell out the procedure, he said.

“The first time I did it, way back in 2008, I asked [the local GOP] for a call-and-walk sheet of the Republicans in my precinct and they gave me a printout of every street in my precinct,” he recalled.

He started walking down the street closest to his home, knocking on doors.

“I took my kids with me, who were really young then, about 8–10 years old. I thought it would be a good civics lesson for them,” he said.

Within 45 minutes, he had his 10 signatures.

“Over the years, it gets easier because you can go back to the same people who know you,” he said.

In fact, signatures of other candidates and even one’s own count too so now the 10 members of his local committee just sign for each other.

“It’s where the rubber meets the road, so to speak, and unfortunately we don’t have enough people any more in this country who care enough to do this,” he said.

Establishment Pushback

In some instances, the GOP establishment seems to have tried to hinder the grassroots initiative.

“I’m getting reports about that from all across the country,” Schultz said.

When people attempt to get appointed for vacant positions, they would be sometimes rebuked with questionable justifications.

“You didn’t fill out your paperwork right or you’re not actually a delegate after all, … you weren’t a registered Republican long enough,” he cited as some examples.

One county GOP changed its bylaws to allow local Republicans holding public office to get a vote on the county committee, apparently trying tip the balance against members coming from the local precinct committees.

“Almost all of those elected republicans are RINOs,” Schultz said.

He said such a move is still only possible when there are vacancies left—yet another reason to make sure all the precinct seats are filled.

Lack of Data

One would expect that the RNC would be interested in the total strength of the party and would thus ask the state committees to report data on their ranks, down to the precinct—yet it doesn’t.

“They couldn’t care less about that, apparently, because they don’t have those numbers [on record],” Schultz said.

“They don’t care how many people are in the Republican Party because all they care about is money.”

The RNC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In some states, such as Arizona, the state GOP provides statistics on local positions, but in other states such data is nowhere to be found. In some states precinct committeemen don’t get on the ballot and are elected through private caucus meetings. In such cases, “the only people who know how many slots there are and how many are filled are in the end the Republican party chairs,” Schultz said.