Did election weaken MAGA's grip on Cowlitz Republican party?

Traditional Republicans make gains in races for precinct committer officers, the core people who control party politics, but balance of power remains uncertain

The Aug. 6 primary has triggered a power shift among Cowlitz County Republicans that may give traditional members of the GOP greater say over candidate endorsements and other party activities.

The election results also could be a sign that voters are growing weary of the right wing’s combative, exclusionary style in which even life-long Republicans are shunned as RINOS (Republicans in name only).

MAGA-leaning candidates lost 13 out of 19 races for Republican precinct committee officer (PCO) positions even though they were endorsed by GOP Central Committee chair Christy Tseu, a fiery Trump supporter and Ariel resident.

Tseu (pronounced SAY-ow) declined comment until Aug. 21, the day after election results are certified.

The GOP Central Committee has endorsed far right candidates such as Trump-backed Joe Kent for Congress and supported Simi Bird’s campaign for governor, which flopped miserably.

Notable conservatives such as Larry Crosby, a Castle Rock resident who is publisher of the right-wing Watchdog of Cowlitz County monthly newsletter, lost to PCO challengers from the more traditional Ronald Reagan/Jack Kemp wing of the party. Several of those victors are active under the banner of Lower Columbia Republican United, a GOP splinter group unaffiliated with the MAGA-dominated GOP Central committee.

With ballot counting nearly completed, Crosby, the incumbent, lost the Republican PCO position for the Delameter Precinct to Scott Spencer, 152-89.

Two races are still too close to call.

Former Longview City Councilman Mike Wallin and incumbent Councilman Keith Young were running neck and neck for the Laurel precinct PCO position, with Young leading 121-117 as of early Thursday afternoon. Both, however, bested Tseu-endorsed incumbent Elizabeth Buchan, who had tallied with 104.

Longtime Republican Ramona Leber, a board member and treasurer of the Republicans United group, was trailing Tseu-endorsed incumbent Sam Sanden for the Magnolia precinct PCO position, 134-131. If Leber pulls ahead, that would mean a 14th defeat for Tseu-backed candidates.

(Totals of both faces are still expected top change. A coin toss decides the winner if the contest is tied.)

Outgoing Cowlitz County Commissioner Dennis Weber (also an LCRU member) swamped Tseu-endorsed Scott Beck, winning Longview’s Sacajawea South precinct Republican PCO position, 195-63. As a county commissioner, Weber has often found himself in a minority, outvoted by right-wing conservatives Arne Mortensen and Rick Dahl.

Finally, former Longview council member/state legislator Hal Palmer defeated Tseu-endorsed David Morrison, the incumbent PCO for Longview’s Hillcrest PCO precinct, 287-153. Palmer also ran unsuccesfully for county commissioner and said he filed for PCO to use a a barometer of his elective chances.

Palmer said believes the PCO elections “sent a message that we need better communication and cooperation within the party.”

PCOs are the foot soldiers of grassroots politics, serving on the party central committee. They help campaign for party candidates and policies. They are key to setting platforms and making endorsements. Becoming a PCO is also a bit like being in a baseball farm system: It helps politically ambitious people lay a foundation for their own candidacies for elective office.

Each party elects of appoints 92 PCO positions, one for every one of the county’s voting precincts. Most PCO candidates go unchallenged and do not appear on the ballot. Often, no one files to run for many of the 92 positions, and vacancies are common and often numerous.

Cowlitz County Sheriff Brad Thurman, a traditional Republican and LCRU member, said he and group members recruited PCO candidates in hopes of making the GOP central committee more inclusive and back more competitive candidates for public office.

That effort, he and others said, was were instigated by “grievances,” such as the MAGA wing’s tendency to dismiss traditional, centrist Republican as “RINOS.”

Treated as an outcast in her own party particularly rankles Leber, who said, “I’ve been a lifelong Republican. I know who I am.”

Leber, who has previously served as a PCO, said she wants “to go back and see if I can broaden the scope of the local party” so that “multiple viewpoints can be heard and honored.”

Another grievance, Thurman said, occurred when the central committee’s monthly meeting in the 2021-21 was held in person — in defiance of the state’s COVID social restrictions. PCOs could watch through ZOOM, but they were barred if not physically present, said Thurman, the Republican PCO for the Kelso-area the Brynion precinct. Some elderly, long-time Republicans were disenfranchised by the restriction, Thurman said.

In general, voices of dissent are discouraged at party neetings, he said, specifically citing the discussions that went into 2022 candidate endorsements.

Tseu, the GOP chair, did not immediately return phone calls for comment. She, too, has come under criticism for passing off her PCO endorsements as those of the party’s membership.

How the election changes the balance of power in the Republican Central Committee is hard to predict. It will depend on the politics of each of the 64 Republican PCOs who will take office following the election. That’s hard to know. So is whether the election results modify any of their views.

What will be decisive is what emerges from the first GOP Central Committee meeting after the election — traditionally held in December. At the meeting, PCOs will elect officer, and from there the new party chair will have authority to fill PCO vacancies and thus tilt the committee’s makeup.

The fact that so many Republican PCO positions were challenged is itself a bit unusual for recent years. PCO’s are elected in the primary every two years, and in 2022 only four positions were challenged, three of them Republican.

In 2018 and 2020, eight and seven Republican PCO seats were contested, respectively. However, 25 were contested in 2016 and 36 were challenged in 2014, years that coincided with the rise of Trumpism and a sharp shift to the political right in Cowlitz County.

I don’t believe that Trumpism is about to die in this county. (Based on the primary results, it’s easy to see that Democrats and independent candidates for commissioner face an uphill climb in November, fopr example.) But the 2024 primary may one day mark the start of its decline.