The state Republican Party’s rules committee convened Thursday night without reconsidering a proposed rules change removing top elected officials and groups representing women, Hispanics, African Americans and young adults from key policy committees.
The committee didn’t take up the matter despite the fact that state party Chair Mike Brown had urged the committee to reconsider the rule.
Brown has said he had nothing to do with the proposed rule, although his critics have blamed him for engineering the proposal.
The rule party’s chair, Bryant Anderson, confirmed that the committee didn’t take action on the proposal Thursday night. The proposed rules change was not on the committee’s agenda.
Anderson said committee members had an opportunity to make a motion to reconsider the proposals. He said none of the original eight committee members that voted for the proposals made a motion to reconsider.
“Clearly there is a commitment to see that the proposals are heard by the KSGOP State Committee,” Anderson said in a text message late Thursday night.
“There continues to be growing support for the proposals as more members of the KSGOP learn the true intent of the proposals, rather than the disingenuous and sometimes false statements that have been relayed to the media by a small faction within KSGOP.”
The committee’s refusal to reconsider the proposed rules changes drew an immediate reaction from some Republicans, who have been fighting the change.
They specifically targeted Brown, saying the committee’s action demonstrated a lack of leadership, including one Republican who called for him to resign on social media.
“This is what BOLD LEADERSHIP gets us,” former Republican state Rep. John Whitmer posted on Twitter Thursday night.
“Going on TWO months and STILL no leadership from MB, time for him to RESIGN!”
The rules committee adopted the proposal in May. After widespread blowback, Brown announced that he recommended the panel to reconsider the measure.
“I believe this recommendation to reconsider will allow our party to refocus on expanding our party and winning elections,” Brown said in an email sent to Republicans.
“Our party, the party of Lincoln, the party that championed woman’s suffrage and civil rights, has and will continue to support all of our GOP members’ full involvement in our party,” Brown said.
“Our members are diverse in ethnicity, background, age and beliefs but we are united in our passion for smaller government, less taxes and more freedom,” he wrote.
In an email Friday morning, Brown said the rules committee has more work to do and more meetings will be held.
“As the KSGOP Chairman, I will decide when this discussion will fit into our meeting agenda,” Brown said.
“I anticipate this being a lengthy discussion and, to be clear, there will not be enough time for this topic at our next meeting in September.”
Shortly after the committee adjourned Thursday night, the Kansas Black Republican Council issued a statement calling on Brown to remove Anderson as the party’s rules chair.
“Bold, conservative leadership is more than a recommendation to reconsider a rule that rips apart the very fabric of the Kansas Republican Party,” wrote Michael Austin, the council’s chair.
“It remains taking responsibility for our actions and the actions of those we appoint,” Austin said.
“Chairman Brown must uphold the principles he campaign on by promptly removing his appointed rules chair and the proposal sponsor from their positions to ensure such shortsighted and destructive ideas will never be entertained again.”
Anderson has said previously the process for adopting the proposed rules changes at the state committee meeting should be allowed to play out.
He has accused a small faction within the party of using “sinister” tactics to spread “false narratives” in an effort to “hijack” the rules process before the proposals were ever approved.
In May, the party’s rules committee agreed on an amendment to the state party’s constitution that would remove the state’s two U.S. senators, three Republican members of Congress and all of the Republican statewide office holders from the GOP state committee.
The proposal also would remove a Republican governor from serving on the state committee as well as the Senate president and the House speaker.
A separate proposal would amend the party’s bylaws to eliminate the same people, including designees of the governor, the U.S. senators and members of Congress, from serving on the party’s executive committee.
The proposal also would cut out groups such as the Black Republican Council, the Kansas Federation of Republican Women, Kansas Young Republicans and the Kansas Hispanic Republican Council.
Changing the party’s constitution requires a two-thirds vote, which makes it very difficult to pass. The change in the bylaws only requires a majority vote.
The proposed changes would be historic since the general structure of the party and the rules have been in place since 1908, with some changes over the years.
The proposals, while not final, have generated criticism from other Republicans who believe they will alienate key Republican Party players, depress fundraising and further splinter party membership going into the 2024 elections.
National conservative talk-show host Todd Starnes has accused Brown of “ethnically cleansing” the party.
Meanwhile, the chairs of the party’s four congressional districts urged the party’s rules committee to back off the proposal.
Republican National Committeeman Mark Kahrs and National Committeewoman Kim Borchers said they reached out to the chair of the rules committee to back off the proposal.
They said that marginalizing the voices of Republican women, young conservatives and ethnic groups such as the Kansas Black Republican Council and Kansas Republican Hispanic Assembly sends the wrong message and is a losing strategy.
They were joined by the Black Conservative Federation, which condemned the “disgraceful actions” of Brown and his appointees to the party’s rules committee.
The federation called the committee’s recommendation a “brazen” attempt to boot the Black Republican Council out of the party’s structure.
