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In yet another sign of the escalating factionalism within the South Carolina “Republican” party, a prominent GOP group in Greenville County – one of the brightest red regions in the entire nation – has severed ties with the state and national party organizations.
According to a news release, the group formerly known as the Greenville Young Republicans has dissolved and – by unanimous decision of its executive board – determined to move forward “independent from any overhead state or national affiliation.”
The name of the new organization? Young Greenville.
The group’s decision comes at a pivotal time for the GOP establishment in the Palmetto State. The S.C. Republican Party (SCGOP) is facing unprecedented grassroots pressure as an unrelentingly vocal group of conservative activists grows increasingly frustrated by its chronic failure to govern in a manner consistent with its stated principles.
“This is an exciting new step for young republican voters across Greenville County,” said Hayden Turlington, chairwoman of the new organization. “Our club will prioritize further accessibility to opportunities to young voters as a ‘big tent’ republican club, while remaining loyal to our party platform and to those who uphold it.”
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According to the news release, Young Greenville – which aims to serve “younger republican voters, ages 18-45” will focus its energies on “legislative education, party volunteering and local community service to Greenville County.”
“Our members are already forging the path forward through political influence and connections to shape Greenville to be a better community,” said Meagan Ingersoll, a board member of the new organization and former founding member/chairwoman of the Greenville Young Republicans.
Young Greenville is hosting a launch event on Tuesday May 2, 2023 at The Commons at Unity Park in downtown Greenville beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT. State representative Adam Morgan – chairman of the S.C. Freedom Caucus – is among the local leaders scheduled to attend this gathering.
In keeping with the ‘house divided’ theme, Morgan’s caucus currently finds itself in a pitched battle with the left-of-center party establishment at the S.C. State House – where the ruling GOP supermajority has been ranked as the most liberal “Republican-controlled” legislature in the nation for three years running.
With unsurprisingly unfortunate outcomes …
Will groups like this help push the GOP back to the pro-freedom, pro-free market principles upon which it was founded? We shall see … frankly, it is hard to imagine the party veering much further away from those principles than it already has.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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3 comments
More Republicans in total disarray!
These youngsters are the only smart Republicans around.
They know if they want any chance of getting elected in the future, you need to remove any mention of “Republican” from your group’s name. Too bad the crazies run the show now, kids!
Tucker Carlson should bring attention to this on his show tonight and unite the white!
The Republican Party, now the Party of Trump, is not a free-market libertarian-leaning organization. If that is what you want, the GOP is lost to you. They are an authoritarian organization whose base wants the party to impose its economic and social policies on people and businesses by force. The MAGA Cult is too strong for the party to break away. They must do whatever it takes to, stop Abortions, stamp out gay rights, demonize gay people, demonize minorities, and punish businesses who decide it is in their financial interests to be inclusive and to respect the lifestyles of people the MAGA cult loathes. It is a white supremacist organization and a Christian Nationalist organization. There can be no tolerance for dissent. These are not small government ideas, they are massive, intrusive government ideas. They are Fascist ideas. I hope young people can see that, but I am not optimistic.
Exactly.