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SC Politics

RNC Drama: ‘Ditched’ South Carolina Delegates Prevailed Over SCGOP

“Every time there is an America First victory … the political establishment immediately meets in secret and finds a way to reverse the will of the people.”

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Back in April, our media outlet reported on a trio of elected delegates to the 2024 Republican National Convention who were purportedly booted from their positions by the South Carolina Republican Party (SCGOP).

The delegates – Keith Blandford and Olga Blandford of Mount Pleasant, S.C. and Lauren Martel of Beaufort, S.C. – were unanimously removed by the SCGOP’s rules committee on April 26, 2024 for making campaign contributions “in opposition to our party’s efforts to re-take the White House.”

The committee’s unanimous decision to vacate the three delegate posts was upheld by SCGOP chairman Drew McKissick.

“I completely concur with the unanimous opinions of the committee,” McKissick wrote in an email to party leaders.

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What happened?

According to the party, Martel and the Blandfords contributed $500 apiece to the campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on June 26, 2023. At that time, Kennedy was still campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. He would later abandon his Democratic bid and seek the presidency as an independent.

SCGOP officials claimed the Kennedy contributions violated a rule which states that “any officer, delegate or alternate who publicly endorses or financially supports a candidate for partisan office other than a duly nominated Republican candidate, unless there is no Republican nominee in the relevant race, shall immediately vacate their Republican Party office.”

“It should go without saying that one cannot hold an elected office in the SCGOP and contribute to a Democrat presidential campaign,” SCGOP rules committee chairman Tony Denny noted.

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Lauren Martel at the 2024 GOP National Convention. (Provided)

Martel pushed back aggressively, arguing that former president Donald Trump had yet to be nominated at the time the contributions were made. She accused the GOP of “a gross misapplication” of its rules – and vowed to remain a national delegate.

“I am not going to step down,” she wrote in a letter to party officials.” I am a duly elected state and national delegate and I plan to attend the national convention in July 2024.”

Olga Blandford slammed the decision as well, saying the SCGOP establishment had “treated me and my family with great disrespect since I joined (the party) in 2021.”

“We have been called names, thrown out of meetings, dismissed and silenced,” Blandford said at the time, referring to the committee’s effort to boot her and her husband from the delegation as “another dirty move.”

Martel and the Blandfords ultimately won the day, though.

The trio not only made it to Milwaukee, but they were “officially seated by the RNC despite (the) SCGOP wrongfully trying to manipulate national delegates,” according to Martel.

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Indeed, Martel and Keith Blandford were listed as official delegates to the convention (.pdf) – representing the Palmetto State’s first congressional district. Olga Blandford was listed as an alternate for the first district. All fifty delegates from South Carolina were pledged to Trump on the basis of his blowout win over the state’s former governor, Nikki Haley, back in February.

So … is all well that ended well?

“Justice prevailed in South Carolina by the RNC decision,” Martel told us. “(But) the work is not done. In fact, it was a clarion call to be more vigilant.”

Martel added the “business as usual” faction of the SCGOP is “not working for the people” – and that the MAGA wing of the party is “fast gaining momentum (and) demanding more competency out of leadership.”

As for Olga Blandford, she told us the dust-up over the delegate spots was “indicative of a nationwide challenge between the people and the permanent political class.”

“Every time there is an America First victory, whether local, county, state, or even national, the political establishment immediately meets in secret and finds a way to reverse the will of the people, either by overturning the election or creating shadow/splinter groups to undermine the authority of those who lawfully won,” Blandford said.

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Keith Blandford and his wife, Olga Blandford, with their delegate and alternate medals from the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Facebook)

“The SCGOP disqualified MAGA delegates based on an erroneous interpretation of the rules,” she continued. “We meticulously followed the process and appealed this decision. The SCGOP was non-responsive to the appeal.”

Ultimately, the national party saw it differently than the SCGOP – although Blandford said state “Republican” leaders have yet to acknowledge the RNC’s decision reinstating her, her husband and Martel to their duly elected party posts.

“They have centralized power and removed the significance of precinct-level governance,” Blandford said. “Anyone who opposes and doesn’t go along with the ‘top’ level decisions is kicked out of the ‘party.’ This reminds me of Marxist tactics that I am familiar with from my country of birth, the Soviet Union. The political elite don’t allow people to get involved.”

Martel and the Blandfords are part of a growing anti-establishment wing of the Republican Party in the Palmetto State – although this conservative band of activists is far from unified. In fact, divisions within the anti-establishment factions of the SCGOP were credited with allowing incumbent congressman William Timmons to narrowly escape a credible challenge from S.C. Freedom Caucus chairman Adam Morgan in the state’s fourth congressional district GOP primary last month.

Count on this media outlet to continue tracking skirmishes between the party establishment and its warring factions as the ongoing battle for the heart and soul of the GOP – nationally and at the state level – continues to rage.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks (Dylan Nolan)

Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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5 comments

Angela Top fan July 24, 2024 at 6:24 pm

I’m Conservative, These SCGOP needs to get it together. Or leave our State along with the rest who want to have more power than the people.

Reply
Frances July 25, 2024 at 12:19 pm

Be careful what you wish for. Far right, by whatever name, is all about stirring up and tearung down. They focus on issues rhat whip up emotiins but don’t offer workable solutions to address the real problems. All pie in the sky. They don’t countenance compromise because they don’t have to govern. They sow discord where there was none in order to manipulate and many have come in from out of state and don’t understand or value our history and culture of comraderie and civility and neighborliness. Most are in it for their own glory rather than public service. So much ego and lack of humility. WAKE UP, SC!

Reply
PGT Beauregard III Top fan July 25, 2024 at 4:57 pm

Weirdos with warped brains, and are dumb. Naturally they find common cause here.

Reply
Dee Goehring July 26, 2024 at 7:53 am

Grateful the RNC has some sense. Drew McKissick and his workers in the SCGOP are not only corrupt but determined to bypass the will of the people at all cost to keep political power. We don’t have a state rules committee…we have handpicked people by Drew who does his bidding. SC is a mess, it is time for the grassroots to make their voice heard. Great job Lauren, Keith and Olga…there were others that were police escorted out of the state convention for the same reason (attending a dinner to hear from an opposition candidate). All need to be reinstated on a local level too.

Reply
Barbara Gibbs July 27, 2024 at 7:18 pm

Well. I was hoping Robert Kennedy Jr would come to the Republican Party and be
Trump Kennedy 2024.
Robert Kennedy is Not a Democrat.

Reply

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