The Republicans will have a more open primary this year, as the “statement of intent” has been eliminated, and the Trump campaign thinks that is a good thing.
Saturday, the State Central Committee for the Republican Party announced that it would not require voters to sign a statement of intent before allowing them to vote in the Republican Primary.
The statement of intent, sometimes called an “oath” or “pledge,” requires primary voters to swear to the fact that they are in accordance with Republican values and that that they will support the Republican nominee in the general election by signing their names to such a statement before casting their vote.
Virginia does not allow voters to register with a party affiliation, so this is another way to discourage the crossing of party lines.
Corey Stewart (R), Chairman of the Board of County Supervisors, and Chair of the Donald Trump campaign in Virginia, told Bristow Beat that eliminating the statement of intent is good news for Trump and the Republican Party in general.
In Stewart’s opinion, removing any barriers from voting encourages more people to join the party and attracting new voters is key to beating the Democrats in a statewide election.
“Look, we want more people to vote in the election. We were concerned that the statement was going to chase people away and confuse people. We have a lot of disgruntle conservatives out there that are not happy with the Republican Party. They would refuse to sign the statement and not vote.”
Stewart said Trump is attracting new people to the party.
“He’s bringing out a lot of people who have never voted in a Republican nomination before. It’s hard enough to bring someone out whose new, but it’s even more difficult for people to do something out of the ordinary, in this case sign this statement.”
However, the Virginia State Board of Elections, consisting of two Democrats and one Republican, could deny the State Republican Committee’s request to remove the statement of intent.
Bill Card, Chairman of the Prince William Republican Committee, said the statement would never have been in question if Virginia’s Democratic-controlled board did not make changes to the original statement.
It was never “loyalty oath” never a “loyalty pledge,” said Card, but simply a “Statement of Intent.” That the State Board of Elections changed the language used in the statement, which led to the State Republicans Committee's decision to eliminate the statement all together. The revised statement more directly asked voters if they are Republicans.
A press release from the Republican Party of Virginia explains the party’s perspective.
The SCC originally had approved the statement in September 2015, but the Democrat-controlled State Board of Elections altered and adopted a form - created by the Department of Elections - that retained only 9 of the original 47 words written and adopted by the SCC….Further, Attorney General Mark Herring compounded the problem with the addition of confusing legal guidance that would have made the day of the Republican Presidential Primary a logistical nightmare.
Card does not believe the Trump campaign factored into the equation of whether or not to use the statement of intent.
“This has nothing to do with the candidates, and has everything to do with Republicans selecting the candidate that puts the ‘R’ on their name on the ballot, and if the State Board of Elections had executed this in a manner the party had wanted, I think it would have been a lot cleaner," Card said.
However, Stewart said the language of the statement is not the issue. Regardless of which statement was used, he felt it is better to be more inclusive.
”What you want to call it doesn’t matter to me, loyalty oath, affiliation statement, a pledge…at the end of the day it was going to have the same result, chasing people away from the Republican Primary,” Stewart said.
He added that the Republicans have not won a statewide election since 2009, and said it is time to expand the party beyond the stereotypical country club crowd and invite in more blue-collar Americans.
Stewarts doubts Democrats will choose to vote in the Republican Primary since they have their own highly contested primary, and simply cannot vote in both. And, both Stewart and Card said the only way to completely guarantee people do not cross party lines is for the state to change its rules and hold close elections or caucuses in which people register with their political parties.
Card said that the complaints he often gets about the statement come from known Democrats who want to vote in a Republican Primary.
However, during the meeting to elect a Republican candidate for Brentsville District Supervisor in 2014, some people commented on Bristow Beat’s Facebook page that they felt the nomination election should be open to independent voter, or even all citizens especially since there was no Democratic candidate in the race at that time.
Voters were concerned it would be a one-candidate race, when it actually became a three candidate race.
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