Horry County’s GOP is reorganizing. Here’s how it could get messy.

In a red county like Horry, in a red state like South Carolina, the inner workings of the Republican party, though out-of-sight from most local voters, can often have real consequences for local elected officials and how they serve the public.

Take for example the state GOP’s recent vote to censure U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, a move driven by county-level party leaders. That action, which had no formal consequences for Rice as an elected official, nonetheless set off the 2022 Republican primary a year-and-a-half before local voters will even head to the polls, and a crowded field of challengers has already emerged.

So while the Horry County GOP undergoing its biennial reorganization may seem like inside baseball, it could have spillover effects on local government, from school board and county council to the state legislature. And this year, some in the party worry that new leadership could pull the party further right.

The Sun News interviewed a dozen local Republicans to better understand the inner workings of the party and how changes at the party level could spill over into local government. What emerged was a picture of a party that’s seeking to avoid the conflicts from its last reorganization and navigate the post-Trump era in a way that doesn’t divide the party into smaller, ineffectual factions.

Reorganizing in the post-Trump era

During the party’s reorganization two years ago, “we were infiltrated by the libertarians,” said Mark Rebolini, the local executive committeeman from a Conway precinct.

“This has been two years of accomplishing virtually nothing and the hope with this reorganization is that it’s going to allow us to accomplish something,” he said.

Reorganization in the local GOP means that each voting precinct in the county can hold a meeting and elect representatives who will then go on to elect county-wide and statewide leadership. Those county and statewide leaders can then field candidates to run for office, fundraise and lobby elected officials.

Now, with former President Donald Trump out of office, some in the party are grappling over which direction Horry County’s GOP will be steered in. Does the party continue to lean in toward the brand of politics that Trump pushed for, or does it return to a more moderate position?

“It’s almost like a Catch 22,” said Bruce Donegan, another local executive committeeman in the county GOP. “I’m a Trumper, but you have to take a step back and see what happened the last few years. Some of the stuff that’s happened in the last month, you have to take that into consideration.”

On one hand, Donegan said, “You don’t want to turn those people off, but on the other hand you need those people (and) you don’t want to turn off those other people.”

It’s a balancing act that could play out as the local party works to select a new chair. Though, just one person this time, as some hope to avoid a voting conflict that led to the party naming two co-chairs two years ago, Dreama Purdue and Ed Carey.

“That was a fluke,” Purdue said.

Some expect Purdue to seek the local party’s leadership position again. But Purdue told The Sun News that she hasn’t decided whether she’ll run. Carey also said he’s not sure if he’ll seek the leadership role again.

Another candidate, Carter Smith, said he’s looking to run for chair.

Smith currently runs the Coastline Women’s Center, which counsels local women on their pregnancies and works to steer them away from seeking an abortion. Last summer, Smith also ran for a S.C. House seat left open after former Republican Rep. Alan Clemmons resigned following his primary win.

Smith lost that race, but said he sees disunity and disarray in the party and wants to work to bring local Republicans back together.

“My hope, if we put me in the leadership role, is to bring the unity back together,” Smith said. “I am certainly conservative but at the same time I’m also faith-driven, I want to bring unity, I want to bring respect.”

Should the GOP vet candidates before the primaries?

One of the biggest changes Smith could help make if he’s elected chair would be changing how the local party approaches primary elections. While he doesn’t favor the GOP endorsing candidates before a primary election, Smith said he’s in favor of establishing a stronger vetting committee that could interview candidates who are seeking office and publish their responses to certain questions.

“We need to get to know candidates and who they are without endorsing,” Smith said. “That’s where you get into the influence of the party as a whole, these are the candidates we’re going to get behind. There needs to be some kind of questionnaire or some kind of advisement.”

That approach, though, worries some of the more moderate members of the party. They fear that a more conservative leader pushing the party to vet primary candidates more heavily could lead to a bias in the party toward more conservative candidates.

Cam Crawford, an Horry County Council member who represents the Socastee area, said he’s not against Trump or his brand of politics, but he’s concerned about the county party getting more involved in primaries.

“What’s the motive behind that? Is that to really to select the best nominee? Are the people who are involved in that process, are they biased?” he asked. “I have questions about the motive, I also have questions about the process. If the party goes and chooses, are you then taking that ability away from the public?”

Jerry Rovner, too, the chair of the Republican party for South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District, said he also has concerns about a local party getting involved with vetting primary candidates.

“People who want to vet people, that’s a slippery slope. Then you’re basically hand-picking who you want and it should be up to the people and who they want,” he said. “If you have to go before a committee and present yourself then you leave it up to unelected people.”

Rovner said he’s in favor of a local party forming a committee to seek out candidates and encourage them to run, but any more involvement “reeks of the old Chicago times,” he said, referencing machine-style party politics in the 19th and 20th centuries. A vetting committee, he said, should only ask candidates if they adhere to the Republican Party platform.

“Here’s my theory on this: Anyone who wants to run for public office can run for public office,” he said. “I don’t believe in the backroom smoke-filled office style.”

For his part, Drew McKissick, the head of the GOP for South Carolina, said there’s no state-level rule against a local party vetting candidates more thoroughly. He also said the party would be loath to move away from the issues and politics that Trump pushed while he was in office.

“To change direction now would be political seppuku,” he wrote in a recent op-ed, referring to a form of ritual suicide in Japanese culture.

Just across the county line, Marion County GOP chairwoman Jeanne Bassett Lumpkin said local parties should be involved in vetting candidates. She said there’s a clear line between vetting candidates to ensure qualified people are running, and the local party endorsing or favoring one candidate over another.

“We can’t influence who runs. We give access to the voters, but we can absolutely not influence who runs,” she said. “It’s crucial, frankly, for the local party to vet the candidates.”

Will Dettmering, a member of the Horry County GOP, but who ran as a Libertarian for Clemmons’ seat last summer, said he favors the local party vetting candidates because it’s a way to ensure genuine conservatives are nominated, as opposed to people who run because of a family connection or because they want to push for a special interest.

“It’s a win-win when they do that,” he said. “You set a minimum bar and have that minimum bar not be subjective, have it be objective where people commit to (various issues). But of course nobody wants accountability anymore.”

However, he said, he doesn’t want the local party to endorse candidates in the primary. It should stop with vetting, he said.

Carey, the current co-chair of the party alongside Purdue, said he’d like to see the party take a middle-ground approach to the primaries.

“Don’t give the advantage to the incumbent, but let’s not make it into a fraternity where you have to go through hazing to be part of the club,” he said.

A more active and conservative GOP?

Another newcomer could also influence how the Horry County GOP reorganizes.

Chad Caton, a local conservative activist who formerly hosted a conservative radio show on WTKN 94.5, is currently working to organize his followers to get more involved in the party reorganization and hosted an education session recently to explain to locals how the process works. Caton’s show was canceled, he said, after listeners complained to station managers about an interview he did with a member of the Proud Boys, a violent far-right group aligned with other white supremacist groups. WTKN said the show was canceled due to “creative differences about the content of the show, the tone of the show and the direction of the show.”

Caton said the party needs new leadership and need to to reorient itself on conservative values and public service. Caton said he’s not endorsing anyone for party chair yet, but said he’s “no fan” of Purdue and that Smith is “a great guy.”

Caton said he’d like to see the party organize around, and fundraise for, non-political causes year-round as a way to demonstrate that it’s part of the community and cares about the people of Horry County. For example, the party should organize fundraisers for community members in need and host educational events about hurricane preparedness, he said.

“Why can’t we as a Republican Party be a huge part of the community instead of just playing the political game?” Caton said. “Why don’t we go out and do stuff? Why can’t we lift people up? I want a party that’s involved in everything.”

But along with the more community-oriented focus, Caton said he’d also like to see the party move in a more solidly conservative direction, away from the “pretend Republicans,” he said. He’s used stronger language to make that point on Facebook.

“We fix the party at reorg, people,” he wrote in one recent post. “Time to throw out the RINOs. MAGA PURGE STARTS NOW.”

Other local Republicans have said privately they don’t want Caton or his brand of politics anywhere near the county GOP. They worry that too far of a rightward bend will push out more moderate Republicans, who they’d need to win competitive races. Rovner, though, said he’s not getting too worked up about it. He’s seen “squeaky wheels” emerge in past reorganizations, he said.

“If you’re vocal and you’re loud, you’re a squeaky wheel,” he said. “That’s what happens unfortunately in these party reorganizations.”