My HCGOP Experience (2/20/2023)
My Horry County Republican Party Experience – A Former Outsider’s View
I wanted to share my unique experience with the Horry County Republican Party.
I moved down to South Carolina roughly two years ago, escaping the high taxes, high crime, and corrupt left wing government of New York. It was a tough decision and one I agonized over, but I knew it was the right move for me for a multitude of reasons. (In the interest of keeping this short, I won’t go into them.)
Several months after settling in, I attended a gun show at the convention center. As I was nearing the last two rows, I noticed a table with a sign in front reading “Horry County GOP.” I spoke with the two people there (I later learned one was Chairman Roger Slagle, the other was Elizabeth Caton) for a few minutes, and decided to get involved, giving them a year’s dues, and getting a t-shirt. I began attending meetings. I remember my first one – I was sitting in one of the back few rows. I was warned by the lady sitting next to me that these meetings were chaos and that I should get used to that. But that’s not what I saw. I saw a well-run, organized group poised to do good things in the community. I made it my intention after that first meeting that I wanted to get involved in committees. I began to attend those as well.
As the months went on, I saw the actions of this group. They were really making a difference, and I was happy to be a part of it. Perhaps the largest event was a straw poll we held ahead of the primaries. I helped sell raffle tickets at that event, and the party made roughly $10,000 that night, despite the fact that it was an event we were prepared to lose money on.
Despite all this, I was still unaware of what was taking place behind the scenes. By the time I joined in October 2021, we were well past the period of reorganization the party has in odd-numbered non-election years. Little did I know there was a lot of resentment over what had taken place at that reorganization. So much resentment in fact, that there was a shadow group formed to undermine the leadership of the party at every turn. Some of them would show up at meetings, cause disruptions, and make it look like the leadership team could not control the room. They weaponized Robert’s Rules of Order in an attempt to make the party look foolish.
This shadow group had dubbed themselves the “GOP Pirates” and privately did everything they could to sabotage the Horry County Republican Party. This included, but was not limited to, having people boycott meetings, having people boycott the straw poll, having politicians across the state not show face at meetings, and working with the state party (chaired by rino Drew McKissick) to do whatever they could to destroy the current party. This included a refusal to turn over a list of voters in the county, which could have been used to grow the party. This group of “Pirates” was led by Reese Boyd III, who Roger Slagle had defeated at reorg handily in the election for chairmanship. It also included a guy who sells red hats for profit, an obnoxious power-hungry woman who never met a camera she didn’t like to plaster her face in front of, and a former FBI agent who likes to play dirty. (It also included Shannon Grady, who later blew the whistle on them.) The group discussion of these “pirates” is available for viewing, and I will include a link towards the end.
These dirty deeds were not made apparent to me until after the September 12, 2022 meeting. I was working the sign-in at that meeting, and I found out that day what Reese Boyd looked like. He had been boycotting meetings while working behind the scenes, but he must have smelled blood in the water that day. It was at that meeting that due to constant pressure from the state’s unwillingness to work with him and the grass roots movement, that Roger Slagle decided to tender his resignation, effective September 30. Two weeks later on September 26, after many patriots petitioned him to stay in the fight, he rescinded that resignation, four days before the effective date. A few important points to note here – 1) The seat was never vacant. 2) The executive committee never took up a vote to accept the resignation, so in essence, it never happened. This is supported by the party’s rules and backed up by Robert’s Rules. 3) Drew McKissick made the claim that he was the final say on this, and he supports the Pirate group. However, he is not the final say. In fact, he really has no say at all, only the people do, and that’s what they are trying to circumvent. Can the president of the United States arbitrarily fire members of Congress he doesn’t like? No he cannot.
Needless to say, I was disgusted when I discovered everything that had been going on behind the scenes. It wasn’t right. There’s no way any of them could justify what they were doing, but they obviously never thought they’d be exposed. I didn’t know that a year after I joined the party, this is what I’d be walking into. But at this point, it was very apparent to me which group was in the wrong. It was apparent to me that that their group wasn’t about the people, like the grass roots group was. They were about themselves, power, and getting in with politicians. To me, taking pictures with politicians is nothing to boast about, in fact I believe the antithetical to be true.
It was clear to me which side I wanted to stick with. Bear in mind, I’m not a good ‘ol boy, I haven’t lived down here very long, and I have no prior allegiances. It’s about right and wrong to me, plain and simple. I hate what happened to this party, and there really is no reason for it. We didn’t want this fight, they brought it to our front door. They are literally the cause of all the division. Anyone who is sitting on the sidelines because they don’t like all the infighting (an attitude I understand) – that’s all on them.
With all this in mind, since I was not an Executive Committeeman (EC), I decided to attend their October 11, 2022 meeting, for which we knew they were hard at work to get ECs there that would show their side favorability. The meeting itself was illegitimate, since the provisional chairman, Mike Connett, can only call said meeting if the chairman is unable to serve, and that was not the case. I attended for the sole reason to expose them, and Grant Adams attended with me (he was not an EC either) in order to record what was going on. I had a list of ECs with me, and followed along as they called out names. They skipped over several who they knew weren’t there, called out several who were not on the list, and skipped over listed ECs in favor of presidents (who are below ECs), which they are not supposed to do. Then they reached their final vote count, which they claim to be 46 or 47. My count was 43, even with all the names they seem to have invented. Either way, they did not have 2/3 quorum, for which they would have needed 54, possibly 55 out of the 81 organized precincts. They weren’t even close. But they had already shown how they don’t seem to care about rules, and this was no different. They claimed that they has quorum, and said they can go on electing a chairman, vice chairman, and state EC. They deliberated quite a while leading up to this, likely figuring out how they would circumvent the rules.
At this point, in their eyes, they had successfully taken over the party, and the left wing media jumped to their side predictably. They claimed the meeting was well-run, when in fact, it was one of the worst I’ve ever seen. But the difference was this – we didn’t show up at theirs to disrupt and cause mayhem as they had done so many times. Grant and I were there to observe, not to behave the way they did. Reese Boyd III had demanded in writing that Roger Slagle turn things over to them, to which he did not comply, as they were not the legit party. It all went to court, where they managed to win some tables and chairs, but the judge may have been compromised. Nevertheless, they are celebrating it.
The Pirates have continued to wave their thumbs in our faces to this day. Let me tell you how.
1) In December, the fraudulent GOP, happy hour group, or whatever you want to call them, had a Christmas Party at the Boathouse, a local bar in Myrtle Beach. At the party, our process server was doing her job in serving their party leadership a cease and desist order. Three of their members, all men, decided to intimidate and threaten our process server by following her with their cars, blocking her in, and yelling at her.
2) Don Bowne, the red hat guy, is running a pirate-themed cruise in order to raise money for them. He got caught in wrongdoing, and this is his response. Mockery. Several of them have changed their Facebook profile pictures to pirate-themed ones as well.
3) Jim Furry, the former FBI guy in the pirate group, had Roger followed by a private investigator to see what he could dig up. He got nothing, but it still didn’t prevent him from making public information about Roger and his family, including social security numbers, which is illegal.
Do these actions seem ok to you?
They don’t want grass roots involvement (that point is made clear in their chat). In fact, they don’t want much involvement at all. They are not interested in growing the party, they are only interested in their little circle of power and politicians. (FYI – we want to grow the party as much as possible, if only we can get names and contact info from the state.)
Please watch the video on the following website to see what the pirates have said and done. It is available at goppirates.weluvgolf.com. Then, all I ask is that you examine your hearts and see the wrongdoing for what it is. If your heart leads you to us, then join our crusade. We should be fighting the left’s agenda, not each other. I hope this opinion piece shed some light.