‘We need to be united’: As Horry GOP resets, some call for unity, others want RINOs out

During his nomination speech at the Horry County Republican Party’s biennial reorganization in April, Roger Slagle — now the county GOP’s new chairman — made a compelling pitch to the crowd of roughly 400 conservatives gathered at the Barefoot Resort: If their local party was to be successful, they needed to come together and unify.

“I’m open to everybody, whether you’ve been here a long time, whether you’ve just come into the Horry County arena,” Slagle said ahead of a vote to decide party leadership for the next two years. “If we do that, if we’re open to everybody, good conservatives, we bring in young people, we will win elections the next five years, the next 10 years, the next 20 years.”

The crowd cheered at that possibility. By the end of that Saturday, Slagle had been named the county party’s new leader.

All of the problems the party has had in recent years and months, marked largely by infighting, contentious meetings and various personal conflicts, Slagle pledged, “We’ll fix all that.”

As the Horry County GOP resets ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, that could prove to be a tall order. With the formalities of reorganization complete, many in the party say they want unity. Stop the infighting, they say, clean up party meetings, do more to engage the community, and just be nicer to one another.

But others say that unity should come with a dose of house-cleaning. So-called RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) have infiltrated the party and public offices in Horry County, some believe, and those people should be called out and challenged in primary elections.

“I got involved because I didn’t like the infighting … and I want the Horry County GOP to stand for something other than chaos,” said Jeremy Halpin, a former candidate for County Council and the local party’s new vice chairman. But, he added, “If we have some RINOs in office, maybe we need to find some good people to run for office to run against them.”

It’s that language, though, and that desire to oust some Republicans, that has some in the Horry County GOP worried that the calls for unity could come into conflict with the broader GOP’s desire to lead the party in former President Donald Trump’s footsteps. It’s a conflict, as some have described it, between Trump-supporting wings of the party. Some want a big-tent Republican party that finishes the political and ideological projects Trump began, while others want to follow in Trump’s footsteps and believe that not all Republicans currently in power are conservative enough to make that happen.

“The problem with purges is after a while you run out of people to purge,” said Reese Boyd III, a local attorney who ran for party chair and hosts a conservative radio show on the weekends. “Do RINOs exist? Yes, RINOs exist. Do we need to ferret out people who don’t subscribe to Republican beliefs? Yes … those folks need to be challenged and primary-ed where it’s necessary. But there’s also this tendency now in today’s world to label people and call people names … and that’s not getting you anywhere constructive.”

All of that has left some Republicans in Horry County feeling dismal about the new leadership’s abilities to unify the party, stick to conservative values and win political races in the near future.

“Right now I am not optimistic. I feel like there’s a fraction in the party,” said Ron Matta, the head of the South Strand Republican Club, an affiliate of the Horry County GOP. “I don’t feel like its going in the right direction.”

To help understand where the Horry County Republican Party — which influences everything from school board to Congressional races — is headed, The Sun News interviewed a dozen local conservatives, both politicians and active party members, about the state of the party, where it’s headed and what they’d like to see the party accomplish over the next two years.

Those interviews revealed an influential county party — one of South Carolina’s GOP strongholds — that’s struggling to find its identity in the post-Trump era, one that’s currently pulled between unity and loyalty to conservative values. Some party members say the GOP can have both. Others worry it’s one or the other.

The presence of conspiracy theories — namely the QAnon conspiracy theory, in which an anonymous message board user has alleged that a secret cabal of powerful people at the height of government and politics have been using their positions to commit and cover up heinous crimes and other nefarious acts — also plays a role. Both Tracy “Beanz” Diaz, the Horry County GOP’s new state executive committee representative, and the attorney Lin Wood, who’s running for chair of the South Carolina GOP, have ties to the conspiracy. Diaz was an early blogger who researched and, purposefully or by accident, boosted the conspiracy theory, though she said in an interview she has had nothing to do with QAnon for years. And Wood, though some say he’s just joking, has made explicit references to QAnon at state and local GOP events, often eliciting a positive reaction from the crowd.

Everyone The Sun News interviewed for this story — including Diaz — said they didn’t believe the QAnon conspiracy theory to be true, and that they didn’t know much about it. But the core of the conspiracy — a distrust that politicians and government leaders at all levels are working in the best interest of the public — is not dissimilar from Trump’s pledge to “drain the swamp,” echos of which can be seen in the local party’s renewed energy to clean house and reinvigorate its ranks.

Chad Caton, a local conservative activist and former radio show host who organized for and supported all three of the party’s new leaders, put it this way:

“There are hungry people who want to get involved … (in) trying to make our country, city, county better,” he said. “The day of the rich old white guy for the Republican Party is gone, and it should be. … If you’re running under an R or a D, I believe you should be primary-ed. We … should have the opportunity to see who’s out there.”

Ending the infighting?

If anyone questions Don Bowne’s commitment to Trump’s style of conservative politics, the type currently guiding the Republican party, he’s got an easy answer: Come to my house.

He’s got a “Trump room” packed full of all sorts of memorabilia, including Trump-branded vodka and $100,000 worth of other apparel, knick-knacks and merchandise. And in 2016, Bowne started an organization called Red Hats for Trump, in which he’d canvass voters to support Trump and Trump-like candidates, and give people red hats.

“That tells you a little bit about my commitment to the party,” he said.

But Bowne said he grew weary of the bickering and infighting that’s come to define the Horry County GOP in recent years — and he’s even been called a RINO, he said. Some meetings have devolved into shouting matches, some members were incensed by what they saw as a lack of transparency about party spending, and, in the lead up to the reorganization convention, some conflicts got physical.

“For me, the infighting that was going on in Horry County was like nothing I’d ever seen in my life and they weren’t getting along,” Bowne, 73, said. “I felt like we were totally stagnant for two years.”

Others in the party said they agree, and that they hope the new leadership will be able to bring the unity they say they so badly need.

“I’m optimistic, we need it for the Republican Party,” said Jim Furry, a former FBI agent who retired from New Jersey to South Carolina and who’s now an active member of the party. Furry ran to be a GOP state executive committee representative last month.

“We’re a key section of the state, we bleed republican red, the stronger we are the stronger the state is.”

To achieve that unity, the new leaders said, they’ll work to increase transparency around party finances, make party bylaws more readily accessible and provide the public with information about how to get involved with the party. Several, including Caton, said they’d like to see the party get more involved in the local community by hosting events, community clean-ups, fundraisers for residents in need and more. By publicly cleaning up the image of the party, and by having a clearer physical presence across the Grand Strand, leaders hope to attract voters who weren’t previously engaged in the party and involve them more directly with the GOP organization. Several people also said they’d work to reach out to young people in the county and non-white voters, hoping to pitch to them the idea that the Republican party has a place for them, too.

Along with those efforts, though, several party members said they’d like to see more forceful leadership at the local level, a style that would have the new party leaders articulate clear beliefs and reasons for their actions, communicate how and why they make certain choices, and stand up to politicians and other party leaders when they disagree.

Diaz rattled off some of the ideas she’d like to implement: “Transparency, the bylaws are available for people, transparent description of how to participate in reorganization, we’re forthcoming with what we’re talking about.”

Halpin added that he’d like to organize phone and email chains so that information about the party and events can make it out to all party members, especially if they’re not regularly checking a website.

“I want the Horry County Republican Party to actually stand for something and take care of the local community,” Halpin said. “(We should) stand for something that is bettering our community and taking take of our locals.”

Ousting the RINOs?

But those calls for a revamped Republican party in Horry County have come alongside calls to oust elected officials who aren’t aligned with so-called true conservative values.

A sampling of grievances include: A distaste for election tactics used by state party leaders during previous primaries; the legislature’s perceived waffling on an open-carry firearm bill; Rep. Tom Rice’s (SC-7th) vote to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building; Sen. Lindsey Graham’s willingness to reach bipartisan compromise on immigration issues and; a general dislike of Myrtle Beach city politics.

A RINO, according to some, is an elected official or other prominent Republican who claims the party of GOP but doesn’t strictly adhere to traditional conservative values like low taxes, small government, pro-guns, anti-abortion and standing up to every Democratic attempt to push left-leaning policy.

RINOs in the GOP, Diaz said, are “a problem, because what’s the point then? We need to make sure we have people in the party that do what they say they’re going to do. I just think that people are frustrated with leaders who are going along to get along, who seem to bend as the wind blows say one thing and do another.”

How to rid the party of the so-called RINOs, though, is a trickier problem. New Horry County GOP party leaders have said both that there is not a place for RINOs in the party, but that they can’t — and don’t want to — change the rules so the local party endorses candidates during a primary. To navigate between those two poles, leadership has come up with several ideas: Use the party to educate and encourage potential candidates to run for office, even if it means challenging an incumbent; heavily vetting candidates; hosting candidate forums and other events ahead of primary elections.

“I think that the Horry County GOP should be something that should be helping candidates get involved,” Halpin said. “Now, we won’t support someone in the primary … but we can still give a platform to anyone who wants to get involved and give anyone who wants to get involved a place to speak.”

At the reorganization convention, Slagle endorsed the idea to vet candidates: “I will tirelessly vet candidates,” he pledged.

But that idea — vetting candidates, or even involving the local party more in primary elections — worries others in the party. Accountability for elected officials can come in a variety of forms, including primary challenges, without the party taking as active of a role, some have said.

“We’ll hold these people accountable but let’s get beyond demonizing people who are fighting the good fight,” Boyd said. “Let’s get beyond the idea that if you’re a Republican for more than 24 hours that you’re a RINO.”

Elected officials, too, have said they have reservations about the party getting more involved in the primary process.

“If the local party is going to get involved in selecting candidates, are you then taking that ability away from the people?” County Councilman Cam Crawford said in a March interview when the idea of having the local GOP get more involved in the primaries first began circulating. “Is it an effort to weaponize the party? I think the best thing to do is to leave this thing alone and let the public choose. Let the people pick who they want.”

A divide between the party and elected officials?

For all the talk about ousting RINOs from the party, it’s not yet clear how effective the new Horry County GOP will be in recruiting and educating new voters and candidates and shaping the local party in the image of the new leaders.

In the meantime, several elected officials in Horry County told The Sun News that they’ve largely disengaged with the local GOP, content to serve constituents, shape local policy, fundraise and run for re-election without the aid of the local party. And, they said, unless the party unifies and cuts down on the infighting, they’ll remain disengaged.

“I wish them all the best,” said County Council member Johnny Vaught said about the new leadership. “I don’t agree with all the infighting so I’ve distanced myself from the local stuff.”

“Good luck for them, I’ll support them anyway I can. (But) there’s so much turmoil right now,” added County Council member Bill Howard.

Complicating matters is the fact that the new party leaders are relative newcomers to the Grand Strand, or have recently burned some bridges. Slagle, the new chair, said he moved home to North Myrtle Beach after working for 30 years abroad. Diaz, the new state executive committee representative, previously worked in politics but said she moved to Little River about six years ago. Halpin, the vice chair, has lived here longer, but ran an unsuccessful primary campaign against Crawford for his County Council seat, challenged the outcome and lost before a panel of Republican Party leaders.

It’s a dynamic that, at the extreme end, could see the local Republican party struggle for relevance while the politicians and elected officials continue on with business as usual.

“For me, if they don’t stop fighting, they won’t get anything done. And then you’ll have the elected officials like me who stop engaging,” said Horry County Treasurer Angie Jones.

But Diaz, Halpin and Slagle have all pledged to work to bring the party together. And so far, others in the party said, they’re holding true to that promise. Whether that bears out long term is a matter of time.

“I’ve talked to Roger and I talked to Tracy and I talked to Jeremy and the verbiage that’s coming out … everyone realizes that they have to give a little on both sides,” Furry said. “I’m real anxious to see how the first 6 months go. I think the potential is there.”