The Republican Committee of Virginia’s Sixth Congressional District (CD6) held their quarterly meeting in Waynesboro on Thursday night, September 16, 2021. It was a quiet and positive meeting.
For the sake of those who may be new to Republican Party organization, a District Committee consists of the chairmen of each local Republican committee in the district along with officers elected at the biennial district convention. Those officers include the District Chairman, three individuals to represent the District on the Republican Party’s State Central Committee (sort of like the board of directors of the state party), and regional vice chairmen (in the Sixth District anyway). Committees also include representatives from Young Republicans, College Republicans, and the Virginia Federation of Republican Women, all three of which are auxiliary organizations to the Republican Party. The membership is rounded out by a vice chairman, secretary, treasurer, and if the district’s vote for Republicans meets certain criteria, one or two more representatives to the State Central Committee. These last five officers are all elected by the other members of the District Committee.
Because this past meeting was deep in the holiday season, several members were unable to attend, although eight members sent proxies.
Juliana McGrath, the College Republicans’ representative to CD6, reported on the change in the thinking of college-age voters. In the gubernatorial election four years ago, exit polls showed that 68 percent of college age voters had voted for the Democrat candidate. In the gubernatorial election last month, exit polls showed that only 52 percent of college-age voters had voted for the Democrat. In just four years, the split went from 36 points to only 4 points – a huge turnaround.
The committee then took a brief look at a call for convention that CD6 is required to hold in the late spring of 2022 for the purpose of electing a District Chair and three regional vice-chairs as well as nominating our candidate for Congress.
The difficulty the committee faces is that the call cannot be completed until after redistricting is completed. Until that happens, the committee does not even know who is eligible to attend the convention. As of this writing, CD6 is slated to gain four counties and three cities while losing one and a half counties and one city.
Also, because Republicans use “weighted votes” at conventions, the number of delegate votes allotted to each county and city is still up in the air depending on how much of a county is located in a given district. For example, a larger percentage of Roanoke County may be incorporated into CD 6 than had previously been there. That would change the percentage of Roanoke County’s weighted vote that could be used at a CD 6 convention as opposed to the other district (CD9) to which the rest of the county will likely belong.
CD6 would like to hold the convention somewhere in the middle of the district – Augusta or Shenandoah, depending on the facilities available. At the moment, anyone interested in attending the convention as a delegate or observer should pencil in Saturday May 21 on their calendar as the date currently being considered for the convention.
Following that discussion, a resolution was presented by the Resolutions Committee. After stating a number of reasons supporting the resolution (the “whereas’s”), the resolution called upon the General Assembly to undo the damage that has been done to our Second Amendment rights during the past two years. These include removing “Red Flag” laws and reversing the law that allows local governments to pass their own laws independent of the state. This only leads to confusion for law-abiding gun owners.
Additionally, the resolution acknowledged, praised, and supported the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) in their efforts to protect our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
Randy Gilbert gave a brief report on election integrity efforts in Virginia, following which the meeting adjourned.
All in all, it was a quiet meeting and a positive one as well.
Cordially,
Steve “Doc” Troxel, Ph.D.