Donald TrumpThe Republican Party’s allies are quietly getting involved in little-noticed fights over who will serve on the committee to determine the Republican Party’s national platform.
NBC News spoke to nine people familiar with what’s happening in states across the country, including Arizona, South Carolina, Kansas and Iowa, among others, who said the campaign’s involvement is intended to empower those on the party’s right flank The Republican National Committee’s official platform is too far to the right on issues like abortion and gay marriage heading into the general election.
A Trump campaign official acknowledged to NBC News that discussions are underway within the party about culture war-saturated policies and that they have been watching and participating in a number of state-level races for spots on the RNC’s Platform Committee, the body that will play an important role in shaping platform changes.
The official also noted that it is not unusual for people most closely associated with the president to be given important congressional roles.
“I know there are probably people upset with us, but these positions are generally reserved for those who have been helpful to the president,” the official said. “That’s also part of these kinds of things.”
The current platform is a 66-page document that outlines the Republican National Committee’s position on dozens of issues, including abortion, marriage, police reform, the Federal Reserve, technology and the environment. The platform committee consists of one man and one woman from each U.S. state and territory.
Platform changes are generally implemented every four years, to coincide with presidential elections. But in 2020, the RNC made no adjustments — the first time in more than 150 years it has not. That decision, officials said at the time, was made because of the complications of holding full meetings during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. It angered both social conservatives and more moderate Republicans, all of whom wanted change.
Now some of the platform battles that could have played out in 2020 are spilling over into the 2024 election cycle.
“They are definitely concerned about who ends up on those committees,” said Shiree Verdone, who co-chaired Trump’s campaign in Arizona in 2016 and 2020. [committees]but God knows if there are even normal people in that delegation.”
Verdone, who previously served on RNC platform committees, is no longer directly involved with the Arizona Republican Party. Arizona GOP Chair Gina Swoboda did not return a request for comment.
At a basic level, this involvement means that the Trump team and its allies hand-pick the candidates they want on the platform committee, giving these individuals an advantage in the elections.
Most interviewed by NBC News said they support what the campaign is doing because, after all, Trump is the party’s presumptive nominee. But they also all acknowledged that things are not going completely smoothly; There are intraparty debates over abortion and the definition of marriage ahead of the July convention in Milwaukee.
There is a sense among some party leaders that Trump’s team wants to ensure that those who serve on the platform committee do not come with a platform that could be seen as too extreme in a general election on issues such as the definition of marriage and abortion , with the latter gaining defining political influence after the Supreme Court — aided by three conservative Trump picks — overturned Roe v. Wade.
“The campaign is really focusing on it this year and getting involved [platform committee] races in states,” said a veteran Republican operative who has done work for the RNC in the past. “There is a feeling among them that the platform should not be pushed too far to the right on a number of issues, but I keep hearing specifically abortion and marriage.”
“The insertion I see is very strange,” said another former RNC member about the involvement of Trump’s allies in the selection of platform committee members. “It’s definitely unusual given past experience; some are concerned that all they want to do is commit to changing or controlling it.”
“I obviously think that the [former] The president gets what he wants, and that’s appropriate,” added the person, who has previously served on the RNC’s platform committees. “But it is currently a conversation within the party.”
The RNC’s current platform mentions “abortion” 35 times, including opposition to the use of federal funds to perform or promote abortions, and support for the state’s ability to ban abortion providers from federal programs like Medicaid.
“The Democratic Party is extreme on abortion,” the current platform reads. “Democrats’ virtually unlimited support for abortion, and their fierce opposition to even the most basic restrictions on abortion, place them dramatically out of step with the American people.”
As abortion has become a dominant electoral issue since the overturning of Roe in 2022, the issue has led Trump to attempt to strike a balance between agreeable social conservatives who have long pushed for strict federal abortion bans, and the fact that access to abortion remains popular with the broader electorate. . An NBC News poll last year found that 60% of voters disapproved of overturning Roe v. Wade.
In recent interviews, Trump has used a blanket comment to respond to questions about abortion, saying it should be up to individual states to determine abortion policies.
That response often doesn’t sit well with the party’s more socially conservative factions, including former Vice President Mike Pence, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who is seen by some as someone on the shortlist to run in 2024. Trump’s running mate. .
“You don’t need a federal ban,” Trump told Time Magazine during an April interview. “Roe v. Wade…was less about abortion than about bringing it back to the United States. So the states have to negotiate deals.”
Another sticking point with the RNC platform is the definition of marriage. In the current document it is defined as “between one man and one woman” and “the cornerstone of the family is natural marriage, the union of one man and one woman.”
“It’s just politically stupid,” said a Republican official who is vying to serve on the RNC Platform Committee and who disagrees with a decision to moderate the party on social issues. “How do you go back on decades of life language? What, you might impact about half a percent of voters and freeze many more.”
In 2019, the Trump administration launched a global campaign to end the criminalization of homosexuality, an effort led by then-US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell. He became the first openly gay person appointed to the Cabinet level in 2020 when Trump named him acting director of National Intelligence.
Grenell spoke at the 2020 RNC convention, a year in which Trump also received the support of Log Cabin Republicans; the group did not endorse him in 2016. Melania Trump also held a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser for the group in April.
That group and Grenell did not respond to requests for comment on whether they wanted changes to the RNC platform.
However, Trump is not revered by LGBTQ rights groups outside the conservative political ecosystem.
The former president has said he will roll back government programs supporting transgender rights and punish doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors. He regularly mocks trans athletes and has gone after schools for encouraging “transgender madness.”
For example, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights group, plans to spend $15 million in key swing states to support President Joe Biden, a spending campaign first reported Monday by NBC News.
Trump has said that if he returns to the White House, he will roll back government programs aimed at trans rights, and has criticized “left-wing gender insanity.”
“This moment feels so important, not just for this election, but really what it means for the future of our community,” HRC President Kelley Robinson told NBC News. “We are seeing an incredible response in states across the country to the progress we have made… led by an opposition that does not want us to have the rights we have today.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
