Posted originally on the CTH on July 5, 2023 | Sundance 

Something about this doesn’t pass the proverbial sniff test, and when asked for a direct answer – well, things get salty.

For two days a self-proclaimed Trump advisor and frequent guest on the Steve Bannon Warroom podcast, Mike Davis, has claimed that President Trump and the Trump campaign authorized a California GOP rule change that would permit proportional delegate distribution against the interests of President Trump.

The claim itself made no sense because, if Mike Davis and Harmeet Dhillon were correct, essentially Trump would be approving a GOP change that would give delegates to his GOP nomination competition – namely Ron DeSantis.  Mr. Davis was asked to explain who specifically from the Trump campaign authorized and approved of the plan.

Mr. Davis refused to answer the question publicly, which, as normal, created additional suspicions about the validity of the claim.  More and more people started to pay attention and put the question out, because, well, quite frankly, it just doesn’t make sense.

Instead of responding simply and publicly to the question, and saying who in the Trump campaign knew about, authorized and approved the California plan, Mike Davis responded with the following Direct Message: “Go fuck yourself.”

Apparently Mr. Davis is unable to state who from the Trump Campaign approved of the California GOP rule change.

As a consequence, I’m a little skeptical there is any truth to the claims by Mr. Davis.

In semi-related news, after Mrs. Loomer published the internal emails from three weeks ago outlining the plan, and after a considerable amount of Trump supporter interest in the scheme underfoot in the California Republican Party, the CA GOP was forced to release a statement, somewhat attempting to justify, their plan.

An update on the California Republican Party’s Presidential Primary process:

We recently submitted a bylaw amendment to codify rules for our Presidential Primary election next year, and we wanted to share some context and facts about that process as there is some misinformation floating out there.

The CRP’s bylaws, as currently constructed and used for 2020, are not in compliance with the Republican National Committee’s Rules (RNC Rule 16) for 2024, so to that end, a bylaw amendment was created that complied with the rules. The RNC’s Rule 16(c) states that “Any presidential primary, caucus, convention, or other process to elect, select, allocate, or bind delegates to the national convention that occurs prior to March 15 in the year in which the national convention is held shall provide for the allocation of delegates on a proportional basis.”

Thanks to California Election Code section 1001, as determined by the Democrat-controlled Legislature and Governor, our primary moved up from June (where it was in 2020) to March 5, 2024. While that move put us early in the national primary calendar and on Super Tuesday, it also meant that to comply with the RNC’s Rules, we must change to a proportional model, which this bylaw amendment accomplishes.

If we didn’t make this switch (and before an October 1st deadline), we would be in jeopardy of losing 50 percent of our delegates. As it stands today, California Republicans have more delegates than any state in the nation, and to not comply with RNC Rules would have not only taken that distinction away from us, but also would have greatly mitigated our role in determining our party’s nominee; it also would have lessened the number of delegates that could ultimately go to any Presidential candidate seeking the nomination in California.

This was the same process we followed before the 2020 Primary to abide by the RNC rules. However, it is important to note that the rules we had in 2020 had a sunset clause that only allowed us to use those rules for the 2020 Presidential Primary election.

In compliance with the CRP’s rules, this bylaw amendment will next go before the CRP’s Rules Committee, followed by our Executive Committee, later this month. We look forward to more discussion on this important adjustment as the process progresses.

Together, California Republicans can help determine our Party’s 2024 Presidential nominee and, ultimately, the future of our nation. We do not take that responsibility lightly and are grateful for your ongoing support in helping to put our state and nation on a pathway to success again.

Sincerely,

Jessica Millan Patterson
Chairwoman
California Republican Party

Harmeet Dhillon
RNC National Committeewoman
California

Shawn Steel
RNC National Committeeman
California

The California GOP statement does not address a core issue, RNC rule 3(ii) [as below] that permits the state to continue a winner-take-all allotment so long as the candidate obtains 50% of the primary vote.   This is the element completely ignored in their Republican Party leadership proposal.

Instead, with the timing of the announcement against the backdrop of unexpected sunlight upon their previously constructed plan, the statement reads like the California Republican Party is trying to cover its ass.

Being as diplomatically generous as one can afford, it would appear Mr. Mike Davis, Mrs. Harmeet Dhillon and the California leadership of the Republican Party are being less than fulsome in their statements.