The People's House | Save the Date! | GOTV | Our Legacy
July 27, 2023 | Hillsborough.GOP
REC Meeting: August 10, 2023
The next Hillsborough County Republican Executive Committee Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, August 10, 2023, with social hour beginning at 6:00 PM and the meeting starting promptly at 7:00 PM. Guests are welcome to attend.
A Message From the Chair
- Dana Galen -
FreedomWorks Conference
July 2023 - Washington, D.C.
In January, 2023, courageous members of the House of Representatives came together to defy the status quo and return power to the American people.
My favorite book of the month:
Rigged -by Mollie Hemingway
YOU ARE INVITED, SO SAVE THE DATE!
Get Involved - Volunteer for a Committee
Whether you are an HCREC Member or a Concerned Citizen, your participation is needed. Contact one or more Committee Chairs and volunteer.
- Precinct Development Committee Contact: Carmen Edmonds [email protected]
- Communications Committee Contact:
Kathy Gallo [email protected]
Includes: Social Media Team, Military/Veterans Team, Faith-Based Team, Email/Texting Team, Community Engagement Team - Legislative Affairs Committee Contact: Teresa Miller @[email protected]
- Election Integrity Committee Contact: Jeff Lukens [email protected]
- Get Out The Vote (Elections) Committee Contact: Rick Kunz [email protected]
- Finance Committee Contact: Gina d’Angelo [email protected]
Committee Spotlight - Get Out The Vote (GOTV)
Rick Kunz is a native Floridian who returned to the "Sunshine State" three years ago, after serving several decades overseas as a Pastor and Leadership Trainer in South America, Africa, and the Middle East. Upon his return to the USA, Kunz felt a strong need to get involved with the Hillsborough County Republican Party (Hillsborough GOP) after witnessing the "assault on everything good in our culture." In December 2022, Kunz was elected to a two-year term as Vice-Chair of the Hillsborough County Republican Party. In this role, he points out that "my job is to help other members succeed in their jobs." This includes helping the Hillsborough GOP Chair and Committee Chairs in whatever ways they need help. Kunz strives to be a collaborator looking for places or events "where I can help make things work easier for Chairs and members" in order to accomplish their goals.
Kunz also is Chair of the Hillsborough GOP's "Get Out the Vote" (GOTV) Committee, which has several teams. For example, "our strategy and intel team deep dives into voting records and candidates' info in particular races to help out our GOP candidates," Kunz notes. A web-elect team helps Precinct Committee Members to better locate Republicans in their precincts and then "go knocking on doors" to help get out the Republican vote. Currently Kunz seeks committee volunteers to help register new Republican voters at events or different locations. Ultimately the goal is also to enable Precinct Committee Members to get more involved and "assist them with the tools needed to do their jobs properly," he adds.
If you’re interested in volunteering with the GOTV Committee, you can contact Rick Kunz via his email address: [email protected] – or you can phone or leave a message for him -- 813-621-7909 -- at the Hillsborough GOP office, which is open between 9 am and 3 pm, Mondays through Fridays.
UPCOMING ELECTIONS
COUNTYWIDE 2024
In 2024, the following Countywide offices will be up for election: Hillsborough County Sheriff, Supervisor of Elections, Clerk of the Court, Property Appraiser, and Tax Collector. Of these, only the Sheriff is a Republican. All other offices are held by Democrats. If we want to take back our country, we must start at the local level. If you or someone you know would like more information about running for office, please contact Rick Kunz at [email protected]
Running for office is expensive and incumbents have an advantage. If you would like to help Republicans get elected in Hillsborough County, please go to https://www.hillsborough.gop/donate_non_federal_state and donate to help turn Hillsborough County RED!
Although Republicans outnumber Democrats in the state of Florida, the voter registration in Hillsborough County as of July 26, 2023 is as follows:
Democrats - 331,946 Republicans - 294,192 Other - 299,327
To register to vote, change your party affiliation, change your name and/or address, please go to: registertovoteflorida.gov
If you would like to request a Vote by Mail ballot, please go to: https://www.myfloridaelections.com/Voting-Elections/Ways-to-Vote/Vote-by-Mail-Absentee-Ballots#request . If you request a Vote by Mail ballot, you are not required to vote by mail. It only provides you with the option to do so. **If you previously opted to Vote by Mail, you must make the request again for the 2024 election.**
WE ARE REPUBLICANS
Now is the Time to Regain the Narrative by Understanding Our Legacy
By “The Colonel” Tom Mortenson, national speaker and writer, former youth advisor to President Nixon, Youngest Racine City Council President, Becker County Administrator and Historian.
How often do you hear a news story or read just how horrible Republicans are?
The time has come to review our legacy and look at who we are, not what Democrats say we are. Republicans must understand our roots and what we have accomplished.
I recently attended an event honoring black soldiers who died for our country. I listened to a Democrat raise the demons of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and Jim Crow laws blaming Republicans for preventing blacks from voting. Sorry, Madame Speaker, but it was your party – the Democrat Party. Maybe it’s time you read a history book to understand the truth rather than manipulating history to match what you want to believe. It was the Democrat party, along with the KKK, here in Florida and throughout the South, that waged a campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republicans to restore white supremacy in the South.
So, let’s look at our party history.
We began on March 20 in Ripon, Wisconsin, when “50 men, three women, and one child” formed a new political party. The new party took on the name “Republican.” It was a reform party with an antislavery foundation that later held the Union together.
It was responsible for freeing enslaved people and extending voting rights to black men and women. The party extended voting rights to eighteen-year-olds, thereby adding to the history of being the political party that grew voting rights to more people than any in our Nation’s history.
Many of us think Abe Lincoln was our first presidential candidate. But, in 1856, the party chose John Charles Frémont to run for President with a platform dominated by stopping the spread of slavery.
Just like today, the Democrats manipulated the truth by having their speakers use what we now call “talking points,” declaring Fremont and the Republican Party to be:
- Know-Nothings to attract Catholics.
- Favoring racial equality.
- Disunionists to attract conservatives and moderates.
The Democrats attacked Fremont personally, accusing him of being a Catholic (Episcopalian) and claiming his parents were not married. The Richmond Dispatch declared him “a disciple of Free love, if not of Free-soil.” While Republicans countered the false charges against him, the Dems won the election.
Frémont brought together abolitionists, writers, clergy persons, Hispanics, and Quakers to his campaign together, with the support of his wife, who helped get women who favored suffrage and reforms into his campaign, setting the groundwork for a coalition that would enable Lincoln to win the Presidency and later help define the GOP.
Lincoln was the party’s second presidential candidate and won the 1860 election. The first elected Republican President, Lincoln, issued the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), freeing all enslaved people in the Confederacy.
More on Lincoln next month – remember, “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”
As Republicans, we need to know our history.
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