Republicans Just Won't Stop (Part 2)

The RPA, Trump, and supporting MAGA

Jun 10, 2025

We continue our review of the MAGA vs. establishment war within the Republican Party of Arkansas with Part 2 below (see Part 1 here). It's plain to see that populism continues to endure within the RPA, no matter how hard the Party pushes back or how many everyday conservative voters it banishes and/or ignores.

Trump and MAGA

As Trump embraced the GOP, sleeping TEA Party voters both inside the RPA and not began to hone in on how to leverage Republican Party resources to support Trump's populist agenda. How could everyday, conservative Republican voters make their voices heard within the still-establishment-controlled Republican county committees to promote Republican values to more people who would vote for those Trumpian values?

Newer members began studying the RPA Rules and Roberts Rules of Order because the RPA says that, plus state law, are the governing documents for the Party, a false paradigm they still employ today. However, everyday voters, Republican Party members, are clearly seeing how the RPA has shown time and time again that it will twist the intentionally vague Party Rules to its advantage every time, no matter how common-sense conservative Party members may interpret those Rules otherwise.

In the past, old guard Republican elected officials and donors had totally controlled the Arkansas GOP. They always managed to just ignore or close ranks against the Party's everyday voter base, but after Trump lost the stolen 2020 presidential election, things changed dramatically as conservative Republican voters were aggressively seeking their rightful "seat at the table."

By 2021, Pulaski and Saline Counties GOP County Committees had added so many everyday conservative voters as new members they easily doubled their membership, giving those everyday members a majority and challenging the old guard that began to lose its total control. Other county committees in Arkansas also saw dramatic increases in membership as populism activated many Republican-leaning voters to again formally join the Republican Party in order to effect a change and stop the country's negative slide into socialism.

Losing Ground in Central Arkansas

In 2022, at a contentious, chaotic, 7-hour election, old guard members under RPA Chair Jonelle Fulmer and 2nd District Chair Melonaie Gullick fought tooth and nail to somehow block the majority, MAGA-oriented Republicans who were elected as delegates to represent Pulaski County at the 2022 State Convention. However, that entire 71-member county delegation was disallowed and removed at that summer's State Convention after the RPA — who had also pressured the entire Republican legislative majority to attend so they could vote — forced the 303-295 vote. Old timers complained that those 71 delegates were largely new members and didn't have requisite "institutional knowledge" of Party ways.

The RPA then called the State Police to also have those individuals removed from the premises after they were forcibly blocked from entering the Convention but had peaceably tried to remain in the public areas of the local hotel where the Convention was held.

Also in 2022 within GOP District 2, the Saline County Republican Committee had also grown exponentially to its largest membership ever and was drawing heavy criticism from Saline County resident Webb and influential old guard Republican lawmakers and donors after "disrespectful" exchanges at their county meetings with MAGA members and other incidents resulted in formal complaints being filed against fellow Republicans.

Saline Power Struggle Gone Large

And, amidst the up-to-then seemingly successful push for "MAGA equality" within the state Party, the SCRC was grappling with an internal trust/power struggle between Trump supporters within its county committee where one family, capitalizing on the lack of other volunteers, predominated both on the executive committee and in committee communications, putting out messaging on the group's behalf with which Lancaster and other committee members did not agree. That once-internal county struggle eventually mortally wounded the nascent MAGA influence within the Party after the 2024 State Convention; both sides were begged to settle their differences internally but instead chose to spread their back-and-forth drama across the state, actions that both alienated MAGA members and forced them to take sides that split MAGA voters into opposing camps.

Major Gains and Heated Battles

By 2023 the Pulaski County GOP had elected Trump supporters as their new slate of officers, a move that greatly disturbed and embarrassed the establishment GOP that held a supermajority in the Legislature and all the state's elected constitutional offices — Pulaski being not only one of the RPA's largest, most influential counties but also, of course, home to the Arkansas Legislature and our state capitol.

Party establishment was making it clear they strongly disagreed with Party members who had now become the majority as that majority was also making its way through several other county committees mostly in Districts 1, 2, and 3. County committee meetings became more and more tense with MAGA members publicly outing questionable Rules violations and sloppy enforcement while competing interests were vying for support from committee members who remained split between MAGA and old guard.

MAGA Makes a Move

By 2023 Pulaski County GOP boasted its largest membership ever, with fundraising and attendance trending upward, even after the now-minority establishment members had refused to pass on the historic and current party membership and financial records, forcing the MAGA officers to re-create their entire set of records when they go elected (by majority vote) in 2022. Leveraging their new majority position, MAGA voters in the Pulaski County GOP passed resolutions voicing their support for paper ballots and closed Republican primaries, and also discussed (unsuccessfully) votes of no confidence for Congressman French Hill and other Republican elected officials.

Congressional Districts

In 2023, the RPA again tried to stop MAGA voters from exerting their voices, but delegates elected to represent each of the counties in Republican Congressional District 2 overwhelmingly elected Jennifer Lancaster of Saline County to replace District Chairperson Melonaie Gullick of Faulkner County who had played a key role in the removal of the Pulaski County delegates from the 2022 State Convention. District 2 delegates also managed to heartily approve several Resolutions (paper ballots being one) that rankled the old guard, although Gullick had deliberately time-limited the event and manipulated delegate credentials, along with other RPA stunts designed to run out the clock and not allow time for motions and votes from the floor.

Later in 2023, GOP Districts 1 and 2 began coming together for combined Republican District meetings where hundreds of delegates enjoyed MAGA-oriented speakers including former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, Arizona Senator Wendy Rogers, Arizona’s Kari Lake, and Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Old guard Republicans were especially unhappy about these and other successful fundraising events, as well as ongoing recruiting statewide by MAGA members of Republican Women's groups.

Demanding that District 1 and 2 stop the Gaetz event, Arkansas GOP insiders even targeted GOP members with one-on-one personal emails warning of then-Congressman Gaetz's ethics violations probes and allegations of sexual improprieties with underage women while questioning the motives of the District 2 Chair Lancaster and District 1 Chair Sarah Dunklin, who were in charge of the Gaetz event. (Gaetz left Congress in November 2024; in a rare move in December 2024 the House Ethics Committee released their investigatory report showing they found Gaetz guilty of several violations that Gaetz still denies.)

Republican Women

On the affiliate side of the Party, following its member majority in 2023, the Hot Springs Republican Women (Garland and Saline Counties) set up a voter integrity panel to discuss voting machine fraud and paper ballots, inviting Lancaster and others to speak.

However, area Republican state lawmaker Matt McKee and others obstructed the planned event, which they had earlier condemned, voted against sponsoring, and tried to stop. Those same old guard GOP members called the local police to quell what should have been a normal event to inform about election-related news that instead became a public Republican fiasco.

And, also in District 2, Webb and others were busy filing Party complaints against the Saline County Republican Women that were eventually dismissed but that took valuable resources and time away from work for the 2024 general election cycle.

After a round of musical chairs while the RPA looked for a suitable Chairman after Webb resigned in 2020, Governor Sarah Sanders appointed former Washington County Judge Joseph Wood to the position in 2023. Then, in spite of rousing strong endorsements from MAGA Republican Party members statewide, 1st District Chair Dunklin lost her bid to unseat Wood in the August, 2023 statewide Party election.

Doubled Filing Fees

Responding to the continued noise from MAGA voters, the RPA again retaliated. The RPA Executive Committee voted to increase the November 2023 filing fees for Republican congressional candidates in the 2024 election from $15,000 to $30,000 "to allow the RPA to better assist campaigns in the general election” — but it was a definitive shot at everyday conservative contenders who were eyeing plans to challenge incumbent establishment Republicans in the 2024 primary.

In October 2023, the RPA's shill Drew Martin employed a non-existent credentials challenge to prevent 27 existing Young Republicans in Saline County from re-joining the affiliate group, after the now-RPA-Chairman got elected as that group's Chairman by taking over the membership meeting and then leaving the meeting in shambles as the entire event fell apart amid the arguing.

By the fall of 2023, the RPA's ongoing, purposeful obstruction brought MAGA Republicans from various county committees together to begin organizing and preparing for the 2024 State Convention that holds, according to the RPA Rules, "final authority in all Party matters." Led by Lancaster and other District 1 leaders and leaders from Pulaski, Saline, Washington, Craighead and other counties, these individuals began working one-on-one and together to prepare and submit several Rules and platform changes for the next year's State Convention. But the RPA's Rules Committees and others consistently rejected the submissions and ignored the wishes of the county committee delegates.

MAGA voters persisted with organizing their plans and, at the 2024 State Convention many of those same main leaders presented their duly submitted Rules and platform changes the Convention delegates eventually passed overwhelmingly.

2024 Convention is "Null and Void"

After the RPA pulled numerous childish and sneaky stunts trying to stop the 2024 State Convention from even happening in Rogers last June 8, the RPA old guard reacted violently when over 600 delegates elected District 2 Chair Lancaster as the 2024 State Convention Chairman, giving her the gavel that day, a position traditionally given to the sitting RPA Chair.

Then, after a 12-hour marathon Convention complete with a venue change for all those delegates so the mandatory but time-limited event could continue, Convention delegates passed under Lancaster's leadership historic changes to RPA policies, including closing Republican primaries, clarifying District Committee auto-membership, banning lobbyists and lawmakers from the RPA Rules and Platform Committees, requiring candidates to be registered Republicans to run for office, and perhaps most importantly, removing automatic voting rights on Party affairs for elected Republicans.

Doubling Down

The RPA chose from that moment on to ignore any communication from Convention Chair Lancaster, whether written or in person and on July 25, 2024 the RPA Executive Committee — specified in the RPA Rules as gaining its authority from the Convention — determined that the entire 2024 State Convention was "null and void" and voted to reopen the primaries.

Ignoring Lancaster created a major problem within the RPA because she was also one of six Arkansas presidential electors the GOP expected to vote for nominee Donald Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention in July, and a mandatory task for the 2024 State Convention was approval of those Arkansas presidential electors.

In early July, 2024, former RPA Chair Webb summarily canceled his rent agreement with the Saline County Republican Party for the downtown Benton Republican Headquarters where the group held its ever-growing monthly committee meetings. He cited the group's "meetings ... conducted with no regard to decorum or a sense of "fair play," plus an earlier vote of no confidence in U.S. Senators Tom Cotton and John Boozman and Rep. French Hill approved by Saline County Republicans. (Webb heads up the nonprofit corporation named “Republican Party of Saline County, Inc.” that owns the building.)

The War Explodes

After the historic Convention, the RPA Executive Committee voted to cancel the Party's MAGA voter base by pretending that the 2024 State Convention had not happened. Then the state Party — just a few weeks before the November 2024 general election — submitted false elector certifications to the national Republican party because they refused to communicate with Convention Chair Lancaster and acknowledge the Convention's required approval votes.

In September 2024, Saline County GOP's power struggle went viral nationally thanks to an over-heated Saline County Committee meeting that erupted in physicality and the police being called (no charges were filed).

Lancaster Removed After Complaint

Less than a week later District 1 Chair Dunklin submitted an Article VII Rules Review complaint to the RPA against Lancaster signed by numerous individuals who wanted anonymity due to "fear of retribution." The complaint was signed by a group of mostly District 1 and some District 2 Trump voters who had secretly split off from the once-cohesive statewide MAGA GOP member group self-titled as the "Arkansas Patriot Movement" that had enthusiastically elected Lancaster as 2024 Convention Chair just four months before. This group, many of which opposed Lancaster's side of that early-on Saline County power struggle, demanded that Lancaster be removed not only as Convention Chair and District 2 Chair but also as a County Committee member.

The RPA placed Dunklin in charge of the resulting "Rules review committee" and, of course, Lancaster was found guilty of various allegations said to be "not in the best interest of the Party" and was subsequently removed as a Republican Party of Arkansas member and banned for 20 years.

Against that backdrop, in late August 2024 a group of over 20 State Convention delegates, including Lancaster, filed a federal lawsuit against the RPA, Chairman Wood, and Secretary of State John Thurston, who had refused to implement the approved closed primary Rules change. However, after around nine months of inactivity, federal Judge Brian Miller, a Bush appointee, dismissed the lawsuit in early May 2025, saying "federal court is not the appropriate forum to resolve their dispute.”

In December 2024, the RPA's Executive Committee, ruling on the various complaints, first voted 19-1 to remove Lancaster from the Party for 20 years and only after that, then voted 16-3 to dissolve the entire 200+ members of the Saline County County Republican Committee.

Still Banning MAGA in 2025

The biennial 2025 Republican officers election cycle has brought even more battles, with ongoing disputes and controversies between MAGA and old guard members in Pulaski, Washington, Craighead, and Garland County Republican Committees, as well as others still fueling the war within the Arkansas Republican Party.

After Maga-centric officers were re-elected at Craighead County's January 2025 elections, more of those RPA complaints got filed this past spring and have resulted in the resignations/removal for two years of those Craighead officers in favor of more old-guard-acceptable individuals.

In May, 2025 the RPA also banned former Pulaski County Chair Lorri Justice from the Party and any leadership positions for two years after that formal intra-party Craighead County complaint was amended to add her and another Craighead County individual. Justice was also banned from RPA property for two years, effectively banning her from the Pulaski County Republican Committee meetings that are currently held at the RPA Headquarters building in Little Rock.

Summer State Meeting This Month

The 2025 Summer State Committee Meeting, RPA's next major conclave, is set for June 21 at Little Rock's RPA Headquarters and is not open to the public. Of three Rules changes to be considered (and these votes will likely now be upheld by the RPA), two proposals from State Senator Josh Bryant of Rogers are faint echoes of items the RPA refused to acknowledge after the 2024 Convention:

Republican candidates must be registered Republican members before paying filing fees to run as Republicans
Individuals registered as Democrats may not receive a Republican primary ballot

A third proposed Rules change was submitted by all four District Chairs and the Chairman of the County Chairs group, but (as of publication time) the RPA has not formally approved it for the 2025 State Convention to consider. This proposal would clarify that inactive members cannot vote. Passing it would remove a key piece supporting the RPA's May 2025 decision (and the Rules Committee's after-the-fact rules reversal) that removed Justice along with those Craighead County officers.

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It would be better if this fight to the finish, this war that pits younger, newer, more Constitutionalist Republican members against old guard establishment members could be put to rest so Republicans could together find a way to oppose the Leftist Democrats with a united front. “A divided house cannot stand,” and all that. Some newer MAGA Republicans are saying so. But, does the old guard want that at all? Only time will tell!

But we know one thing for certain. MAGA populism is not going away. We want America and her freedoms and liberties to be Great Again, with or without the old guard GOP.

We're not stopping.

Due to space concerns we've necessarily omitted numerous other stunts the RPA has pulled as they keep trying to wipe out MAGA voters within the Party. The RPA is not the Party it purports to be, but instead operates as a top-down, authoritarian cult that wants your time and money but not your thoughts or opinions unless you're willing to swallow their Party line with no questions asked. We will always maintain "that's not the way it should be done!" We welcome you to send us your personal take on events as they happen in your county.