Tom Mendenhall of Columbia was just about packed and ready to drive to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention when he got word not to bother.
Mendenhall, who has attended seven previous conventions, was told that the convention’s Credentials Committee had voted unanimously to reinstate the delegation selected at the May 4 state convention in Springfield.
Mendenhall was on the replacement slate selected July 3 by the state party’s executive committee when a challenge displaced the “Truly Grassroots for Trump” slate. He wasn’t sure what would happen with his hotel room reservation — only delegates and people with official passes could stay close to the convention hall — and he wasn’t happy with the conflict over the delegation.
“If there was ever a time for unity and getting people together, it’s now, but that episode down there in Springfield was pretty bad,” Mendenhall said.
The confrontation that played out over two weeks between party regulars and insurgents who took over the convention likely left no one satisfied. Within that time, the 54-member at-large delegation — 27 delegates and 27 alternates — was discarded, replaced and reinstated.
The final decision came when the 95-member Credentials Committee took time to listen to the evidence amassed by backers of the Truly Grassroots for Trump slate, said Coby Cullins, a member who prepared the appeal heard July 12.
He said that during the two-hour period set aside for questions, the committee displayed hostility to the decision to remove the convention-elected delegation and the state party leadership's decision to replace it.
“As we answered questions, and we did our arguments, and you can just kind of feel the room shift,” Cullins said.
The dispute over the delegation began with a challenge from two candidates for delegate who claimed that the actions of the chaotic gathering should be discarded because the results could not be trusted.
The Republican National Committee's contests committee agreed and ordered the state party to select replacements after it found “alarming irregularities” in the credentialing of delegates to the state convention.
That meant a slate that included gubernatorial candidates, state Sen. Bill Eigel, and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft among its membership could not attend the convention except as guests. Now both can attend as delegates.
The contests committee turned down a request for a rehearing on Monday, setting up the Credentials Committee review.
The state-party-selected delegation set aside included former U.S. Rep. Billy Long; state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a candidate for secretary of state; and Susan Klein, executive director of Missouri Right to Life.
The replacement slate did include five members of the Truly Grassroots for Trump slate, but they were not informed they would be included, and three of them told The Independent they would only attend as part of the original slate.
“The Missouri Republican Party never contested the convention or the original delegate slate, and we are pleased the RNC has finally settled this matter so we can focus on delivering our Party’s 54 national convention delegates to President Donald J. Trump and electing Missouri Republicans up and down the ballot this November,” the state party said in a statement emailed by spokeswoman Erica Choinka.
The statement from the party isn’t inaccurate but it is misleading, Cullins said.
“They certainly didn’t support us when they had the chance,” Cullins said. “They chose their own slate. But I cannot contradict anything in that.”
Cullins amassed affidavits from state convention delegates, obtained a video recording of the 12-hour meeting and argued that the party apparatus led by chairman Nick Myers is being rewarded for a problem it created.
The credentials committee was the first national body to review the video or accept in-person arguments, Cullins said.
The dispute was about more than who could shout Trump’s name the loudest as he is renominated, Cullins said.
It is about integrity in the process within the party, he said. The state convention was comprised of delegates elected by grassroots Republicans at mass meetings, he noted.
“Those are all elected delegates for our Republican Party,” Cullins said. “For them to ignore the 848 delegates at the state convention, and try to do something different, was a slap in the face. That was a steal. They stole our delegates, is what we believed.”
