Please click here to order a ticket to hear my speech at the 5 Riders event on Wednesday evening. The flier and a preview of the first two slides of my presentation appear at the bottom of this blog. As the 5 Riders website states, “Under cover of darkness on April 18th, 1775, there were 5 Riders who dispatched via horseback in order to provide warning to the colonists of the approach and movement of the British forces …” More on the speech and optional pheasant hunt further down, but first...
Trump Picks LaCivita
Unrelated breaking news …those of us bonded by running Virginia GOP convention nominations during the first Republican takeover in the 1990s were thrilled to receive President Trump’s letter picking one of our own - Chris LaCivita - as RNC COO. (see pictured tweet here)
Every year we ran grassroots field efforts in all 135 Virginia counties and independent cities where every person who came to their local GOP mass meeting or caucus was important because THEY were the workers who would pick the nominee - not a big TV budget. We learned not only the value of every activist, but that today’s adversary might be tomorrow’s ally - as elections in Virginia are held every year.
Deja vu, liberals thought they could use gerrymandering (much like the Wisconsin Supreme Court today) to get rid of Chris’ and my first boss - George F. Allen. Instead, we were among the field directors who set a record by recruiting 13,000 conservatives to the convention (paying $35 each to attend) to nominate the eventual Governor Allen and Attorney General Jim Gilmore - despite starting 36 points behind. Two years later Chris and I both focused on successfully wrestling control of the State Senate from the Democrats. Then nationally I ran faith-based turnout for Bush 2000, and Chris pulled off the Swift Boat ad to win the re-elect.
We were all ecstatic to get Trump’s February 12 letter reading that he, “...asked Chris LaCivita, in whom I have full confidence, to assume the role of, in effect, Chief Operating Officer … this group of three is highly talented, battle-tested, and smart …”
Months before receiving the Trump letter selecting LaCivita, we planned an email today to invite you to the 5 Riders speech. As the flier outlines, the event in Johnson Creek, WI, will feature both my speech and one by Ken Draggota of True the Vote. Their national founder Catherine Engelbrecht and I shared a stage to present in December 2019 (my presentation then on ActBlue), so it is great to connect here in Wisconsin four years later.
As you can see from the preview of the first two slides below, some of my items in the presentation may challenge conservative, independent thought and I don’t mind spending 90 percent of the time talking about 10 percent of the issues on which there is some disagreement. From those mass meetings in the 1990s through my annual caucus yesterday in Milwaukee, where Trump will be nominated this summer, conservatives are independent thinkers and we welcome give and take as much as rallying around common beliefs.
