Allies of Donald Trump have been quietly embroiled in a little-noticed fight over who should serve on the committee that will write the Republican Party’s national platform.
NBC News spoke to nine people familiar with the situation in states across the country, including Arizona, South Carolina, Kansas and Iowa. According to officials, the purpose of this campaign is to stop those on the party’s right wing from pushing the Republican National Committee’s official platform toward the far right on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage in the run-up to the general election. That’s what it means.
Trump campaign officials confirmed to NBC News that there is debate within the party over culture war policies and that they are monitoring and participating in state-level races for seats on the RNC’s platform committee. Ta. Play a key role in shaping platform change.
The official also noted that it is not unusual for those closest to the president to play key roles at party conventions.
“We know some people are probably upset with us, but these roles are typically reserved for people who have served the president well,” the official said. “And that includes this.”
The current platform is a 66-page document that outlines the Republican National Committee’s positions on dozens of issues, including abortion, marriage, police reform, the Federal Reserve, technology and the environment. The Platform Committee is comprised of one man and one woman from every state and territory in the United States.
Platform changes are typically made every four years to coincide with presidential elections, but in 2020 the Republican National Committee left it alone, marking the first time it had skipped an adjustment in more than 150 years. At the time, officials said the decision was due to the challenges of holding a full convention at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, infuriating both social conservatives and moderate Republicans who had called for the change.
Now, some of the platform battles that could have played out in 2020 are spilling over into the 2024 election cycle.
“They’re definitely concerned about who’s going to be on the committee,” said Shirey Verdon, who co-chaired Trump’s campaign in Arizona in 2016 and 2020. “We’re trying to bring ordinary people into the platform and into the rules. [committees]But God knows whether there are any sane people in that delegation.”
Verdone, a former Republican National Committee member, has no direct involvement with the Arizona Republican Party.. Arizona Republican Party Chair Gina Swoboda did not respond to a request for comment.
At the grassroots level, this involvement amounts to the Trump campaign and its allies handpicking the candidates they want for policy committees and giving those individuals an electoral advantage.
Most people interviewed by NBC News said they support the campaign’s efforts because, after all, Trump is the party’s presumptive nominee. But they also all acknowledged that it hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing. Intraparty debates are brewing over the definition of abortion and marriage ahead of the party’s July convention in Milwaukee.
Some party leaders have said the Trump campaign wants to ensure that those selected to the platform committee do not craft a platform that could be seen as too extreme for the general election on issues such as the definition of marriage and abortion, which has taken on crucial political sway since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with the help of three conservative appointees by Trump.
“This year we are working hard on the campaign. [platform committee] “There’s a sense among them that they shouldn’t move the platform too far to the right on some issues, and I keep hearing that especially on abortion and marriage,” said a veteran Republican who has worked for the Republican National Committee in state elections.
“The insertions I’m seeing are very odd,” said another longtime RNC committee member, referring to the involvement of Trump allies in selecting platform committee members. “It’s definitely not normal, based on past experience. I’m concerned that some people just want to change it or control it.”
“It is clear to me that [former] The president will get what he wants, and that’s appropriate,” added the former RNC platform committee member. “But that’s something that’s being discussed within the party right now.”
The RNC’s current platform mentions “abortion” 35 times, including opposing the use of federal funds to perform or promote abortions and banning abortion providers from federal programs such as Medicaid. It also includes support for state capacity.
“The Democratic Party is extreme on abortion,” the current platform states. “With its nearly unlimited support for abortion and its vehemently opposed even the most basic restrictions on abortion, the Democratic Party is wildly out of step with the American people.”
Abortion has become a major election issue since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, and President Trump has sought to satisfy social conservatives who have long pushed for a strict federal ban on abortion and It is trying to balance that with the fact that access to is still popular with a wide range of voters. An NBC News poll last year found that 60% of voters opposed overturning Roe v. Wade.
In a recent interview, President Trump used a blanket comment when asked about abortion, saying it should be left to individual states to decide their abortion policies.
That answer is unlikely to appease the party’s socially conservative wing, which includes former Vice President Mike Pence and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who is considered by some to be a finalist to be Trump’s running mate in 2024.
“We don’t need a federal ban,” Trump told Time magazine in an April interview. “Roe v. Wade wasn’t about abortion, it was about giving it back to the states. So the states should negotiate and come to an agreement.”
Another sticking point in the RNC platform revolves around the definition of marriage: In the current document, it is defined as “between one man and one woman” and calls “the foundation of the family natural marriage, the union of one man and one woman.”
A Republican official running for a seat on the RNC platform committee said he would not agree with any decision to moderate the party on social issues, calling it “just politically stupid.” “How do you look back at decades of living language? My goodness, it’s going to affect like half of 1 percent of voters and potentially freeze out many more.”
In 2019, the Trump administration launched a global campaign to combat the criminalization of homosexuality, an effort led by then-U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who became the first openly gay person appointed to a Cabinet-level position when he was appointed by President Trump as acting director of national intelligence in 2020.
Grenell spoke at the 2020 RNC convention, the same year Trump also won support from the Log Cabin Republicans. The group did not endorse him in 2016. Melania Trump also held a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser for the organization in April.
Neither the group nor Mr. Grenell responded to requests for comment on whether they want to change the Republican National Committee’s platform.
However, Trump is not respected by LGBTQ rights groups outside the conservative political ecosystem.
The former president said he would roll back government programs that support transgender rights and punish doctors who provide gender-affirming treatment to minors. He has frequently mocked transgender athletes and gone after schools for promoting “transgender insanity.”
For example, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights group, plans to spend $15 million in key battleground states to support President Joe Biden, and the spending campaign was reported Monday by NBC News. It was reported for the first time.
President Trump has criticized the “gender insanity of the left,” saying he would roll back government programs focused on transgender rights if he returns to the White House.
“We feel like this moment is extremely important because it really means not just this election, but the future of our community,” HRC President Kelly Robinson told NBC News. “We’re seeing an incredible backlash in states across the country against the progress we’ve made…It’s being led by opponents who don’t want the rights we have today.”
