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RNC & Party Machinery blog
A playbook for rebuilding the volunteer base after a hard election nightVolunteers are rebuilt in the quiet years, not the loud ones. A step-by-step plan from thank-you calls to training nights and a calendar of off-year elections.The twenty-four months from a midterm to a presidential race, month by monthA month-by-month activist calendar for the two years between a midterm and a presidential election, with the usual county, state and national rhythm.The Elephant, the GOP and Red States and Where Party Symbols Really Came FromSeven common beliefs about the Republican elephant, the letters GOP, the color red and the party name, each tested against the record with a verdict.From Smoke-Filled Rooms to Prime Time Republican Conventions in Dated StepsA dated tour of Republican national conventions from 1856 to 2024, showing how the convention went from choosing the nominee to staging a four-night show.What a Party Platform Is, Who Writes It and What It Actually BindsThe Republican platform is written at each convention, fought over plank by plank, and binds nobody by law. Here is how it works and why it still matters.How a county party recruits candidates for every empty line on the ballotA seat nobody runs for is a seat handed over without a vote. A step-by-step plan for a county chair to audit the ballot, find candidates and keep a bench.The 1976 Kansas City Convention and the Last Real Fight Over the NominationFord beat Reagan by a few dozen delegates in 1976, and the closing night belonged to the man who lost; here is how the last open convention played out.Five Strands of the American Right Compared in One TableBusiness conservatives, libertarians, social conservatives, hawks and populists compared side by side, with what the party loses if any one of them leaves.How to write and pass a platform resolution at your county conventionA step-by-step playbook for drafting a one-subject resolution, filing it on time, and carrying it from the county convention up toward the state platform.Caucus, primary or convention, how Republicans actually pick a nomineePrimary, runoff, caucus and convention all choose Republican nominees, but they reward different candidates and different volunteers. Here is the table.Three Ballots in the Wigwam and How Lincoln Beat the Favorite in 1860Abraham Lincoln was nobody's first choice in Chicago in May 1860. Here is how he became everybody's second, and why that still matters in coalition politics.The Republican Party org chart, from your precinct to the RNCThe party is a ladder of volunteer committees, not a corporation. Here is how precinct, county, district, state and the RNC fit together, and where power sits.How to become a precinct committeeman and take over your county partyThe Republican Party starts at the precinct, and many seats there sit empty. Here is the step-by-step route to filling one and what you can do with it.The Little Schoolhouse in Ripon and the Oak Grove in Jackson, 1854Two small Midwestern towns each claim the birth of the Republican Party in 1854. Here is what happened in both, and why the argument is fair.