Uniparty RINO Candidates Don’t Represent MAGA and Must Be Replaced in the Primaries One Race at a Time
Guest Post by Martel Maxim
For years, the Good Ole Boy (GOB) network in Republican County organizations in locations like Beaufort, South Carolina, existed with little notice. The same small circle of GOBs gathered each month, minutes were approved, reports were given, and the work of these local parties moved forward largely unseen by ordinary voters.
The alarm bells began sounding with the advent of the MAGA movement leading up to 2016, and then after 2020, when they began fighting back to methodically expel this new MAGA influence from their organizations.
HOWEVER, as MAGA activists began appearing at county party meetings in droves, the GOB Republican Party leadership’s dilemma worsened. Programs like Precinct Strategy provided methods to populate the Republican Party with the will of the people, and the GOB didn’t like that at all. Much of this new MAGA blood was retirees, parents, veterans, and small business owners who were never concerned with the inner workings of party governance. They instead arrived with energy and a sense that local involvement still mattered.
What these patriots expected to find was a Republican political organization ready to harness that energy, however the reality was the GOBs did not like what these new participants represented AT ALL. What MAGA discovered instead was a GOB rulebook wall of resistance and convenience, not at all considering the new common-sense MAGA voice in the room. One doesn’t have to look much further than the current Republican support of the Save America Act, which diverges greatly from the will of the people.
Another clear example of this conflict occurs in South Carolina, where Republicans hold overwhelming legislative majorities and control every statewide office. By almost any electoral measure, the state appears politically settled. Yet one key reform frequently discussed among Republican voters, closing the party primary to non Republican participants, has repeatedly failed to advance, WHY? The gap between electoral strength and procedural reform has become difficult for MAGA-inspired activists to ignore, and this dynamic exposes the real problem. That problem is the “UNIPARTY”, showing how South Carolina is largely a Republican In Name Only (RINO) state.
For many MAGA grassroots participants, that realization has been sobering and frustrating. Political messaging may suggest unity between voters and leadership, but the underlying structure of party governance often operates according to different incentives, largely financial. Officeholders may speak the language of reform while the party’s internal framework remains in the hands of people whose primary concern is being beholden to their Donors.
The tension EXPLODED recently when Mike Tunner, an elected Republican Beaufort Executive Committee member and a prominent grassroots organizer, was officially suspended by the GOB leadership. Tunner had built a sizeable local MAGA following, maintained extensive communication channels with activists, and became a regular contact point for campaigns seeking to reach rank and file Republican voters outside the official party apparatus.