Months ago I had planned to take my family on vacation the first part of this week. On the way out of VT we drove by the Bennington Battle Monument and it got me thinking again about the Revolutionary War.

I love the line from Hamilton that asks the question “How does a rag-tag volunteer army in need of a shower, somehow defeat a global superpower?” At least part of that answer is found in the Continental Army’s attempt to engage in some surprise warfare.  Their guerilla tactics were novel and asymmetrical to the British army who were used to fighting the old fights.  The revolutionaries were severely out-gunned, out-manned, and out-trained at the beginning of the war.  They suffered several significant losses early on, but they had an ability to scramble and adapt to survive just long enough to turn the tide in the end.

Over this past week the Vermont Republican Party has been doing the same.  We suffered some setbacks in May with turnover and lighter recruiting class, but over the past few weeks some of our town and county chairs have been working hard to get organized to find replacement candidates and close some of the gaps.  In Essex we went from recruiting 2 of 5 seats, to waging 3 additional write-in campaigns to add new candidates on the ballot to run five Republicans in Essex for the first time in at least 10 years.  We had other similar outcomes in other House races where we were able to add Republicans to the ballot with hard work and write-ins.  Thanks to those of you who participated in those efforts.

In places where write-ins were not successful, we have had our town & county chairs working hard to add Republicans to the ballot through the appointment process as well.  That deadline was yesterday, so we should see additional Republican candidates added to the chess board this week as those processes are certified as well.

But as much good work has been done by many of our faithful party volunteers, it is clear to me there is still more work to be done.  As excited as I am by the important gains we’ve made from May, I still always see the places where we had some great opportunities but have missed out on them from lack of organization or resources.  This is a bigger project that we will have to address next year during our party reorganization, but we are learning important lessons to better prepare for 2024 while we also give our best effort for the election that lies imminently ahead of us.

It has been encouraging to see previously sleepy Republicans woken up this past week.  Whether it has been the radical shift to the Left that has turned the entire Democratic party into Progressives, or the unexpected results of the Republican Primary – more people have been reaching out and donating to the party in the past week than since the legislative session ended.  Mail-in ballots will start going out in just over a month, and if Republicans are going to win in November we have to put in twice the effort than our opponents – and we need every willing and able person we can helping us out to accomplish this monumental task ahead of us.
 



Chairman Paul Dame