News

NC GOP Refuses to Back Away from Exclusionary Attacks

After Disastrous Election Loss in 1998, State Leadership Continues Exclusionary Tactics, Alienating and Offending Voters

December 10, 1998

(WASHINGTON, DC) – The nation's largest gay Republican organization criticized the continued attacks by the North Carolina Republican Party on a Republican county judge who announced yesterday that he is gay, and for its continued statements which indicate a religious litmus test for Republican candidates, enforced by the senior state party leadership. The state GOP released a statement yesterday saying that Superior Court Judge Ray Warren (R) " stood before the Republican Party Executive Committee on July 25th and professed to be a born again Christian. We trusted him. He has betrayed that trust." In a second statement released later yesterday, the state GOP accused Warren of "using the Republican Party as a platform to spread his agenda."

"This is the same state GOP leadership that is responsible for one of the most disastrous losses for the Republican Party in 1998, with the loss of a Republican Senate seat," said Richard Tafel, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans. "It is no surprise that since the GOP takeover in 1994, the North Carolina GOP has presided over the loss of a House seat in 1996 and a Senate seat in 1998. They have failed to take the governor's mansion and have failed to take control of the state legislature. And after all this disastrous failure, they continue this mindless drive to alienate as many voters as they can rather than bringing new voters into the Republican Party. The message they have been sending over the last 24 hours to African Americans, Jewish voters, gays, Hispanics and anyone who wouldn't pass the religious litmus test before the state Republican Executive Committee is that you are not wanted in their Republican Party."

"Anyone who had any lingering doubts that the North Carolina Republican Party is not completely controlled by the most extreme elements of the far right shouldn't have any doubts left today," Tafel said. "It's clear that it's time for fair-minded Republicans in the state to demand new leadership. Is the North Carolina Republican Party going to be a party of inclusion with a positive conservative message that brings people from all walks of life, or will it continue to be an exclusionary star chamber for the extreme right that consistently loses elections year after year?"

Log Cabin Republicans is the nation's largest gay and lesbian Republican organization, with 50+ chapters nationwide, a full-time Washington office and a federal political action committee.