From Charlotte, anti-Trump Republicans offer their own message in a counter-convention
Far from Washington’s ornate Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, site of this week’s Republican National Convention, some Republicans are broadcasting an alternative message from a gray, nondescript studio near uptown Charlotte.
That’s the temporary home of the Convention on Founding Principles, a virtual counter-convention targeting a national audience of Republicans and conservatives dissatisfied with President Donald Trump.
“Today’s Republican Party is the Trump party,” said Mindy Finn, one of the organizers. “And they make it very clear in their rhetoric that you either support Trump wholeheartedly or you’re not one of them.”
The counter-convention is one of several efforts to influence the election by disaffected Republicans and conservatives. Groups such as The Lincoln Project and Republican Voters Against Trump have spent millions on TV ads attacking the president. Democrats made their own appeal to Republicans by including convention speakers like former Ohio GOP Gov. John Kasich.
Months in the planning, the Convention on Founding Principles was intended to draw hundreds to Charlotte for an event that would serve as counter-programming to the RNC, originally scheduled for the Spectrum Center. The pandemic changed everybody’s plans.
After renominating Trump at the Charlotte Convention Center Monday, the GOP convention shifted to Washington. The counter-convention features a production based in Charlotte with most speakers appearing remotely.
Organizers say their convention is based around principles abandoned by Trump’s Republican Party. They include fiscal responsibility, the separation of powers, integrity and fairness, inclusivity and a free press.
Not about one man
From its Charlotte studio, the programming features virtual panel discussions and speeches by more than two dozen people. They include former FBI Director Jim Comey, former Republican national Chairman Michael Steele, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci and Evan McMullin, a former CIA officer who ran an independent campaign for president in 2016.
“America has never been about one individual, it’s never been about one party,” Steele said in Monday night’s broadcast.
“It’s been about freedom,” he added. “It’s been about the Constitution. It’s been about these broad principles that we try so hard to live up to. . . I’m one of the most partisan guys out there . . . (But) at some point you realize it’s about your family, your community and most especially your country.”
Comey, who said he’s never been politically active, said America’s core values are on the ballot.
“I don’t think I’m overstating it because I don’t think you can overstate it,” he said. “What is America is at stake here.”
He went on to call truth one of the country’s core values. “We have principles . . . at the center of it is a belief that truth is real and that the truth matters . . . And Donald Trump represents an assault on all of that, on the idea that truth even exists.”
Tuesday night’s lineup included former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, a longtime Republican Trump critic, addressing what he called the growing politicization of federal courts.
“I have no confidence that Donald Trump can move beyond his disregard and disdain for the rule of law and the constitutional underpinnings of our judiciary,” Orr said.
Finn said such speakers are presenting an alternative to what she called the GOP’s “fear-based” convention.
Who’s watching?
While 17 million people watched the first night of the Republican convention, no networks are covering Charlotte’s counter-convention. It has still garnered some media attention. McMullin and Finn, co-founders of a group called Stand Up Republic, appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Wednesday. Orr was a guest on The Pat McCrory Show on WBT radio.
The Religion News Service ran a story about the convention’s appeal to evangelicals through speakers such as Mark Galli, the former editor-in-chief of Christianity Today. The Washington Post headlined an opinion column, “Republicans are putting on two conventions this week. One of them will be sane.”
Organizers say the first night’s livestream reached 23,000 viewers on YouTube and 10,000 on Facebook. Adding all the social media “shares,” they say, makes for a total reach of hundreds of thousands.
“We’re definitely reaching a big audience and it’s all across the country,” said spokesman Mike Ongstad. “There’s definitely a lot of enthusiasm and excitement we hear from people tuning into it.”
Whether the convention will make a difference this fall is unclear.
This week the Pew Research Center found that an average of 87% of Republicans approve of the president’s handling of the office. In an election expected to draw more than 130 million voters, disaffected Republicans could make the difference, Finn said.
“It literally could be the difference — and I think will be the difference — between a Biden victory and a Trump reelection,” she said.
This story was originally published August 26, 2020 at 4:56 PM.
