Reluctantly, I am going to enter the discussion going on in West Virginia’s Republican party. The Republican State Committee is considering a resolution to forbid independent voters their opportunity to vote in the May Republican primary. After a lifetime working to attract unaffiliated voters to become Republicans I am appalled.
Believe it was in the 1980’s the welcome mat was put out to independent voters. One of the goals was to increase Republican registration. If I recall correctly the Democratic party did not open their door for independents until later.
I worked in West Virginia politics long enough to know behind the crazy idea is a political motive. What that is, who knows? It’s possible the Trump organization does not want to chance independents impacting the presidential result in the state.
The sad ending to this story is local Republican leaders throughout the state have worked hard to convince “unaffiliated” voters to register Republican. The Republican rolls have increased. Now for some unknown reason someone wants to disenfranchise independents. Here comes an opportunity for the Democratic party to increase their registration in West Virginia.
