Dear readers, the cliche is nearly upon us: come November, we will have to vote in the most important election in the history of the world. We know what you’re thinking. That’s every election. But a good case can be made that this one will determine, in part, whether we’ll have a livable planet in a century, whether pregnant people can keep their reproductive choices and whether our schools will remain secular.
Those issues are genuinely dire, and they will be governed partly by a fascinating grassroots exercise, starting at the neighborhood level right here in Spokane County, and culminating in the national party conventions. The Republican parties of each county in Washington began this process January 13, with the party’s “caucus” (which essentially means “to gather”). This is where neighbors got together in community spaces, like school gyms and churches, and debated candidates and issues.
Last weekend represented another important milestone in the process: the Spokane County GOP held its convention to select delegates. These are voting representatives, some of whom may ultimately decide the GOP presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention on July 15 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (The Washington state Democratic Party follows a different process, which RANGE will examine in coming months.)
So this is your quick, down-and-dirty explainer of how that process plays out — how regular folks can do the important work of selecting our potential leaders — from caucus to national convention.
It starts with a caucus
On January 13, Spokane County conservatives gathered at caucus locations across the county with their neighbors to debate their preferred presidential candidates and proposed changes to the party platform. Republican elected representatives from each of the 451 Spokane County Precincts, called Precinct Committee Officers (PCOs), led the caucus-goers in the process. Crucially, it was there that they chose the delegates who represented them at last weekend’s convention.
“The process starts at the most grassroots level, which is your precincts, which is your neighborhoods,” said Party Chair MJ Bolt. “Whoever engages in this process has the opportunity to influence what the party does statewide and nationally.”
The PCOs ranged from Mary White, an unassuming retired woman from Spokane Valley who wore a hi-vis traffic vest; to former-state District 4 Representative Matt Shea, the pastor of On Fire Ministries who is known nationally for having been accused of domestic terrorism when he was in the state legislature; to current District 4 Representative Leonard Christian. This slate of PCOs was elected in 2022 via mailed ballots from Spokane County — rather than the county GOP — that went to all homes in each respective precinct and are referred to in state GOP literature as “the backbone of the Washington State Republican Party.”
At the caucus in the University High School gym in Spokane Valley, PCOs each sat at a round lunch table leading a cohort of their neighbors through the process, which were governed by Robert’s Rules of Order (basically, official rules that govern most meetings of groups that make decisions). They discussed, but did not vote, on proposed party platform changes and then voted for delegates to go to the county convention from each respective table.
Some PCOs — including White — sat alone with no neighbors. But at the table RANGE spent time at, all eight caucus-goers, including PCO and treasurer for the Spokane County GOP Mike Drew, were voted in either as a delegate or alternate.
Mirroring much of the country’s conservative dialogue, Donald Trump was the only presidential contender even mentioned by the caucus-goers at the table RANGE sat in on. Other tables carried some votes for Trump’s former-challenger Nikki Haley, who lost the Nevada primary to the option “none of these candidates.” Haley dropped out of the race after the “Super Tuesday” primary marathon on March 5, in which she won only one state. She did not endorse Trump.
There was a small wrench in this year’s caucus: January 13, which is earlier than the party normally holds its caucus (in fact, earlier than Iowa’s “first-in-the-nation” caucuses, held January 16) was an extremely cold day, registering negative temperatures in the morning. The party had been shooting for 1,000 to 1,500 delegates to make it to the county convention, but not enough people showed up to the caucus (hence the lonely PCOs at U-High).
This led to a bigger problem for the next big event: the county party had booked the Spokane County Fairgrounds for the convention, which was originally scheduled to take place February 10. It’s an expensive venue, but they planned to cover the overhead by selling delegates $100 tickets. But because there weren’t enough delegates at the caucus, the party lacked the funds to book the fairgrounds and had to move the venue and the date.
“We had secured a venue that could accommodate up to 1,500 delegates,” Bolt said. But after the low turnout, “we looked into our contract. We need to be fiscally responsible to our members and the organization. If we continue with this venue, we’re probably going to lose money,” she said.
Lyle Dach, a recently elected vice chair to the Spokane County GOP, had a line on an alternative venue — Valley Assembly, which is his church. Dach was organizing the convention as part of his duties as vice chair, he told RANGE last weekend. So the ticket price changed with the venue, dropping to $75 — the price to participate in democracy.
Caucus → county convention → state convention → national convention
After caucus day on January 13, the county party had approximately 450 delegates that would go through the winnowing process to get the final delegates. And though this process may seem analogous to sports bracketing, in which the cream rises to the top, the flashiest delegates are not who it seeks to send to the convention. The point is to get normal Spokane County residents — some of them completely lacking in pedigree — to the national convention to do the party’s business. Then at the convention last weekend, those ~450 delegates elected a smaller slate of representatives to go to the state convention. As of Friday morning, the party was still finalizing its numbers, which Bolt said will be posted on the county party website.
Those delegates will gather from April 18 through April 20 at the state GOP convention at the Spokane Convention Center to select statewide candidates and, finally, elect 43 delegates to the national convention. There, those delegates will choose the Republican candidate for president.
Washington Republicans will have an additional chance to weigh in on their party’s nominations on March 12 in a balloted primary election.
Editor’s note: This story has been changed to clarify that precinct committee officers are elected on ballots mailed to voters by Spokane County. A previous version implied that the county GOP had mailed the ballots. It was also updated to note that the state Democratic Party is in charge of the delegate selection process.
