Right-wing militants trying to take over GOP organizations one county at a time

Dozens of candidates associated with an anti-government group founded by right-wing militant Ammon Bundy have stood for election for influential positions in local Republican parties in Oregon.

An amateur radio operator intercepted hours of conversations between members of the People's Rights Network and the splinter group People’s Rights Oregon 5, revealing their intentions of taking control of Republican precinct committees in three central Oregon counties by putting up 66 candidates to take control of the local party organizations, reported The Guardian.

“They want to take over the local party apparatus and change it from the ground up,” said Devin Burghart, of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights.

PRO5’s mirrors the “precinct strategy” developed by Arizona GOP activist Dan Schultz and promoted by Steve Bannon and Donald Trump himself, and the newly revealed conversations indicate anti-government groups are infiltrating the Republican Party at the grassroots level.

PRO5, which has about 1,400 members is “one of the most successful areas in terms of organization," Burghart said. “One of the things separating them from other chapters is the early pivot to politics, which meant they no longer had to rely on COVID denialism, or the succession of conspiracy theories other chapters have tried to mobilize.”

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Bundy founded PRN in April 2020 to protest against pandemic safety measures after rising to prominence for leading an armed standoff with federal agents at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge four years earlier, and his far-right group has spread nationwide, with each state assistant reporting to the right-wing militia leader.

PRN members took control of the Deschutes County GOP's central committee in 2022 with the election of conspiracy theorist and Confederate sympathizer Scott Stuart as chair and Connie Whelchel vice-chair, and longtime anti-government militant B.J. Soper is currently running for another seat on that county's precinct committee.

PRO5 is guaranteed at least 21 committee seats in Jefferson County, where only 49 total candidates are running for the GOP precinct committee, and at least 34 PRO5 members are vying for positions in Deschutes County and 12 in Crook County.