State of the Party

Fellow Republicans, I hope this last year has been full of blessings and that you all have a renewed hope for the future. As a country, we have so much to celebrate. Donald Trump winning in a landslide, capturing ALL the Swing States and the popular vote sent a clear message that the American people are not going to tolerate the policies and corruption that is coming from Democrat leadership in our country. With Republicans having control of the House and Senate, we will pave the way for a golden age in America that will bring economic prosperity, stronger national security and common sense back to our country.

In 2024, the Clark County Republican Party continued to build an apparatus that in the long term will help get Republicans elected for years to come. Some of those structures and committees that have been put in place are our candidate evaluation team, PCO training, ballot chasing, voter data technology, election integrity and much more.

We had many successful fundraising efforts, none more than our Lincoln Day Dinner back on July 13th. Our guest speaker was Chris Miller who served as Secretary of Defense. Hours prior to the event, President Trump was shot at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania coming within millimeters of death. There was a strong, united feeling in the room that night that has since grown stronger.

On December 7th, the CCRP held our bi-annual organizational meeting where our bylaws were reviewed and a new board was elected for the next 2 year term. I was honored to be re-elected as Chairman once again along with our Vice Chair Sally Snyder. The election for board positions were as follows:

Matthew Bumala – Chairman
Sally Snyder – Vice Chair
Mark Moore - State Committeeman
Tricia Davis – State Committeewoman
Katie Bauer – Treasurer
Aimee Vaile – Secretary

After the adjournment of the organizational meeting, the PCOs broke out to their respective legislative districts to elect an LD (Legislative Director) who are also a part of the executive board. The elected LDs were as follows:

Mike Stupak – 17th Legislative District (re-elected)
John Robin – 18th Legislative District
Sean Emerson – 20th Legislative District (re-elected)
Jonathan Hines – 49th Legislative District

The culture of PCOs within the CCRP is positive. Our financial standing is good. We celebrated some wins together but despite that, we had some losses in our congressional race with our candidate Joe Kent along with some unfortunate and unnecessary headwinds that we faced against our own house and senate caucuses in Olympia during the primaries. The disconnect and relationship the county parties have had with the caucuses will change moving forward. We cannot be at odds with each other. The county parties in our State need to be the ones that recruit, vet and support candidates for these positions with the cooperation and help of the caucuses, not the other way around. Clark County will not be an exception to this. Now is the time for Republicans to work together and not against each other.

We are proud to see successful race outcomes in the following LDs.

In the 18th Legislative District, Stephanie McClintock was re-elected as a State Representative along with John Ley elected as State Representative. Unfortunately for the State Senate seat, Brad Benton narrowly lost that race by less than 200 votes.

In the 17th Legislative District, Paul Harris was elected to the Senate position that was previously held by Linda Wilson who retired. Dave Stuebe was elected as State Representative along with Kevin Waters who ran unopposed.

In the 20th Legislative District, John Braun was re-elected to the Senate and Pete Abbarno and Ed Orcutt were re-elected as State Representatives.

Here in Clark County, we have our work cut out for us. While we have big things to celebrate nationally, there is a challenge that we face in our own backyard demographically. Things are not the same as they were the last few years. The attrition that we have experienced with conservative neighbors moving to red states and being replaced by liberals from Portland and California has increased significantly. Clark County’s population has grown but not in favor of strong, Republican voters.

Does this hint a future of “doom and gloom” for us? Are we destined to a fate of being turned into solid blue county? I wouldn’t go that far.

First of all, we hold a strong population of independent voters, many of which are defecting from the Democrat Party because of how far left they have gone. Under democrat policies and leadership they have witnessed crime increase. They have seen the cost of goods go up with inflation. They have witnessed radical ideologies over gender and sexual orientation being foisted on children and they’ve had enough. As liberal as Washington State is, it has actually shifted slightly more to the right despite our demographics. People are waking up and embracing common sense. We need to capture this opportunity with disenfranchised citizens who can no longer support the policies and leadership of the Democrats.

Secondly, there is still a huge untapped population of Republicans in our county who are not engaged. Many in the faith community despite their outspoken, conservative principles are not registered to vote. Droves in the Slavic and Hispanic community who share our values are in the same boat. Gen Z young men are the most conservative generation in over 50 years. We must engage with them and rally together to win on every level in our communities.

This local party is officially made up of our Precinct Committee Officers and executive board but we need Republican citizens countywide to join us in our mission. Our big focus in 2025 is to be engaged and present for the school board races and city council races where conservative candidates and policies are desperately needed. We need activists this year but also in 2026 as we approach another congressional race, State Rep races and County Council races.

With the tools we’ve put in place the last year, I’m confident that we will make big, positive strides in the years to come but it won’t happen unless we are all in this effort together. It’s going to take action on all our parts to see the change that we need.

Like I said in last year’s address, we deserve the society that we fight for but we also deserve the society that we tolerate. It’s up to ALL of us to bring the changes that are needed.

May God bless you all!

Matthew Bumala
Chairman – Clark County Republican Party