National Federation of Republican Assemblies
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President | Alex Johnson, 2021–present |
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| Website | RepublicanAssemblies.org |
The National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA) is a political organization which promotes
The first Republican Assembly was founded in 1934 in California. The Republican Assembly movement grew primarily in the western part of the United States until, in 1996, the several state Republican Assemblies formalized their relationship to one another through the creation of the NFRA, which was also tasked with the establishment of state chapters in those parts of the country to which the movement had not yet spread.
Purpose
Republican Assemblies have three main purposes:
- to recruit activists into the Republican Party
- to elect conservative leadership to party offices
- to endorse and work for the nomination of conservative candidates in party primaries.
The Republican Assembly movement views itself as a reform movement within the Republican Party, and opposes the creation of one or more
A central aspect of the NFRA's mission is the endorsement of candidates in contested Republican primaries, something most Republican support groups and committees choose not to do. NFRA endorsing conventions are held at the local and state levels, and a Presidential Preference Convention is held at the national level. Candidates must win two-thirds of the votes cast at a convention to secure its endorsement. Endorsements are upwardly binding: a local or state chapter's endorsement automatically secures the endorsement of the higher levels of the organization.[1][2]
In 2012, the NFRA's Presidential Preference Convention endorsed Rick Santorum for president on the fifth ballot.[3] In 2016, it endorsed Senator Ted Cruz.[4] In 2020, the NFRA endorsed Donald Trump.
National governance
The NFRA is governed by a board of directors composed of its officers and three national directors from each state, one of which is the state's president. Unlike the Republican National Committee, there is no gender requirement for any office. National officers are elected for two year terms at the organization's bi-annual convention.
Former Nevada Republican U.S. Senate nominee Sharron Angle was elected president on September 15, 2013. Former Ohio Secretary of State and Republican nominee in the 2006 Ohio gubernatorial election Ken Blackwell was elected executive vice president in 2011 and was re-elected in 2013.[5] In 2016, Angle resigned to run again for United States Senate, and was succeeded as president by Willes Lee, former chairman of the Republican Party of Hawaii. Lee is a West Point graduate, former Army Ranger, and a founder of the Republican National Committee's Conservative Caucus.[6]
State and local chapters
The NFRA is composed of state Republican Assemblies, which in turn are made up of local Republican Assemblies. The latter of these elect state boards of directors in much the same way that the state assemblies elect the national board. The NFRA is strongly federalist, both in its ideology and in its own internal organization: most powers are vested in the state assemblies, while the NFRA is bound by national bylaws which strictly limit and enumerate its powers.
This federalist outlook extends even to endorsements. All levels of the organization hold grassroots endorsing conventions, according to the rules described above. However, while the NFRA holds a Presidential Preference Convention every four years, its endorsement is not binding on the states: each state may individually endorse a presidential candidate of its choosing for its own primary or caucus voters. By contrast, local assemblies may endorse candidates in all races except statewide and federal offices, the latter endorsements being reserved to the state conventions, and all of these endorsements are upwardly binding on the levels of organization above them.
Advisory board
Members of the advisory board include
Notable NFRA members
Prominent current and past Republican Assembly members include President
References
- ^ NFRA website, "About Us"
- ^ NFRA website, "Bylaws"
- ^ "Santorum endorsed by 'nation's oldest & largest' GOP volunteer group".
- ^ "ICYMI: National Federation Of Republican Assemblies Has Endorsed Ted Cruz For President | Ted Cruz for Senate". TedCruz.org. Archived from the original on May 4, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
- ^ "About the National Federation of Republican Assemblies".
- ^ "Willes Lee Succeeds Sharon [sic] Angle as President of National Federation of Republican Assemblies". Hawai'i Free Press. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
- ^ "NFRA Announces National Advisory Board". National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA). Archived from the original on May 30, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2014.