Former Florida firebrand headlining Upstate GOP fundraiser

Retired Lt. Col. Allen West, a former Florida congressman and chairman of the Texas state GOP, will speak to the Anderson County Republican Party next month (Provided by the Dallas County Republican Party)

A former tea party favorite who unsuccessfully challenged Texas’ governor two years ago is headlining a fundraiser for an Upstate Republican party that wants to drive the Statehouse further to the right.

Retired Lt. Col. Allen West, a former congressman from Florida, is the featured speaker of “A Night of Liberty and Freedom” on Aug. 16 at the Civic Center of Anderson, according to the invitation. It says “special guests” include members of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus, an uber conservative faction of House Republicans.

Tickets are $15 ahead of time, or $20 at the door. The prices were intentionally kept affordable, said the county’s GOP chairman, former state Rep. Jonathon Hill, who clashed with GOP leaders throughout his four terms.

While the Anderson County Republican Party is “extremely supportive” of the caucus that has been increasingly critical of GOP leadership in the Statehouse, the event is a fundraiser for the county party, not the caucus, Hill said.

“They certainly are working in concert with our mission and platform,” Hill, who didn’t seek re-election to the House in 2022, said of the caucus that launched the year he left.

Two of Anderson County’s legislators are members of the caucus: Reps. April Cromer and Thomas Beach , who are both seeking a second term.

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West, the guest speaker , won a U.S. House seat from Florida in 2010 as a tea party firebrand. Two years later, he lost to Democrat Patrick Murphy after Florida legislators’ post-census redistricting process put more Democrats in his district, and he moved to run in an open seat.

In 2020, he was elected the state GOP chairman of Texas . His tenure was marked by the type of intraparty turmoil that’s dividing South Carolina Republicans. In 2022, West tried unsuccessfully to oust Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in a primary. He is currently chairman of the Dallas County Republican Party.

What was known as the tea party movement when Allen was elected to Congress has morphed into the Freedom Caucus.

Rep. R.J. May, a founder of South Carolina’s Freedom Caucus, said members from across the state will likely attend the Anderson event, adding it’s certainly not unusual for legislators to attend local GOP events.

In a chamber with a supermajority of Republicans, the caucus has sought to drive the House agenda further to the right, with some success, on issues including guns , transgender youth , and other hot-button social issues. Their GOP critics counter they’re obstructionists who talk in bumper-sticker slogans to twist the truth.

After the November 2022 elections, Freedom Caucus members were booted from the House Republican Caucus for refusing to sign a new pledge not to campaign against — in other words, don’t help challengers defeat — fellow House Republicans.

A GOP civil war ensued. In the June primary, Freedom Caucus members worked to do exactly what got them ejected from the majority caucus, while the majority caucus worked to dwindle the Freedom Caucus’ ranks.

Ultimately, the Freedom Caucus gained several seats , including ousting a member of the Anderson County delegation: Assistant Majority Leader Jay West, R-Belton. West lost to Thomas Gilreath, a former National Guardsman and farmer from Belton who runs a grading and paving company.

Hill, who founded the Anderson TEA Party before becoming a legislator, was essentially a one-man Freedom Caucus before it existed.

He was booted from the House GOP Caucus in 2019 for what party leaders called “erroneous and hostile attacks” on Republican colleagues. The next year, he easily won re-election despite the state party taking the rare move of endorsing his opponent. He was then elected chair of the Anderson County party in 2023.

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