Non-Ottawa Impact Republican candidates: ‘We will not withdraw’

HUDSONVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) — A group of Ottawa County Republican candidates held an event Friday designed to push back against the conservative political action group known as Ottawa Impact.

The event was a response to a resolution passed in June by the Ottawa County Republican Party Executive Committee. Organizers of Friday’s event described the executive committee as “Ottawa Impact-dominated.”

The Ottawa County GOP committee’s June resolution is directed toward a recently-formed group called Conservative Ottawa PAC that has endorsed its own candidates — different than those endorsed by the county GOP — ahead of the August primary.

“Any organization or group working against the strongest, most conservative Republican candidates is working to weaken the party in Ottawa County which ultimately hurts the citizens of Ottawa County,” the Ottawa County GOP resolution reads.

It “denounce(d) and condemn(ed) Conservative Ottawa PAC as opposition to the Republican Party in Ottawa County” and called for the candidates endorsed by Conservative Ottawa to stop running as Republicans, listing 12 of them by name.

At Friday’s event, several Republican candidates rejected the resolution, saying voters should be the ones to decide who their leaders will be. The candidates said they consider themselves traditional Republicans.

“We called the conference to respond to and reject … their outrageous and hypocritical assertion that we Republican candidates who reject the Ottawa Impact brand of being a Republican to withdraw from this campaign,” John Teeples, a Republican candidate for the District 7 seat on the county commission, said. “First, know this. We will not withdraw.”

“By state law, Michigan has an open primary where voters choose the eventual nominees. For the sake of the party, party officials never took sides in contested primaries. By tradition, candidates would have it out and voters would decide who best represents the interests of hardworking families in Ottawa County. And when the primary is done, the party unites and supports the eventual nominees,” said Jim Barry, a Republican candidate for the District 1 seat on the county commission. “However, the Ottawa County bosses think voters can’t be trusted to decide who can best represent their own interests.”

Both Barry and Teeples were named in the resolution.

Candidates who spoke at Friday’s event also said that the actions of one minority group should not dictate the practices of all local Republicans.

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