Never Trump counter-convention to target congressional Republicans

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Washington Examiner

Never Trump Republicans planning to gather in Charlotte, North Carolina, in August, at the same moment as President Trump’s renomination celebration there are taking aim at congressional Republicans.

 

The “Convention on Founding Principles” is scheduled to coincide with the Republican presidential nominating convention, which is set for Aug. 24–27 at the Spectrum Center arena. But event organizers claim their gathering is about much more than protesting Trump. Prominent anti-Trump Republicans claim the problems plaguing the GOP extend far beyond the president, and activists behind the counter-convention say there will be intense focus on reforming Republican leadership in Congress.

“Even if Trump weren’t in the picture, the party would still need some reforming,” said Evan McMullin, a Never Trump Republican and one of the organizers of the event. McMullin mounted a failed, eleventh-hour third-party bid against Trump in 2016 and later co-founded the group Stand Up Republic to counter the president’s takeover of the GOP. 

As the name of the convention suggests, it is designed to boost support for a GOP agenda that organizers say would return the party to its “founding,” pre-Trump roots. McMullin said congressional Republicans, like Trump, have failed to lead in a crisis while fostering an atmosphere hostile to religious and ethnic minorities that has put the GOP at a competitive disadvantage with the Democrats.