My experience trying to help grow the Coos County Republican Party
After running for County Commissioner in the spring of 2024, I decided to offer my help to rebrand and rejuvinate the struggling local Republican party. I was warned that they had been taken over by a small group of elitists from the “good ole boys club” and they would never welcome constructive change because they were dead set on remaining stagnant and irrelevant. Unfortunately, that warning turned out to be spot on.
What follows is a detailed account of my experience specifically focused on trying to grow membership and representation within the party.
November 2024
I attended the bi-yearly reorginizational meeting, and was nominated for Vice-Chair. I pured my heart out in a brief speech where I detailed everything I hoped to be able to help with and things I felt needed to go in a new direction. That night I was elected Vice-Chair of the Coos County Republican Central Committee.
Despite being elected to serve on the executive committee, I am the only member without voting power within the committee because I am not a Precinct Committee Person (PCP). There are only 49 out of 198 PCP positions filled. More about PCPs below (feel free to skip ahead if you are already familiar)
In Oregon, there is a representative position known as the Precinct Committee Person. They represent the people that live within their precinct to their county Republican Party and are a large driving force in the local organization.
Each PCP is a voting member of the Central Committee in their county party, and the Central Committee in each county is authorized to make all decisions relating to its county party. As a Republican PCP, you will be representing your neighbors while you debate and vote on the issues that come before the Central Committee. These issues may include resolutions, candidate endorsements, rule changes, platform planks and legislative agenda priorities. Learn more at https://oregon.gop/become-a-pcp
December 2024
During a meeting with Michael Brainard at Starbucks (the new Chair of the Coos County Republican Party), I asked to be appointed as a PCP so that I could vote in meetings, but he told me that it is not possible to appoint PCPs.
January 2025
During our first executive meeting, I asked again to be appointed as a PCP so I could have a vote, but I was told by the Chair, Michael Brainard, that it was not possible.
February 2025
I attended a conference in Portland for the Oregon Republican Party and was told by state officials that we can indeed appoint PCPs at the county meetings and that it is common practice. They told me to refer to the county bylaws, which I did.
CCRCC bylaws: Article II Section A 1) "The eligibility of Republicans for appointment to PCP positions, by a vote of the County Central Committee or County Executive Committee, shall have no additional rules or requirement other than those imposed on filing form SEL 105"
March 2025
I spoke with the Coos County elections office about PCP appointments and confirmed that all they need after a vote to appoint PCPs is a list of names (with addresses) from the county Chair. They suggested using the SEL 105 form to gather applicant information.
May 2025
During “New Business” I motioned to nominate and vote for the 8 people present at the meeting who had filled out an SEL 105 form and wanted to be appointed as PCPs. Michael Brainard declared my motion “out of order”. I challenged his ruling, and during discussion I was told that I needed to wait until next month (June) to have them appointed. I was also told that they did not fill out the “proper application”. Chaos erupted and Michael abruptly adjourned the meeting. Ex-Chair Rod Schilling came up to me after the meeting and demanded that I give him the 8 applications. When I refused he told me I need to give them to the CCRCC Chair (Michael Brainard). When I asked him why, Rod Schilling told me “because they need to be vetted”.
The day after the meeting, I sent an email to Michael Brainard requesting to have an item on the June agenda to review PCP applications. Michael never responded to my email.
The following week I attended the ORP conference in Bend where the state PCP coordinator gave a presentation about the need to fill county PCP vacancies and encouraged the county chairs to collectively appoint 50 new PCPs. Michael Brainard was sitting right next to me smiling and clapping during this presentation. There was even a spreadsheet in the presentation that specifically called out Coos County for having such a low percentage of filled PCP positions.
After the presentation I met with the state PCP coordinator and explained to her that I had 8 applicants for vacancies blocked by Michael Brainard. She was appalled and said that she would talk to him and make sure that does not happen again.
June 2025
Instead of fulfilling his promise to vote on PCP appointments, CCRCC Chair Michael Brainard cancelled the June meeting.
July 2025
CCRCC Chair Michael Brainard passed out the agenda before the meeting with a section for appointing PCPs with only 3 names of people who had personally applied through Michael, and none of the 8 people who were present with applications at the May meeting. While discussing approval of the agenda, I made a motion to amend the agenda to include a discussion and consideration of the original 8 PCP applicants from the May meeting. Michael Brainard declared my motion to be “out of order”. I challenged his ruling, and during discussion Michael explained that he needs to have the applications before the meeting so that he can “vet” them. He also said that he could not accept the applications I had because they were the wrong form. Several people (myself included) have asked for Michael’s “approved application” and he has not yet provided it to us.
After the meeting, I emailed the state PCP coordinator asking for assistance with filling PCP vacancies. I gave her a copy of the bylaws and minutes from relevant meetings and explained the history of Michael Brainard blocking PCP appointments. Michael replied to this email claiming that the appointments did not happen because I had not given him the applications. Despite me having the applications in my hand at both the May and July meetings, Michael declared both of my motions “out of order”. It was obvious to me at this point that Michael was creating a process by which he could vet applications in order to control who becomes a voting member of the CCRCC, in direct violation to our bylaws: Article II Section A 1) "The eligibility of Republicans for appointment to PCP positions, by a vote of the County Central Committee or County Executive Committee, shall have no additional rules or requirement other than those imposed on filing form SEL 105"
August 2025
Michael Brainard cancelled the August meeting 2 hours before it was to begin. Despite cancelling the meeting which effectively blocks PCP nominations for another month, his email explained:
“I would like to dispel a rumor that is being circulated claiming that the party is refusing to accept PCPs. The Coos County Republican Party is accepting PCP applications. The procedure is to fill out a form requesting to be a PCP and turning it in to the party. It is then given to the chair to be placed on the agenda. I believe this rumor has occurred because the Vice-Chair has been soliciting applications and refusing to submit them promptly to the Chair.” - Michael Brainard
This process is not described in our bylaws or any standing rule of the party. It is also in conflict with the bylaws as it adds an additional requirement to being eligible: 1) that you must get your application to the Chair and 2) that you must get it to him prior to the meeting. Michael has also made numerous statements that he needs to “vet” the applicants. I have confirmed with prior Chairs and committee members that this has never been the process, and that PCP nominations were always welcome from the floor at any county meeting.
September 2025
Our county is now sitting on 20+ PCP applications that have not been given a vote. Not a single PCP application has been considered during Michael Brainard’s tenure as Chair.
So where do we go from here?
Starting today (September 11th) you can file to run for Precinct Committee Person if you are a registered Republican (Democrats can also do this for positions within their own party organization). The elections office in Coquille can help you file the form correctly (SEL 105). There is NO COST to file and it only asks for your name, address, and basic contact information. That’s it! You’ll be placed on the May ballot and your neighbors can vote for you to represent them within the local Republican party (as long as you file before March 10th, 2025).
This is the best way to get involved and avoid all of the headaches I have described above. It is how we bring true representation to Coos County and start electing better leaders.