Over the weekend, Montana’s GOP created a new document to define the beliefs of their party.
Republicans from all over the state moved between event rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn during the two- day Platform Convention in Missoula.
Along with the writing and adoption of the party platform, the event also served as a social event and party fundraiser.
After a buffet-style lunch on Friday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte told the crowd they should use this time to further work at uniting the party.
“And that is what this is about: taking a message that resonates across Montana so that we can get people on our team and get position in the ball,” Gianforte said.
The ball in this case is the momentum and influence of Montana’s political future.
Gianforte is facing incumbent Democrat Steve Bullock in race for the governor's seat.
Gianforte positioned himself as the generous quarterback, formally endorsing every Republican legislative candidate in the room and telling them they should expect a donation from him supporting their campaign.
“Because you need to win each one of your races. Because I’m going to need your help when we get to Helena,” Gianforte said.
After the luncheon, party members went back to work revising the planks of their party platform.
That work came to vote Saturday. During about 7 hours of revision, debate and approval, party members at times struggled to agree on scope of their work.
Some Republicans wanted a platform with very specific details on the party’s beliefs. But others wanted to paint with a broader brush and be more general in their statements.
“Well, that is always a tension that comes before a committee of two hundred plus people. You know you want to try to be brief and general enough to talk about your principles,” GOP Chairman Jeff Essmann said.
But he said the platform has to give enough detail to guide elected leaders and let the larger Republican Party hold them accountable.
Ravalli County Committee member Hollis Poe pushed for more clarity in the GOP’s platform during the convention. He wanted to add specific language to reject what he calls a transgender school directive from the federal government pushing a progressive social agenda.
His language wasn’t approved, but the overall concept was: rejecting directives from the federal government that impact Montana's schools.
Poe says some members of his party water down their beliefs to the point where they can be interpreted any number of ways.
“And if that is the case we probably should just eliminate that portion from our platform because we either stand for something or we don’t,” Poe said.
He says some members of the GOP intentionally leave their platform beliefs vague, because it allows more people to identify with their issues, and that could mean more Republican voters.
“There are a number of people in our party who would like to broaden the tent to when it encompass a great number of people who are truly outside of who we are," Poe said. " The idea is that are people who want to straddle the fence or broaden the stakes of the tent to the point where they encompass enough votes to be elected.”
During platform discussion, Robert Saunders, Committeeman from Yellowstone County, objected to Poe’s language and other language that addressed very specific issues.
“The goal of our platform is to generally express what we stand for and not to get into the weeds on specific issues," Saunders said. "The goal is to create a framework and not to needlessly antagonize people.We want to be simultaneously gentle and honest. We don’t to lie about things, so I believe our resolution allows us to hold people accountable and honestly communicates what we stand for, and is simultaneously broad enough to include who generally believe in what we believe in.”
According to party staffers, the Montana GOP has a loyal base of around 115,000 voters.
And in order to win a majority of their candidates' elections, party staffers say they need to get around 235,000 votes.
The Republican Party has a goal of spending more than two hundred thousand dollars trying so secure votes for their candidates before the general election.
And if those candidates reach office, the platform and planks approved by a majority vote on Saturday will serve as a guide, not a rule book for action.
The Montana GOP revises its platform every two years.
